NBA DRAFT

November 18, 2020

Anthony Edwards

Q. Anthony, congratulations, first and foremost, of going Number 1. How are you feeling, and how do you think you will fit alongside D'Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns in Minnesota.

ANTHONY EDWARDS: I'm feeling very joyful and excited just because of the fact I had my mother and my grandmother next to me. I feel like I'm going to fit perfect with those guys because Russell likes to play off the ball sometimes, and I can play on the ball. When he wants to play on the rock, I can play off the ball. And KAT is the best three-point shooting big man in the league. So I feel we can't go wrong with that, a lot of pick-and-pops, pick-and-rolls and such.

Q. Congratulations, by the way, man. We all know what kind of offensive guy you can be. Can you tell us maybe something that you might want to work on for your NBA game.

ANTHONY EDWARDS: Oh, yeah, most definitely. Just being locked in the whole game, no matter what's going on, and just proving myself defensively. Defensively through practice, through workouts, through games, and just going forth in my career, just showing my defensive abilities are unmatched.

Q. Yeah, Anthony, congratulations, man. A lot of people here at Georgia excited for you. What do you take with you from playing for Coach Crean and Georgia as you head to the NBA now?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: The things that I take with me from playing for Coach Crean, being able to watch film and staying locked in. Probably the second best thing is just being able to play without the ball -- being able to cut, move, set screens to get other players open, and just being the best teammate that I can be ever.

Q. Anthony, congrats on your great night. Earlier in the week, we spoke to the president of basketball operations at the Timberwolves, and he said that his big target for you was to develop you without the pressure of you having to be a superstar. Your body is very NBA ready, very athletic. You can already bring a very explosive game. How do you expect your development to go in your first rookie season?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: I mean, exactly like he said, don't feel too much pressure. I've got two superstars alongside of me, so I'm not really going to feel too much pressure. But I'm going to do what I always do, bring what I bring to the table, and just impact the game other ways. They already can score the ball, so defensively I'm going to impact the game. Being the best guard rebounder on the team as I can possibly be, and just being locked in and doing whatever the coach needs me to do, to be honest.

Q. Anthony, congrats again, man. Looking forward to watching you play. What player would you say are you most excited to play against in the NBA?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: That's easy. The player I'm most excited to play against: Kevin Durant.

Q. Why would you say that?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: Just because he's the best player in the league. He's 7 feet, unguardable. He can do everything a little guard can do. That's easy. That's who I'm ready to play.

Q. Anthony, when you hear your name, when you hear it's called Number 1, what are those emotions like maybe versus what you expected?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: Crying-wise, nothing, but as far as just being excited and just being happy and ready to go and ready to work and ready to get there as soon as possible, those emotions were overwhelming with just my mother and grandmother being there. I mean, it was just a dream come true and just a blessing.

Q. Anthony, congratulations on becoming the Number 1 pick in the Draft. So just getting to this point in your career, the next chapter, when you reflect back on your journey and just all that you've been through and what you've been blessed to achieve and everything you've overcome, what would you say has been the biggest life lesson you've learned through these respective experiences to this point?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: The biggest life lesson that I've ever learned was just smile no matter what. Never get too high, never get too low. Stay here, stay the course, and just smile no matter what's going on.

Q. What does it mean to represent Atlanta as the Number 1 pick, and also give the University of Georgia their first ever Number 1 overall pick?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: I mean, it's a blessing come true. It's a blessing come true, man, to be from Atlanta, be the Number 1 pick, and go to Georgia and be Georgia's first Number 1 pick and Coach Crean's first Number 1 pick.

Everything is just a blessing, man. Like I say, it's more to come, and I'm just ready to get to work.

Q. Anthony, I'm wondering what were conversations like with Gersson Rosas, Ryan Saunders, and what do you know about the Timberwolves organization and Minnesota in general as you get ready to come up here?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: I just know they like to compete. They love to compete. The first time they met with me, they had everything mapped out. They had a game plan and everything for me. They were like, listen, they wanted to bring everything and wanted to be ready. They love to compete. They love players who come and compete. They love players who leave it all on the court. They want you to come in there and just be ready. I feel like I'm one of those players, and I'm just ready to work.

Q. So I have a question for you: Right now there are some rumors going around that Ricky Rubio may be traded to the Timberwolves. So that gives them Ricky Rubio, DeAngelo Russell, and you as a third guard. How comfortable would you feel playing as a small forward or rotating around those guard roles?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: It doesn't really matter to me because a lot of people don't know, I'm 6'5". I'm 230. So I feel like I can guard one through three. It doesn't really matter. I'm strong enough to not be pushed around. So I feel like I'm okay.

Q. First of all, congratulations. When you were doing your workouts -- and it took a lot longer than normal since there wasn't the summer for it -- what did you specifically work on to improve to get you to be the Number 1 pick?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: That's a great question, man. A lot of people don't ask that. I feel like the most important thing that I changed during my workouts was I was never able to just focus on basketball. I feel like, once quarantine hit, once I declared for the draft, I was just locked in on just basketball. Just get one percent better every day. I feel like the main thing that I changed was just being able to hit consistent shots, like catch and shoot.

Not off the dribble. Everyone is always in awe of what I can do off the dribble, but the question was my catching and shooting ability, which I feel like I took that to another level but not as far as it can go.

Q. Congrats, man. I'm also from Atlanta, so knew a lot about you, of course. I want to ask you, when you went through this quarantine, you talked about it, did you feel like that was -- I shouldn't say an advantage, but kind of like a blessing in a sense, just the fact that you got to work on your game?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: Yeah, most definitely. A lot of people look at it as it took too long to get drafted. I look at it as it gave me just enough time to get to where I needed to be right before I needed to report to where I was going. Therefore, like just me getting in better shape every day, me being able to shoot the ball one percent better every day, me being able to do a lot of things one percent better every day, it changed because of how long of a time period I had. So I feel like I grew a lot.

Q. Quick follow-up: Knowing that you're going to Minnesota and you're going to this young team, to be in this young nucleus, knowing you all have a lot of talent, how much fun do you think it's going to be and just what are your thoughts in particular?

ANTHONY EDWARDS: It's going to be fun, man. I feel like we've got Malik Beasley, Josh Okogie, Jarrett Culver, D'Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns, possibly Ricky Rubio, going to get traded. It's going to be fun. We've got a lot of athletes. We've got a lot of scorers. We've got a lot of ball players, man. There's nothing more you can ask for.

Thank you so much for having me. Stay blessed. Be safe.