Anthony Edwards Didn't Need Four Quarters to Embarrass the Knicks.

Minnesota 122, New York 104

Anthony Edwards had 26. Jaden McDaniels had 22. The two combined for nine threes, and Minnesota handled the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The wild part isn't even the 18-point margin; it's that the Timberwolves got that kind of production without needing a full night's work from their starters.

New York has now dropped three straight preseason games. Jalen Brunson scored 20, but the offense still looked uneven. Mike Brown has said he's keeping his offensive packages simple to test execution. That's a reasonable experiment in October. It's also going to look ugly when the other team has Edwards getting comfortable from deep.

Do I think New York should panic? No. Do I think this looks good? Also no.

Preseason records don't hand out championship rings. If Brown is deliberately removing complexity so he can see where players struggle, then the losses serve a purpose. But there is a difference between testing something and building bad habits. Minnesota moved with more rhythm, and New York spent too much time trying to catch up.

The Knicks don't need a prettier press conference. They need the offensive reads and rotations to look less confused once the real games count. Edwards and McDaniels made that point for them Monday.

Minnesota wasn't just feeding Anthony Edwards

Edwards led the charge, but Minnesota also got Jaden McDaniels involved, and the two hit nine threes combined. That's a different kind of pressure than one guy taking turns dribbling past everybody. A defense has to decide whether it's helping against Ant or staying attached to shooters, and New York kept looking a step behind whichever choice it made.

LaMelo Ball's first appearance with the Timberwolves gave fans a look at the new backcourt too. The available game reporting lists him with 10 points, seven assists and five turnovers in 22 minutes. That's exciting playmaking mixed with exactly the kind of sloppiness you'd expect from two guys still learning one another's timing. I'm not declaring perfection after one night.

New York can learn something without pretending it looked good

The Knicks were trying to run relatively simple offensive sets under Mike Brown, according to contemporaneous reporting. There's a coaching reason for that: without all the extra actions, you can see who understands the basic reads and when people stop moving. But you still have to execute, especially when Minnesota is playing with pace.

New York reportedly shot around 39% and couldn't create enough assisted baskets to make the offense run consistently. Jalen Brunson finishing with 20 points doesn't change how stuck the team looked for stretches. If everybody is looking for an individual answer, the defense gets comfortable even when it isn't making every stop.

My take: preseason is a warning, not a sentence

I'm not saying the Knicks can't get it together. This isn't April. They're experimenting, and the losses don't count toward the standings. But three losses in a row with the same kind of confused possessions should give the staff enough film to know what isn't working.

Edwards didn't need forty minutes to expose the issue. Minnesota looked like the team that knew what it wanted while New York kept searching for it. That doesn't mean the championship race is over. It means the Knicks have some real shit to fix before the season gets serious.

You don't have to panic about October basketball. You do have to learn from it.6ix / 6ixtv