The Minnesota Timberwolves struck gold when they drafted Anthony Edwards 1st overall in the 2020 NBA Draft. In his five seasons with Minnesota, Edwards has been no stranger to roster changes. With the Wolves locked into their new core after making splash trades around Edwards, one question remains.
Have the Wolves done enough to surround Edwards with enough for him to reach his full potential?
In an ever-changing NBA landscape, front offices must work quickly to build their roster around their franchise cornerstone the second they are discovered. Finding the best players to build a successful team is one thing. Discovering the best fit to bring the best out of the star is the final puzzle piece and the ultimate challenge.
The best thing a front office and coaching staff can do to maximize its players is to make the game easier for them by finding ways to put them into spots where they are most comfortable. Mitigating their weaknesses as much as possible by placing other beneficial players around them and strategically scheming actions to help cover up holes in their game.
Finding a franchise cornerstone is the first step. Franchises must then work to provide proper synergy to maximize their best player. The league’s one-of-a-kind superstars, like Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić, allow for more room for error. The front office and coaching staff can have weaknesses that their stars’ unique skill sets can still cover up.
However, Jokić and Dončić are special for good reason. Jokić is an exceptional passer, and Dončić has elite feel for the game. Not all players offer that luxury.
During his prime, Stephen Curry’s world-class shooting prowess revolutionized the Golden State Warriors. However, the Warriors would not have been as successful without their schematic strategies and supportive cast around Curry to maximize his skill set. They schemed split actions, Curry off-ball actions, Draymond Green hand-offs, and Klay Thompson movement sets to build a dynamic offense through each other. The front office also always found impactful ball screeners.
A unit must find balance to reach its full potential.
Edwards, still only 23, still has a lot of room for growth. Going back to his time in high school. Edwards has always had the raw ability needed to be an NBA superstar. However, as a prospect at Georgia, his basketball instincts and innate on-court ability were meaningful uncertainties. Physical tools and raw scoring traits can only propel an offensive engine so far.
Because he played more football than basketball growing up, Edwards’ biggest concerns were his playmaking, nuance, on-ball IQ/decision-making, and overall craft. Sizing up a defender one-on-one has always been easy work for Edwards. His challenge has always been putting it all together against defenses loaded in his direction, learning to read and react to multiple moving parts on the court. Overall, finding ways to affect the game through his scoring gravity.
Minnesota took a big risk when it acquired Rudy Gobert to play next to Karl-Anthony Towns. It paid off last year when they had the league’s best defense in the regular season and went on a run to the Western Conference Finals. However, Minnesota’s offense has regressed since they traded for Gobert. They fell from the 7th-ranked ORTG (113.8) in 2021-22 to 23rd in 2022-23 (113.3) and 17th in 2023-24 (114.6).
Minnesota’s extra size on the court only made the paint more congested for Edwards, limiting his downhill and rim pressure capabilities. Gobert’s presence shrunk the floor for drives and thinned the margins of error with his growing facilitation talents.
Edwards has come a long way as a playmaker and facilitator since his year at the University of Georgia. He has developed a better court awareness, reading the defense’s help-side attention his way, seeking outlets, and becoming an improved skip passer. Edwards’s immediate responsibilities as a developing player likely hampered his on-ball evolution.
Still, the Timberwolves felt they could build a winning team around Edwards and Gobert. They traded Towns, one of their most important scorers and court spacers, to the New York Knicks.
Minnesota’s front office ultimately felt comfortable enough with Edwards as the engine of the entire offense moving forward. They prioritized Julius Randle in the trade to help Edwards, but Edwards was only going to get more freedom to be his best after trading Towns. He would have to take on more offensive processing duties.
The 2024-25 season has been the ultimate test for Edwards. The Timberwolves already had lingering spacing issues under the KAT-Gobert roster construction, but adding Randle exaggerated the issues. There have been growing pains. Randle has not developed off-ball malleability, and the synergy between Edwards and Randle has been stagnant. Both players take turns with the ball rather than playing through each other.
It’s easy to blame the newcomer, Randle, but the biggest area of concern has come from Minnesota’s other existing options.
Jaden McDaniels is shooting a career-low 30.3% from three, including 27.6% on corner threes. Opposing defenses have started to sag off McDaniels, allowing him to gain a couple of open looks on corner threes to help on Edwards’ drives. McDaniels’ limited off-ball movement and shooting have only made him become a black hole offensively and make creation more difficult for Edwards.
Another concern for Edwards is how much he needs another ball-handler on the court to balance the offense. Trading for Mike Conley unlocked Minnesota’s offense. He could knock down open three-point looks, organize ball movement through initiation and second-side actions, and offer dynamic pick-and-roll ball-handling duties away from Edwards.
However, Conley, 37, shows signs of age this season. He’s been inconsistent as an offensive threat, dropping from a 59.5% effective field goal percentage (eFG%) last year compared to this season’s 47.7% eFG%. He isn’t offering much scoring inside the arc, and his lack of three-point scoring has meant Edwards has more scoring duties.
Finally, Rudy Gobert’s offense is an eternal hovering question mark. The Wolves acquired Gobert for his world-class defense, which has changed Minnesota’s identity. However, there still is not enough of a connection between Edwards and Gobert offensively to mitigate the other starter struggles.
Much of their direct connection comes through ball screens, although defenses have begun aggressively putting two on the ball at the level of the screen to get the ball off of Edwards and off to others or the uncertain hands of Gobert. Most of the Gobert screens only put more pressure on Edwards than benefit.
Minnesota’s starting five has made the game more challenging for Edwards. Still, Edwards has become an elite pull-up 3P shooter, shooting 39.9% on 6.9 attempts per game (fourth-most in the NBA). His shot diet has changed because he eliminated inefficient mid-range jump shots after experimenting with them in 2022-23 and 2023-24. However, much of it is circumstantial to what the defense gives him.
Edwards will always have more space to boogie at the top of the arc than inside, but Edwards’s 3.8 FGA per game at the rim this season is a career-low. A drastic fall from his prior low last season when he attempted 5.4 FGA per game at the rim.
Edwards’ play over the last month has contributed to Minnesota’s offensive struggles and lack of movement. Still, if the Timberwolves want to maximize their offensive ceiling with Edwards, they must adjust the roster before he enters his prime. Over time, he can overcome his struggles, but there are better ways for the Timberwolves to put Edwards into more advantageous situations.
