The One Final Piece Timberwolves Need From Anthony Edwards

At the end of every Minnesota Timberwolves season, Anthony Edwards goes into the offseason looking to sharply improve at least one aspect of his game.

Two years ago, it was his three-point shot. Edwards greatly improved the efficiency and volume of his shot from beyond the arc, going 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. Edwards ended up making a total of 320 three-pointers, which led the entire NBA.

Last season, Edwards became a much more effective weapon in the midrange, which allowed his two-point percentage to skyrocket from 50.7 percent to that point in his career to 55.4 percent last season. Combined with an equally efficient three-point season as a year prior, Edwards had both his most efficient and highest-scoring season of his career this past season with 28.8 points per game

This offseason, the path forward for Edwards is a lot less clear. There is no real deficiency in his offensive game anymore. However, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch's comments about team-wide consistency during this playoff run give Edwards an obvious place to set an example.

Wolves need Anthony Edwards to set consistency example

"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."

Finch's statement was a scathing indictment of the team's regular season. His comments were not pointed at Edwards directly, but as the team's best player, Edwards will need to set the standard and play with much more consistency next season.

The lack of consistency was a storyline all last season for the Timberwolves. After a particularly disappointing loss to the Brooklyn Nets in late December, Edwards was left baffled by the team's struggles.

"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."

Some of the unpredictable level of play from Edwards can be explained by his shift to point guard. Edwards was being relied on more and more as an on-ball creator and while the outcome was pretty good, the negatives slowly started to catch up with Edwards and the rest of the team.

Edwards's defense took the largest step back due to the position change last season. He got lost off-ball more than he had in previous seasons, and his rebounding totals dipped to their lowest level in four seasons.

Some of the lessened defensive output from Edwards can be attributed to the increased bandwidth and energy that were being required of him on the offensive end. On the flip side, the inconsistency and boredom that Finch mentioned appeared to play a large role as well.

The addition of LaMelo Ball should greatly help the first part. LaMelo will slide in as the team's point guard, allowing Edwards to move back to his more natural shooting guard position. The three-point shooting ability of Ball should also make everything easier for Edwards, who will see far fewer double-teams moving forward.

It's now up to Edwards to play with much more consistency night-to-night. If the Timberwolves want to close the gap between them and the top of the Western Conference, there can no longer be talk about issues of boredom, complacency, or lack of effort like there constantly was a season ago.

The regular season and the playoffs could not be any more different in the NBA. The Timberwolves themselves are proof of that. They've looked like a significantly different team in the postseason compared to December through March.

The Wolves have also shown that the flaws shown don't just go away without a solution. The tendencies that a team builds during the course of the 82-game season can tell a ton about whether or not a team can win the championship. NBA teams can no longer "flip the switch" and win four straight playoff series. A team's identity needs to be built during the regular season, not found in the Playoffs.

Edwards agreed with that idea in his season-ending exit press, saying, “Yeah, I feel like you’re supposed to build championship habits in the regular season." When asked if the team did that, he quickly responded, “No, we didn’t build habits during the regular season, no.”

While Edwards was far from the only Timberwolves player with inconsistent play last season, he made it clear in some of his final words to the media last spring who the change needs to come from first.

"It’s a collective effort, but it definitely starts with me.”

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