Anthony Edwards is tired of being double-teamed, but DeMarcus Cousins is tired of hearing the Minnesota Timberwolves guard complain about it.

Cousins sympathized with Edwards' position as the primary scoring option on a team that traded Karl-Anthony Towns in the offseason. But he said that's a reason to get to work on his own game rather than worry about other teams.

“This is the part where you have to get in the lab and get better,” Cousins said in an appearance on FanDuel TV's Run it Back. “It’s a game within the game. So this is the responsibility that comes with being a superstar, a go-to guy, a No. 1 option on teams…Be frustrated, let that feeling boil up in you but use that fire in the offseason to get better and come back ready to play.”

Cousins' comments came after Edwards opened up about his frustrations last week from having to face double teams each night.

“It's not how I want to play… I'm only 23,” Edwards said after the Timberwolves lost to the Boston Celtics on January 2. “I don't wanna just be passing the ball all night… But the way they're guarding me, I think I have to.”

“I don’t know if they’re doing it like, let’s mentally take him out because it doesn’t mentally take me out of the game, but it does frustrate me a little bit, them doubling,” he continued. “Like, what is going on? So, yeah. I be trying to figure it out, man.”

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DeMarcus Cousins suggests Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards should ‘shut up'

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) talks to referee Karl Lane (77) in the second half against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena.
Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

By his standards, Edwards' postgame comments after the Celtics game were mild. The Timberwolves star has been fined $210,000 this season for what he's said into a live microphone, most recently getting docked $100,000 for  using profanity in a live interview after he hit a game-winner against the Houston Rockets.

Cousins was a little more sympathetic there, offering some blunt advice about watching what he says.

“The same thing they love you for is the same thing they’ll kill you for,” he said. “You gotta get a filter. I know they let you be your authentic self and they’ve promoted it and they’re all for it, but they’ll also burn you for the same thing they love. So walk that thin line, be smart about it, sometimes it’s just better to shut up.”

It might be tougher for Edwards to get back into the lab and work on that one.