Anthony Edwards has already checked off two major boxes in consecutive offseasons. Now the Timberwolves are left waiting on the one that matters most: consistency.
Edwards has spent the last two summers turning clear weaknesses into strengths. Two years ago, he attacked his three-point shooting, and the leap was obvious.
He went from 35.7 percent on 6.7 attempts per game in 2023-24 to 39.5 percent on 10.3 attempts per game in 2024-25. By the end of it, he had knocked down 320 threes, the most in the NBA.
Then came last season, when he became a far more dangerous midrange scorer. That improvement helped push his two-point percentage from 50.7 percent for his career entering the year to 55.4 percent last season. Paired with another strong year from deep, Edwards put together the most efficient and highest-scoring season of his career at 28.8 points per game.
So what’s left?
Not much on the pure offensive skill side. But Timberwolves coach Chris Finch made it clear during the playoff run that the bigger issue around Minnesota wasn’t just talent - it was the nightly standard.
"The regular season, the guys, we were inconsistent with a lot of things," Finch said. "It was very frustrating.
I’m not gonna lie. Sometimes it was focus, sometimes it was effort, sometimes it was multiple efforts, sometimes it was execution."
That wasn’t a shot at Edwards alone, but as Minnesota’s best player, he’s the one who has to set the tone. And that point was impossible to ignore during a season that kept veering off course.
After a rough loss to the Brooklyn Nets in late December, Edwards sounded just as stuck as the team around him.
"Man, I don’t know," Edwards said. "It be the same answers every time.
So I don’t know. I guess we’ve got to change something.
I don’t know what it is."
Part of the uneven play can be traced to Edwards taking on more point guard responsibilities. He was asked to create on the ball more often, and while that brought plenty of good results, it also started to expose some cracks for both him and the team.
The biggest drop showed up on defense. Edwards got lost off-ball more often than he had in previous seasons, and his rebounding numbers fell to their lowest point in four years.
That shift in workload likely played a part, since more of the offense was running through him. But Finch’s comments about focus and effort suggest another issue was at work too.
The addition of LaMelo Ball should ease the first part. Ball is expected to take over at point guard, which would move Edwards back to his more natural shooting guard spot. Ball’s three-point shooting should also help loosen defenses, meaning Edwards should see fewer double-teams.
That puts the spotlight right back on Edwards to bring the same level every night.
If Minnesota wants to close the gap with the top of the Western Conference, the Wolves can’t keep drifting into the same problems of boredom, complacency, and lack of effort that kept showing up last season.
Edwards has already said he understands that the regular season matters. In his season-ending exit press, he said, “Yeah, I feel like you’re supposed to build championship habits in the regular season." Asked whether the Wolves did that, he answered, “No, we didn’t build habits during the regular season, no.”
And when he wrapped up his comments, he made it plain where the responsibility begins.
"It’s a collective effort, but it definitely starts with me.”
In Other News...
Rudy Gobert Gave Timberwolves Fans A Reason To Feel Good Again
Rudy Gobert offered Timberwolves fans a fresh look at the groups offseason work this week, sharing a social media video from Minnesotas team-building trip to France. The getaway, organized and funded by Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, mixed workouts with other activities as the Wolves tried to strengthen their bond away from the normal NBA grind.
For a team coming off a playoff appearance, the trip was a reminder that chemistry matters as much as talent. Minnesota has plenty of reasons to believe in its core, but the bigger question now is whether that tighter feel translates once the season starts and the games begin to count again. [Read more 🡒]
Anthony Edwards Just Lost Minnesotas Last Real Excuse
The Timberwolves spent the offseason making the kind of swing that leaves no ambiguity about the direction of the franchise. Karl-Anthony Towns is gone, LaMelo Ball is in, and the whole idea was to give Anthony Edwards a better-shaded path to the kind of supporting cast Minnesota has too often failed to build around him. Chris Finch has already acknowledged past mistakes in how Edwards was used, which only adds to the sense that this is a reset as much as it is a roster change.
What makes the next stretch so interesting is how little margin for error remains. Minnesota does not have a deep stash of draft assets to keep patching holes if this version of the team stalls, and the pressure around Edwards is only going to rise if the offense does not look right. For a player the franchise clearly wants to center its future on, the question is no longer whether the Wolves believe in him. It is whether they can finally give him enough to make that belief matter. [Read more 🡒]
Ben Simmons Gives The Wolves A Fit Question Fans Cant Ignore
Ben Simmons is still a free agent, but his next basketball step is starting to come into focus as he prepares to fully take part in an Australian national team mini-camp beginning Monday after sitting out last season to recover from injuries. For a Timberwolves team that has been looking for more answers at power forward, his name naturally enters the conversation because the attraction has always been the same: defense, playmaking and enough versatility to cover multiple lineup needs.
Minnesotas issue, though, is less about what Simmons can do in a vacuum and more about how he would fit into what already exists. The Wolves already have size concerns and spacing questions to sort through, and any serious look at Simmons has to account for where he would play if Jaden McDaniels or Joan Beringer run into foul trouble, or how awkward the alignment can get when Rudy Gobert is on the floor at the same time. That is the kind of roster puzzle that makes this possibility feel intriguing and tricky all at once. [Read more 🡒]