Straight Sets: It's Time To Embrace The Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels Future ... Now.
The Timberwolves don't need to rebuild, but they do need to lean into their young stars.
Division within a sporting fan base isn’t just normal, it’s expected. Debates, arguments, opinions and sweeping declarations are the foundation of fandom. They sustain us through the lean years and trickle fuel onto the fire when spirits are high. Occasionally, though, in the rarest of times, the masses align; like a mesmerizing lunar eclipse draped over the fan base.
Anthony Edwards has had that effect on the Minnesota Timberwolves fan base. There are no debates about his infectious personality. No arguments about his almost unfathomable ceiling. No outrageous sweeping declarations about his importance to the team today and moving forward.
And, since president of basketball operations Tim Connelly named him the world’s best 21-year-old and declared him as the team’s number one priority in terms of roster building going forward, it seems like the organization feels the same way as the fans.
That also seems to be a change in mentality.
Haphazardly launching the organization’s chips into the middle of the table by trading the farm for Rudy Gobert was a move designed to bolster Karl-Anthony Towns’ prime. Prying Mike Conley and his wily veteran ways from Utah was a double down on Gobert’s timeline and Towns’ by association.
The Wolves may yet decide to skirt the impending salary cap doom and throw themselves at the feet of the collective bargaining agreement gods by trading one of the bigs. Or, they could attempt to circumvent their wrath by running it back and giving their big experiment one more chance at success. Whatever fjord they decide the paddle down, they need to start tailoring the franchise’s every move toward maximizing Edwards more effectively than they did during Towns’ best years.
Since Kevin Garnett’s departure, the Timberwolves haven’t had a talent like Edwards. They haven’t had the buttery blend of dynamic on-court presence and superstar personality. They haven’t had anyone who possesses that precious ability to drag teams to wins almost singlehandedly. No matter the causalities or the cost, it’s time for this bedeviled franchise to foster that correctly.
There have been three different front office leaders, an ownership shift, and a bevy of questionable decisions since Edwards was drafted, but they did manage to fine a gold nugget wedged between all the mud. They mined Jaden McDaniels from the depths of the first round and cemented the bedrock of the next iteration of the team. That doesn’t clean the franchise’s slate, but it does give them a shining escape route.
Like Edwards, McDaniels doesn’t divide. Opinion of him doesn’t fracture and segment Timberwolves loyalists. He might not have the immediate franchise-carrying punch that his fellow draftee has, but few doubt his importance and his potential.
For all of the mistakes that shroud the franchise like a lung-clogging mist, they have nailed the first step of Edwards’ era. They have found him a running mate; the icy coolness to his blazing inferno, the defensive spider bite to his offensive scorpion sting, the perfect foil for a budding megastar. Now, with both franchise pillars closing in on their first big-money contract, it’s time to double down on insulating Edwards and McDaniels. Then triple down on that.
That means tailoring all impending financial decisions toward them. It means tinkering the roster as soon as possible to weaponize their strengths and fortify their weaknesses. And it means greasing the wheels of the playbook to ensure the on-court style and hierarchy are geared toward the pair. It made sense to raise Edwards and McDaniels in an environment that prioritized winning, asking the duo to do more piano-carrying while Towns and, to a lesser extent, Gobert and D’Angelo Russell were hitting the keys.
But that time is over.
The pups are snarling and rugged now, ready to usurp the former alphas and lead the pack into smoother terrain. They will need help, of course they will, they’re two drastically different archetypes who aren’t nearly the finished article, but this Timberwolves franchise needs to run on their timeline now. Wasting years and resources on anything else feels like gross malpractice.
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