The Timberwolves are reshaping Anthony Edwards’ workload before training camp opens Tuesday, bringing LaMelo Ball to Minneapolis and moving Edwards back toward the shooting guard role that best fits his game.
Edwards played only 61 games last season, the lowest total of his career, after a hamstring problem early in the year and injuries to both knees later on. Minnesota still reached the playoffs for a third consecutive season, but the club never found consistent footing, and its All-Star was carrying too much of the offense from the point guard spot.
A summer reset around Edwards
- Minnesota entered last season with Edwards shifted to point guard before camp, a decision coach Chris Finch later said he mishandled. Finch believed the quick positional change affected more than Edwards, creating downstream problems across the rotation.
- The Wolves identified a lingering emotional inconsistency within the group as a major issue during the season, even as they remained in the postseason field.
- President of basketball operations Tim Connelly made Ball the centerpiece of the summer response, acquiring the former Charlotte guard to take on primary ball-handling duties.
- The trade came at a real cost: Minnesota dealt Naz Reid, a popular longtime Wolf and the only player on the roster who had been with the organization before Edwards and 2020 draft peer Jaden McDaniels.
- With Ball in place, Edwards expects to spend more time at his natural two-guard position entering his seventh NBA season.
Edwards joked that point guard development was never in his plans. “I never thought I could develop any point guard skills,” he said at Target Center on Monday. “Finchy is always on me about passing, but now we have LaMelo, so I’m happy.”
Ball’s arrival should ease the creation burden on Edwards, allowing him to work more frequently off the catch, attack tilted defenses and conserve some of the energy that was drained by full-time lead-guard responsibilities.
Reid’s exit, new voices in the room
Edwards did not minimize what the roster move means personally. Reid had been a close teammate and a fixture through the franchise’s rise.
“I’ll definitely miss Naz. That’s my brother,” Edwards said. “But I’m really happy with the changes in the locker room. There are different mindsets and personalities, and I think it will fit together well.”
Minnesota has also treated the offseason as more than a transaction period. Rudy Gobert, who is from France, organized a team trip there last month to accelerate the process for a roster with several new pieces. Connelly described the gathering as “speed dating for all the new guys.”
Edwards has pushed that connection effort himself. He said the team’s group chat has been active in the days leading into camp, a contrast to prior summers when players largely went their separate ways.
“Before, we really didn’t spend summer time together,” Edwards said. “Everybody would go do their own thing. If we want to win, we have to begin early. We have to truly know each other, like each other and want to help each other.”
For Minnesota, the early camp focus is clear: put Ball in position to organize the offense, let Edwards return to a more familiar scoring role, and build a locker room connection sturdy enough to carry through the parts of the season that got away from them last year.
