Jaden McDaniels walked into his media exit interview with a cast on the broken hand that ended his season after the young wing punched a concrete wall in frustration during the regular-season finale.

Anthony Edwards didn’t speak with the media Thursday, two days after he was cited for third-degree assault after allegedly hitting two arena employees with a folding chair he tossed in frustration as he ran out of Ball Arena in Denver following the Timberwolves’ narrow Game 5 playoff loss to the Nuggets that ended Minnesota’s season.

Wolves basketball brass didn’t comment on Edwards’ impending legal situation Thursday — with coach Chris Finch citing the ongoing investigation — but it was clear the team’s decision-makers understand the team’s maturity needs to improve heading into next season.

“I think our emotional control was really disappointing at times this year,” said Tim Connelly, the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations.

That extended beyond the likes of Edwards — who also collected technical fouls like they were candy early in the season — and McDaniels, who compiled his fair share of frustration fouls. Rudy Gobert also picked up a number of ill-advised techs — including during Game 5 on Tuesday — and, of course, took a swing at Kyle Anderson during a timeout in Minnesota’s Game 82 victory over the Pelicans.

“It wasn’t just the young guys, too, which is even more disappointing. So I think that’s going to be a huge focus of this offseason, not just relative to acquiring new faces, but how do the guys who are here be a bit more mature when things don’t go their way,” Connelly said. “I think we saw tremendous growth. I thought Ant did a great job after kind of a rocky start with a bunch of techs, being much more emotionally controlled. But I think the best teams oftentimes are the teams that are most able to emotionally be kind of consistent in the inevitable ups and downs, so that’s a focus we’re going to have internally, for sure.”

Finch said much of the frustration comes from a good place. He noted the Timberwolves have a number of competitors. But that competitive nature can boil over, particularly as the stakes rise. Failure in high-pressure situations, the coach noted, “exposes some flash points for us.”

“They’re all growth opportunities, for sure. Every team goes through it, but especially when they have a young core,” Finch said. “Again, it’s something that we’ve got to get a handle on, for sure.”

Edwards intends to “vigorously defend” the post-Game 5 assault charges, per a statement released by his attorney, Harvey Steinberg. Steinberg called the charges “baseless.”

“With the game over, Anthony’s exit from the court was partially obstructed by a chair, which he moved and set down three steps later,” Steinberg said. “As video of the incident confirms, Anthony did not swing the chair at anyone and, of course, did not intend to hurt anyone. Despite these innocent facts, the Denver Police Department inexplicably chose to charge Anthony with two counts of misdemeanor assault.”

Regardless of the case’s eventual outcome, it wasn’t an appropriate exit from Edwards. Nor was McDaniels’ incident. He noted he didn’t know there was a concrete wall behind the curtain he swung at, but admitted it was a “dumb mistake.”

“It happens in basketball. So I wish I could take it back. But afterwards there was nothing I could do. So I was just mad, mad for my teammates, I know they were probably upset too,” McDaniels said. “But, at the end of the day, I was mad at myself. I felt bad. But there was nothing I could do afterward.”

McDaniels said he realizes he needs to better control his emotions throughout games. His injury prevented him from participating in the playoffs, which lowered Minnesota’s chances of advancing. Gobert’s swing at Anderson forced the team to suspend him from the Wolves’ pivotal first play-in game, against the Lakers. It’s possible Edwards could face discipline from the NBA for his incident, including a potential suspension at the beginning of next season.

“All the incidents that happened, they’re all really, really good people, so you start from a good place,” Connelly said. “There’s going to be moments where you can lose it. We can’t be a ‘lose it’ team. Specific to Ant, you won’t find a guy with a bigger heart. You won’t find a guy that cares more. I think for his age he’s unbelievably mature both on and off the court, but we’re going to hold him to such a high standard because we know that his peak is so, so high, and we’d be doing him an injustice if we didn’t hold him to a standard that would allow him to reach those really, really high goals.”

Minnesota led the NBA in technical fouls, flagrant fouls and ejections during the regular season. Taurean Prince said those outbursts fall on the leaders of the team, such as himself. They have to set the example for others to follow.

“So I put that on us. I expect them to be better,” Prince said. “I won’t say it hurt us at all, but it could have been better. That’s what I’ll say.”