The Timberwolves didn’t just tweak the roster with last month’s LaMelo Ball trade. They flipped the whole shape of the team.
Minnesota moved away from the heavy frontcourt look that paired Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle and into something far more dangerous on the perimeter. Now the Wolves have Anthony Edwards and Ball, a backcourt that gives them a chance to become one of the league’s most explosive offenses.
That’s the real swing here: two 24-year-old guards who can both light it up from deep and force defenses to stretch to uncomfortable places. Edwards and Ball aren’t just built to chase big scoring nights. Their shooting changes the geometry for everyone else on the floor.
Edwards already showed what that kind of leap looks like two seasons ago. He jumped from 35.7% from three the year before to 39.5%, while nearly doubling his makes from 2.4 to 4.1 per game.
That wasn’t just a good year. It was a rare one.
Edwards became only the fifth player in NBA history to finish a season with at least four made threes per game while shooting 39% or better from long range, joining Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Buddy Hield and Damian Lillard.
Ball brings a similar kind of firepower. Last season in Charlotte, he hit 36.8% from beyond the arc and knocked down 3.8 threes per game, which ranked third in the NBA. On total makes, only rookie teammate Kon Knueppel finished ahead of him, and Ball and Knueppel became the first teammates to go 1-2 in total three-pointers made since Curry and Thompson did it in 2016-17.
That kind of shooting helped Charlotte’s offense jump all the way to fifth in the league after ranking 29th the season before. Minnesota is hoping for a similar surge, only with Ball now feeding off Edwards instead of the Hornets’ young supporting cast.
The fit makes sense on paper. Edwards has some of the best catch-and-shoot numbers in the league, and Ball has been one of the best three-point assist creators around. Put those two together and the Wolves can lean into spacing in a way they simply couldn’t when the frontcourt was clogging the middle.
There’s also room for Edwards to get back to the volume he had two seasons ago. Last season, his three-point numbers dipped as he spent more time at point guard and put more emphasis on his mid-range game. With Ball handling those duties now, Edwards can get back to hunting threes the way he did during that breakout shooting year.
The headline benefit is easy to see: Edwards and Ball should combine for around 50 points per game and more than seven made threes a night.
But the ripple effect may matter even more. Jaden McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu, Jaylen Clark and Terrence Shannon Jr. all stand to benefit from the extra room and cleaner ball movement.
Joan Beringer should, too, after a brief but promising Summer League showing. The 20-year-old Frenchman is an ultra-athletic but still raw prospect who lives on lob dunks and rim runs, and Minnesota’s shooting should help hide the rough edges in his offensive game.
Gobert may be the biggest winner of all. He’s spent the last couple of seasons next to Randle, another paint-oriented player, and that pairing made the offense awkward at times.
With Ball and Edwards spacing the floor, Gobert should be the lone non-shooter in most of his minutes, which changes everything. The pick-and-roll has more room, the lob window opens up, and the short-roll passing angles become much clearer.
If Minnesota does slip a bit defensively compared with recent seasons, the offense now looks built to cover it. With Edwards and Ball driving the attack, the Timberwolves have the kind of shooting backbone that can make the whole operation hum.
In Other News...
Another Former Wolves Forward Is Getting A Fresh Chance Elsewhere
Julian Phillips is getting another look after a brief stop in Minnesota, where the Timberwolves added him in a trade before moving on and sending him to Houston. The former Wolves forward barely had time to carve out a role, but he did flash enough in limited minutes to stay on the radar as a young wing worth a longer evaluation.
Now the challenge shifts to earning a place with the Rockets, where the path is anything but secure. Phillips is on a likely non-guaranteed deal and will have to beat out other camp bodies for a roster spot, which makes this less a fresh start than an audition with no margin for error. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Still Have One Frontcourt Problem Hanging Over This Roster
The Timberwolves frontcourt picture still has a clear hole after the departures of Julius Randle and Naz Reid, and it is the kind of roster issue that can linger even on a team built to defend. Minnesota still leans on Rudy Gobert to clean up at the rim and Jaden McDaniels to handle the perimeter work, which gives the Wolves a strong defensive backbone, but it does not fully answer who is going to handle power forwards on a night-to-night basis.
For now, the team is sorting through stopgap ideas rather than a settled plan. Anthony Edwards has been mentioned as one possible cover, along with bench wings and any new additions the front office might bring in, but the search for a more natural fit is still ongoing. The longer this goes unresolved, the more it feels like a problem Minnesota may have to keep carrying until the trade market offers a cleaner solution. [Read more 🡒]