With Anthony Edwards, Minnesota is among the teams that could add to NBA's parity era

Minnesota star Anthony Edwards is acutely aware of how this is the NBA's parity era, with eight different franchises winning the last eight championships.

That stat might give some teams hope.

Edwards looks at the situation differently.

“I don’t really have hope. I just got will,” Edwards told The Associated Press. “I’m just all will. It's like, ‘I don’t think he’s better than me. I don’t think that they can beat me and my team.' It’s just that simple. Whoever we line up against, you just not going to sit here and tell me that their team is going to beat our team. It’s that simple, I don't hope. I don’t wish for nothing. It’s straight will and determination. And we're going to show it every night.”

That sounds like the words of a star ready to lead his team to a breakthrough. If recent history is to be believed, there indeed will be a breakthrough club this season.

New York won it all last season, ending a 53-year championship drought. Oklahoma City broke through the year before that, delivering a long-awaited title to the Sooner State. Boston returned to the NBA pinnacle in 2024, Denver got its first title in 2023, Golden State — after hearing its dynasty was over — won again in 2022, Milwaukee ended a half-century of waiting with its crown in 2021, the Los Angeles Lakers went from six years out of the playoffs to champions in 2020 and Toronto got its only championship in 2019.

This year, there are no shortage of candidates to be the next team to extend the NBA's diversity era and give the league what would be a ninth different champion in nine years. Maybe it'll be Miami, which last won it all in 2013 and now has Giannis Antetokounmpo and Klay Thompson to play alongside Bam Adebayo. Maybe it'll be Portland, with Damian Lillard back and healthy. Philadelphia is an obvious choice, after an offseason where it landed LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. Detroit was the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed a year ago, and Cade Cunningham keeps getting better. Indiana nearly won a title in 2025 and now has Tyrese Haliburton back.

Or, maybe it'll be the Timberwolves — a team that has been knocking at the door for a while now, with 24 playoff wins (third-most in the NBA behind New York and Oklahoma City, both with 33) over the last three seasons. LaMelo Ball was brought in to form what should be a dynamic backcourt with Edwards, and Minnesota has the highest of expectations.

“How many times do you sit at the big table vs. the kids table? You've just got to keep sitting down at the big table, and eventually you can punch through,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “This parity that we're in means if you sit down at the table, you have a chance. And I feel like we are that type of team and organization.”

The Wolves went to the Western Conference finals in 2023 and 2024, then made the West semifinals last season. Edwards is one of the game's brightest stars and probably hasn't reached his ceiling. Ball's presence means Edwards will be free to create more, and vice versa. There is no shortage of depth and the Wolves have a certified rim-protecting star in Rudy Gobert, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year.

“And we are a year wiser,” Gobert said. “We have a really tight group. We love each other. We want to see each other succeed, each other win. ... Our goal is to improve our habits and cohesiveness, so when it’s May, June, we can handle anything.”

Edwards has an Olympic gold medal, is a four-time All-Star, just turned 25, was a finalist for Clutch Player of the Year last season and averaged a career-best 28.8 points per game. Assuming he hits the 65-game required threshold, it's almost certain that he would be an MVP candidate.

That's all nice, but he said only one thing motivates him.

“It’s just the ring,” Edwards said. “I wake up every day, go to the gym, work out, treatment, weights, go to the gym again, work out, treatment, weights. Everything is based on what can I do to win the ring. And it's not like I’m only working out for the ring. I’m working out to go through all the ups and downs to get me to the ring.”

The ring comes with a championship, the breakthrough that the Timberwolves and so many other teams will try to have this season.

Minnesota Timberwolves' guard Anthony Edwards, right, and Milwaukee Bucks' guard Kevin Porter Jr., right, react during a preseason NBA basketball game Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kylie Bridenhagen)

Minnesota Timberwolves' guard Anthony Edwards (5) reacts during a preseason NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kylie Bridenhagen)

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, right, shoots over Detroit Pistons forward Duncan Robinson (55) during the second half of a preseason NBA basketball game Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)

New York Knicks' Josh Hart (3) defends Minnesota Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards (5) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Minnesota Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards (5) gestures after making a three-point shot during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game against the New York Knicks Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Alex Murdaugh’s defense can do their own tests of unknown DNA found under his wife’s fingernails after she and her son were shot to death in 2021, a judge said Friday, part of an increasingly bitter battle over what evidence can be used in his retrial next year on murder charges.

The DNA belonged to a male who was not a member of the Murdaugh family, and investigators haven't found a match. Although this piece of DNA evidence didn't feature prominently in the first trial in 2023, the defense wants to test it themselves at a private lab. The judge called Friday’s hearing after Murdaugh’s lawyers filed a flurry of motions saying prosecutors were dragging their feet sharing evidence.

Murdaugh, a once-rich and imposing heir to a Southern legal dynasty, is scheduled to face another jury in April over the killings of his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, on their sprawling property in the rural Lowcountry region of South Carolina. While admitting he is a thief, insurance cheat, bad lawyer and longtime opioid addict, the 58-year-old Murdaugh has adamantly denied the killings.

The state Supreme Court overturned his convictions earlier this year, ruling that a court clerk influenced jurors during his trial. The case has captivated the true crime world with its mix of treachery, corruption, power and Southern accents.

Judge Debra McCaslin refused to let the defense test every casing and bullet found in shootings for the past five years in eight surrounding counties involving the same type of gun as one of the weapons used in the killings. The judge called it a fishing expedition.

“If there’s any casings that come through that’s going to match this crime, red flags are going up,” McCaslin said of testing the state has done on all the evidence. “Bells are going to ring and you’re going to know something is going on, and none of that has happened.”

The judge ended her hearing admonishing both sides to be professional and not turn the trial into a circus after a flurry of motions with barbed comments like “facts matter” and “glad to hear it.”

“Y’all need to stop this, OK?” McCaslin told the lawyers at Friday’s hearing. “I don’t want this tit for tat between y’all. Y’all are lawyers — you’re professionals. This is a court. This isn’t a sound bite.”

Murdaugh is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence after pleading guilty to stealing from clients. He wore a suit in court on Friday because the judge ruled that wearing his prison jumpsuit during pretrial hearings could influence future jurors into thinking he's guilty.

Prosecutors said he killed his wife and son because his law firm was close to discovering that he was stealing money, and Murdaugh thought the sympathy generated by the killings would buy him time to fix things.

The judge has moved the trial to another county, saying extensive publicity surrounding the case in Murdaugh’s home county could prevent a fair retrial.

Nothing was said Friday about the most intriguing dispute of all.

Defense lawyers want to know whether prosecutors have called a grand jury to investigate a police officer who was friends with Murdaugh. Defense attorneys said that prosecutors suggested the officer arrived at Murdaugh’s home before other law enforcement officers and could have helped him hide bloody clothes or weapons. Neither clothing nor the guns have been found.

Murdaugh’s lawyers said the evidence is critical because prosecutors argued during his first trial that he acted alone. Prosecutors said no one else was at the home between the killings and Murdaugh’s return from visiting his mother, when he called 911 to report the shootings.

The defense says another person’s involvement would cast doubt on testimony from witnesses who said at Murdaugh’s first murder trial that he acted alone. Murdaugh’s lawyers also demanded any evidence prosecutors have of possible accomplices or a grand jury investigation into them.

In response, prosecutors declined to say whether any evidence exists, citing legal restrictions on disclosing whether a grand jury is meeting. Because of that, the motion was not argued Friday.

FILE - Alex Murdaugh enters the courtroom for a hearing, Aug. 14, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/Pool Photo via AP, File)