Minnesota Timberwolves' Bold Backcourt Overhaul: Edwards and Ball
Anthony Edwards wanted help. Minnesota just handed him the keys to an entirely new backcourt — and a different kind of contender.
The Timberwolves have ripped up the old blueprint and built around their franchise star with a bold, guard-driven overhaul. Julius Randle and Naz Reid are out. LaMelo Ball and Jonathan Kuminga are in. Around them, the front office has tightened the screws on the rotation, keeping Ayo Dosunmu and Bones Hyland, extending Jaylen Clark and adding the versatile Trey Lyles to deepen the bench.
It’s the kind of aggressive summer that can either launch a team toward the top of the West or leave it exposed. Edwards is firmly in the first camp.
Brian Windhorst revealed on ESPN’s “Hoop Collective” that Edwards is “very pleased” with what the Wolves have done, especially the move for Ball and the deal for Kuminga. Windhorst even suggested the makeover is so appealing that, if Edwards’ extension were on the table right now, this might be the kind of roster that pushes him to sign on the spot, with the belief that Ball is an ideal partner in the backcourt.
Edwards’ Voice in the Room
This wasn’t just a front-office project. Edwards put his fingerprints on the summer, particularly in the chase for Kuminga.
The forward had options — and serious money — elsewhere. The Los Angeles Lakers wanted him. So did the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers. Kuminga walked away from richer offers to land in Minnesota, a choice his agent Aaron Turner traced directly to Edwards’ recruitment.
“Ant was super active in the recruitment of him,” Turner told The Athletic. While most teams pitched Kuminga on touches and scoring, Edwards went a different route. He sold him on defense.
“One thing he did was focus his message on, we’re gonna really guard here,” Turner said. “Everybody looked at the offensive end. JK and I looked more at the defensive end.”
That line matters. The Wolves have built their recent identity on stops, length and physicality, not just fireworks. For Kuminga, that vision resonated. Turner described a conversation at the gym this week, when he pressed his client on the pure basketball choice.
“We sat at the gym this week, and I asked him, what’s the best basketball situation?” Turner said. “He said Minnesota. Well, nothing else matters. Why would you go anywhere else?”
Kuminga didn’t just hear from Edwards. Jaden McDaniels and LaMelo Ball also reached out, according to Turner, reinforcing the sense of a unified locker room pulling him toward Minneapolis.
“It was such a solid respect factor from top to bottom,” Turner added. A star-led recruitment, a coherent message, and a franchise that knew exactly what it wanted him to be.
From Bruised Run to Bigger Ambition
Minnesota enters this season with scars and proof. The team has already lived in the pressure of late May, reaching the Western Conference Finals in back-to-back years before last season’s step back.
This time, the fall came earlier. The Timberwolves bowed out in the second round to the San Antonio Spurs, a series warped by injuries. Edwards pushed through a bone bruise in his left knee. Donte DiVincenzo never touched the floor. Ayo Dosunmu sat with a calf issue. The run ended, but not with a full-strength roster.
Now the Wolves return with a different shape and a higher ceiling, at least in the eyes of national observers. Around the league, the consensus forming is that Minnesota sits just behind the Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference hierarchy.
ESPN projects the Timberwolves as the No. 3 seed in the West. Tim MacMahon went a step further, labeling the Edwards–Ball duo the “league’s most talented backcourt,” a statement that underlines just how radically the team’s offensive profile has changed. Sports Illustrated’s Charlie Walton landed on the same finish line, also slotting Minnesota third.
Walton acknowledged the obvious — rosters move, injuries hit, trades happen — but he didn’t shy away from the upside of what president Tim Connelly has just done.
“Things can still change between now and the start of the season. Much more will inevitably change before April rolls around,” he wrote. “But I don’t think it is too early to claim that the Wolves can finish third in the West. Sure, Connelly’s swing for Ball could end up being a pop out. So could his swing for Kuminga. But for the time being, the swings have this Wolves team on an upward trajectory toward the top of the Western Conference standings.”
That’s the bet: that Edwards, now flanked by Ball’s playmaking and Kuminga’s two-way punch, can turn a promising core into a sustained force.
Minnesota has lived on the edge of the West’s elite for two seasons. With its star happy, its roster reshaped and its guards in control, this year will show whether the Wolves finally crash through the ceiling or discover they’ve simply redrawn it.
