Nearly the entire Minnesota Timberwolves team is in Paris this week, and the trip is about more than sightseeing. The group went there to work out together, with Anthony Edwards at the center of a roster trying to turn a major summer reset into something cleaner on the court.
Edwards and LaMelo Ball even offered to cover the cost of the flights for the whole team, a gesture that says as much about the mood around this group as any press conference could. On a recent night in Paris, Rudy Gobert filmed the Eiffel Tower while Edwards joked beside him, saying, “That looks like Walt Disney,” then, “That Walt Disney, Rudy.”
The timing matters because this is not the same Timberwolves team that had been together through two straight trips to the Western Conference finals. After that run, the group returned almost intact, but the familiarity did not keep last season from slipping into a step back. This summer, Tim Connelly traded Naz Reid and draft capital to the Charlotte Hornets for Ball, Julius Randle was shipped to the Brooklyn Nets, Kyle Anderson and Mike Conley left in free agency, and Joe Ingles retired from the NBA and is finishing his playing career back home in Australia.
That churn has changed who sets the tone inside the room. Chris Finch said Edwards has been growing into that role for a while, describing his voice as increasingly smart and appropriate over the last few seasons. Finch said Edwards is excited about the Ball deal, but also made the next step plain: it is now on him to carry more of the leadership load, and that means combining his voice with everyday presence.
That is the tension inside the Paris trip. The Timberwolves are trying to build continuity through shared work after a season in which too much comfort may have cost them something, yet continuity now has to come from a leaner roster that no longer leans on the same veteran core. Edwards and Jaden McDaniels are entering their seventh seasons in Minnesota and are the team’s longest-tenured players, which makes them the most natural bridge between the old version of the club and the one that is still being assembled.
What happens next is less about the jokes in Paris than about whether the workouts produce a team that moves and speaks with more purpose once the season starts. For the Timberwolves, the trip is already doing one thing clearly: it is placing Edwards in the center of the next version of the franchise.
