The Timberwolves’ missing piece at power forward may not come from the usual place.
Minnesota swung and missed on LeBron James, who signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, and the hole at the four is still staring them in the face. Chris Finch has already signaled that he wants to keep Jaden McDaniels mostly at the point of attack, and he told Chris Hine of The Star Tribune that he does not envision McDaniels at the four. That leaves the Wolves without an obvious answer for the opposing forwards they’ll have to deal with every night.
One possibility, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, is Anthony Edwards.
That would be a pretty unconventional fix, but it fits with the way Tim Connelly has talked about the roster. He mentioned that the team has some left-field-ish power forward options, and Krawczynski’s reporting makes it sound like Edwards could be one of them.
It also fits the way Minnesota has handled roster holes before. Krawczynski pointed out that in the summer of 2022, most people expected the Timberwolves to move D’Angelo Russell right away, but they didn’t do it until the 2023 deadline.
So this could be the kind of problem they patch later rather than immediately.
If Minnesota goes into the season with only a minimum signing to finish the roster, the starting group could look like LaMelo Ball, Edwards, Ayo Dosunmu, McDaniels, and Rudy Gobert. In that setup, Edwards would be the most logical candidate to take on starting fours while McDaniels stays where Finch wants him.
The case for Edwards starts with the fact that Minnesota needs more from him on defense anyway. Last season, his defense was described as disastrous.
He was inattentive off the ball, got back cut too often, and didn’t show much interest in fighting through screens. The numbers backed that up, too: Minnesota’s defense was 5.7 points per 100 possessions better with Edwards off the court, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Still, Edwards is not some helpless defender. When he’s locked in, he can get right into an opponent’s space, and his athleticism makes him a difficult cover for anyone.
At 225 pounds and 6-foot-4, he also has the strength to stand up to bigger players than you’d normally expect him to handle. The Wolves already used him on forwards a lot last season, with 34.6 percent of his time spent guarding small and power forwards.
Even so, this feels more like a temporary answer than a real solution.
Edwards can probably handle that job during the regular season, but it’s hard to imagine Minnesota leaning on him there forever. The more likely outcome is that the Wolves eventually add a more natural forward, one who gives them the balance the best teams usually have across the board. For now, though, Edwards guarding bigger forwards could be the outside-the-box move that helps Minnesota get by until the trade deadline.
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