3 Non-Negotiables Anthony Edwards Must Deliver for Timberwolves This Season

Here are the three things Minnesota's superstar must do this year.

Anthony Edwards has already proven himself as a superstar, but he must defend at a consistently high level, embrace an off-ball role, and be even better in the clutch this season for the Minnesota Timberwolves. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Anthony Edwards has already hit a level of superstar production that many first overall picks in the NBA fall short of.

He is the undisputed face of the Minnesota Timberwolves as he enters his seventh year in the NBA. Edwards enters games with the killer instinct that separates him from other stars and has established himself as one of the NBA’s most feared and respected talents.

Edwards has done all of that before turning 26, which he will do next August. He is still very much ahead of the curve, but there is still room for the superstar to grow. And as the Wolves enter a season in which they have championship aspirations, here are the three non-negotiables in which Edwards must deliver for his team this season:

Defend at a consistently productive level

Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch, who holds Edwards to high standards and coaches him hard, responded quickly to a question about what his superstar must improve on this season in an interview with WCCO’s Chad Hartman.

Easy, he's got to bring his defense back to the level it was two years ago, for sure. And, you know, he's committed to doing that, Finch said. And a lot of that has to do obviously with him not having to handle the ball as much and generate the offense, and the pressure of doing that like he did last year. And then just, you know, continue to work on his decision making.

Edwards has a flip that he can switch at any moment, which immediately turns him into a lockdown perimeter defender. Typically, late in games, that switch is on, bringing out a version of Edwards who keeps players in front of him, forces turnovers, and makes himself look like one of the NBA’s top two-way talents.

The problem is that he doesn’t flip that switch often enough.

When he wants to be, Edwards can defend at an All-NBA level. He has the physical tools to be that type of defender, and the Wolves always benefit when he is. It was understandable that his defensive intensity slipped last year because he was shouldering too much offensive responsibility.

But as Finch mentions, with LaMelo Ball quarterbacking the offense, Edwards should (in theory) keep more gas in the tank to use on defense. And for a Wolves team lacking size, rim protection, and rebounding outside of Rudy Gobert and Joan Beringer, it will be imperative that they get consistently bought-in perimeter defense.

That effort will start with Edwards, who is assuming a larger leadership role this season. Ball is an adequate perimeter defender at 6’7”. Jaden McDaniels is the warden at a maximum-security prison who always has his inmates sitting in solitary confinement. If Edwards can defend consistently well, the Wolves can rely on their backcourt to bring constant pressure at the point of attack, which they struggled to do last season.

If that happens, the Wolves will obviously be better off, and Edwards will take another step toward his MVP and championship goals.

Embrace the off-ball role

Edwards wants to be the best player on the floor. Most nights, he probably believes that he is, especially when he is dropping 30 points and orchestrating a scoring boomlet against any defender in front of him. He wants to be the Hercules who leads the Wolves to a title.

That is where his killer instinct shines, and it is a great thing. But this season, Edwards needs to balance that instinct with a willingness to let his teammates take the pressure off him.

We’ve got to try to get him some easier shots, Finch told Hartman. And for that to happen, he’s got to let the game come to him a bit. For a guy who is so aggressive and such a scorer, sometimes that is an inner battle he fights, too, because he wants to go out and make everything happen for himself or his team. But now we get a chance to employ him off the ball.

Last season, Edwards shot 47.8% on catch-and-shoot threes. He has not shot below 41% on such attempts in a season since his rookie year. Last season, however, Edwards only took 138 catch-and-shoot threes, ranking 205th league-wide. Part of that low ranking is because Edwards only played in 63 games. But a bigger part is that he operated more as a point guard than a shooting guard.

Anthony Edwards has been a very efficient three-point shooter for the majority of his career, and it will be vital that the Minnesota Timberwolves find a way to accentuate that this season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Wolves hope that number will trend back up this season with Edwards sliding back to his natural shooting guard position next to a natural point guard in Ball. Edwards wants to put the team on his back, which he will have plenty of opportunities to do this season. Still, he must embrace more of an off-ball role to ease the pressure and run an offense that promotes ball movement and gets the best out of LaMelo.

It will be even more important that Edwards commits to that role for as long as Donte DiVincenzo, who recently began on-court work while rehabbing a torn Achilles tendon, is sidelined. 

Last season, DiVincenzo led the NBA in catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts (498). The Wolves will miss his exaggerated floor spacing and how it opens up the offense around him. However, DiVincenzo’s absence will be mitigated if Edwards commits to consistently defending and playing in an off-ball role, both of which DiVincenzo excels at.

Remain one of the NBA’s best clutch-time performers

In the regular season last year, Edwards scored the sixth-most clutch-time points in the NBA (135), shooting 56.5% from the floor. Edwards played in 93.8 clutch minutes, significantly fewer than the rest of the players who finished in the top ten in clutch points scored.

Edwards has solidified himself as a prolific clutch-time performer by combining his killer gene with high efficiency. He lives for those late-game moments, hitting the shot that ignites a deafening roar at Target Center with the opponent calling a timeout as their defeat becomes imminent. Edwards wants to be the player orchestrating those moments, and he should be whenever clutch production is needed.

One of the most electric moments I can remember from a mid-December game. The season really can't come soon enough, man.pic.twitter.com/JbAla5wWwL

— Charlie Walton (@CharlieWaltonMN) September 27, 2026

In those one-on-one situations, very few players can stop Edwards. That is why teams have increasingly started double-teaming him and blitzing the ball out of his hands. In the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs did it consistently, and Edwards shot 1-for-5 with two turnovers in 14.6 clutch-time postseason minutes.

With Ball now playing alongside Edwards, defenses will find it more difficult to load up on Ant as egregiously as they have in the past.

Ball’s gravity should allow Edwards to take another step as a clutch-time performer. We already know Edwards can go blow-for-blow with anyone down the stretch, especially in one-on-one situations. But now alongside Ball, Edwards should be able to take over games late far more consistently.

Maybe that will translate into Edwards winning Clutch Player of the Year. But more importantly, Edwards becoming inevitable in clutch situations will help the Wolves in the playoffs and help Minnesota’s superstar take another step toward the lofty goals he has for himself and his team. 

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