Anthony Edwards has wasted no time making Minnesota’s preseason look dangerous.
Through two games, he’s looked sharp, decisive and comfortably in rhythm, the kind of start that suggests the Timberwolves are getting the version of Edwards they’ve been waiting to see. He’s finding his shots inside the flow of the offense, making the right reads and still flashing the scoring punch that makes him the engine of everything Minnesota wants to do.
That showed up in a big way in the Wolves’ second game, played on Iowa State University’s campus, where Edwards poured in 19 points on just 10 shots. He knocked down four three-pointers, and the Ames crowd let him hear it with plenty of oohs and ahs. The numbers won’t go on the real record, but they still tell the story of a player already looking dangerous as the regular season approaches.
The biggest reason for the optimism is simpler than any tactical breakdown: Edwards looks healthy again. After last season, when injuries became part of his story for the first time in his career, getting his body right was the top priority all offseason.
“I’m feeling good for the first time in a long time, so I’m super happy about that,” Edwards said following a training camp practice last week.
“After the season, I needed like two months. I took really two months off to let my knee heal. And it was still kinda sore after those two months, but after doing all the recovery and treatment with [David] Hines and Javair [Gillett], I got back right, so I feel great.”
Edwards said it was hard to sit still for that long, but he knew the time off was necessary. That patience appears to have paid off. He has been a full go since Day 1 of training camp.
“He looks good, real good," Chris Finch said after Wednesday's game against the Indiana Pacers. "I haven’t really noticed anything he hasn’t been able to do, or anywhere he’s been particularly cautious.”
That matters for Edwards individually, but it also matters for Minnesota’s bigger picture. The Timberwolves are trying to fold in newcomers LaMelo Ball and Jonathan Kuminga, and having Edwards available and operating at full speed makes that process a lot cleaner.
His connection with Ball has been obvious from the jump. It began over the summer, when the whole team traveled to Paris, France, and carried into the offseason with Edwards and Ball spending plenty of time in the gym together. Now that chemistry is showing up in games.
Minnesota’s starting group has looked comfortable through two preseason contests, with the new-look backcourt setting the tone. Kuminga has blended smoothly next to Rudy Gobert, who has been dominant on the glass and on defense, while Jaden McDaniels looks positioned for the offensive bump people have been waiting on.
The pace has also changed. After defensive stops, the starters have been pushing the ball harder, and that has created easy scoring chances. In the first preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks, that approach led to free throws for Edwards and multiple lob dunks for both Kuminga and Gobert.
There’s still work to do once the games start counting, but Minnesota is already getting a useful preview of what this roster can be. Edwards’ health lets the Wolves answer a lot of their questions early, before the standings start to matter.
And when you look at how Edwards and Ball fit together, the appeal is pretty clear. Ball can settle into a secondary scoring role while handling the ball, and Edwards gets back to his more natural spot at shooting guard.
Everything about it has been made easier because Edwards is starting the season healthy and able to play near his peak right away. With both knees back in good shape after a rough postseason and a roster that seems built to bring out the best in him, Edwards looks ready for what could be the best season of his career.
In Other News...
Anthony Edwards Just Became The Target Of A Brutal New Roast
Anthony Edwards has a way of making himself part of the basketball conversation even when he is nowhere near the floor, and this time it came from an Adidas commercial that drew a playful jab at Jaylen Brown and LeBron James. Brown, now with the Philadelphia 76ers, wasnt about to let that one slide, even if the back-and-forth landed in the lighter, internet-fueled corner of NBA banter rather than anything approaching real tension.
Brown answered during a live Twitch stream with teammate VJ Edgecombe, turning Edwards hairline joke back on the Timberwolves star in a way that fit the moment. It added another layer to Edwards already busy public profile, which has included off-court headlines around multiple child support cases and his recent marriage, but for Minnesota fans the immediate takeaway is simpler: their franchise centerpiece keeps finding his way into the middle of the leagues most colorful online exchanges. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Get An Early Test In A Matchup Fans Should Watch Closely
The preseason opener in Miami gives the Timberwolves an immediate measuring stick, and not just because it comes at the same venue that will host their regular-season opener. With Minnesotas roster reshaped over the offseason, this matchup arrives as an early chance to see how the Wolves look against a team that can challenge them physically in the frontcourt and force them to sort through the kind of size they will see again once games start to count.
Miamis group will give Minnesota a useful stress test in that area, with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo setting the tone and more size behind them to keep the pressure on. For the Wolves, the question is less about the final score and more about how their new-look rotation handles that type of matchup, which makes this one worth watching closely even in exhibition season. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Rotation Pieces Are Suddenly Playing For More Than This Season
The Timberwolves have reached the part of the season where even rotation pieces are being judged with an eye toward what comes next. Terrence Shannon Jr., Bones Hyland and Rudy Gobert all sit in different places on the roster, but each has at least some reason to wonder whether this could be their final year in Minnesota, with contract status, performance and overall fit all feeding into the discussion.
For Shannon, the intrigue is less about what he has shown than how crowded the path is in front of him. Hyland brings the uncertainty that comes with a short-term arrangement, while Gobert remains a franchise-defining player whose future is tied to bigger roster decisions than nightly box scores. A few teammates are off the table because they are only in their first year with the club, but these three are already in the part of the conversation where every stretch of play matters. [Read more 🡒]