Anthony Edwards spent a morning in front of a gym full of kids at Jaylen Clark’s youth camp, fielding questions with the patience of a man who has answered far worse ones from adults holding credentials. Bring Me The Sports counted more than a dozen of them. Then he pulled out his phone and called LaMelo Ball.

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He turned the screen around and the room came apart. The whole camp yelled happy birthday at the screen while Ant held the phone up, because Melo had just turned 25 and because Ant is apparently the kind of guy who thinks to do that. Dunking With Wolves rounded up the moment alongside the rest of an offseason full of them. CBS Minnesota has the footage if you want to watch your franchise player be quietly excellent at something that has nothing to do with basketball.

It is late August. None of this counts.

I know. Let’s talk about it anyway, because this summer keeps producing evidence of the same thing. Earlier this month most of the roster flew to France to hang out with Rudy Gobert on his home soil. Wednesday the front office landed Jonathan Kuminga on a two-year, $12.4 million deal, and per TSN’s writeup of the signing, Edwards was “a vocal part of the full-court recruiting press” that got him, alongside a four-hour Tim Connelly sit-down in Miami. A 23-year-old wing turned down more guaranteed money from the Lakers and came here instead.

That is three separate August data points pointing the same direction, and Minnesota has trained us to check under such things for a trapdoor.

Consider what this roster is not carrying anymore

Here is the part I keep circling. Last season ended with Naz Reid saying out loud that what separated the Wolves from the teams still playing came down to moodiness, his word, and that the group needed to be more selfless. That is a beloved teammate choosing his words carefully in front of microphones. The private version is never gentler than the public one.

Then the front office cleared the room. Julius Randle went to Brooklyn in the four-team June deal that brought Ball in. Mike Conley, 38 and entering his 20th season, signed a one-year deal with Boston on July 6 after three and a half years here. Joe Ingles never reached NBA free agency at all; he signed a two-year contract with Melbourne United back in May and went home to Australia. The bench sage, the steady point guard, and the $100 million forward all walked out the same door.

Now, my honest read on Randle: he never fit here, and the fit problem was as much temperament as it was spacing. That is a read, not reporting. What I can point at is the record. He shot 34.2 percent from the floor and 19.0 percent from three in the six-game San Antonio series, carried a minus-33 net rating through it, and put up three points on 1-of-8 in a Game 6 that finished 139-109. He was reportedly the only rotation player who skipped his exit interview. Finch went on KFAN weeks later and took the whole thing on himself: “Julius’s struggles in the series against San Antonio were my struggles.” Weeks later the front office traded him anyway. Draw your own line between those dots.

Three months after that, Ant is holding a phone over his head so a gym full of kids can yell happy birthday at his new point guard.

So what do we actually expect

Here’s where we need to be careful. The vibes case and the basketball case are not the same case.

The basketball case starts with 49 wins in 2025-26, a first-round win over Denver, and Ant averaging 28.8 points at age 24. It adds Ball and Kuminga It keeps Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, and Ayo Dosunmu. That is a good team on paper and a young one, which is the whole point.

The other case is shorter and meaner. Donte DiVincenzo tore his Achilles in April and is expected to miss most or all of this season, so the shooting that could space the floor for two ball-dominant guards is on a rehab table. Ant and Melo have never played a regular-season possession together. Kuminga has never once looked comfortable in an offense that wasn’t built for him. Gobert is 34 and now cleans up behind the two most fearless shot-takers in the conference. Under all that sits a roster whose oldest voice of experience is a center who does not talk much and a head coach who just watched his team get run off its own floor by 30.

Youth and inexperience will absolutely cost this team games in November. Some of them will be ugly.

Minnesota had plenty of talent last spring. What it lacked was a group that wanted to be in the same gym. That part has been solved in public, repeatedly, all summer, by a 25-year-old who now has no veteran standing between him and the wheel.

Ant is driving. That was always the endgame.

The opener is October 21 in Miami. Ten days later they are in San Antonio.

We will find out fast.