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For the longest time, Anthony Edwards has been pushing the Minnesota Timberwolves to the brink of championship contention. He led the team to two of their only three Western Conference Finals appearances while not yet turning 25 years old. Obviously, carrying a franchise this hard could lead to some frustrations, and some reports suggested this was the case. Now, it seems like the front office had the appropriate response to their star's woes after trading with the Charlotte Hornets for LaMelo Ball.
The Timberwolves’ Edwards reason for the Ball trade with the Hornets
Teams usually just have three options when their star is reportedly disgruntled: stay silent, address their woes with a move, or trade away their franchise cornerstone. It was clear that the Timberwolves wanted to address their roster construction so that Anthony Edwards would feel happier to play for the organization.
So, what was the reason why the Timberwolves pulled the trigger and traded Naz Reid alongside a bunch of future assets for LaMelo Ball? It all boiled down to dealing with tough double teams and schematically complex defenses, according to Brian Windhorst on his Get Up appearance.
"Minnesota, this is a move to get Ant Edwards the kind of running mate that he needs... He is tired of being double-teamed. They get him a dynamic scorer in the backcourt. You throw a double at Ant Edwards with LaMelo Ball on the court, you are playing with fire. LaMelo will drop 10 three-pointers on you in the blink of an eye. So, this is what their move is. To accomplish this, they are basically emptying their coffin," the NBA Insider declared.
Diving deeper into this, Edwards has one of the highest isolation scoring frequency percentages in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. His 56.5% isolation scoring frequency percentage ranked third, only behind Jonathan Kuminga's 60% and Naz Reid's 70%. This means that the usual key to winning over the Timberwolves would have been to double Edwards or do a hard show every time he has the ball. These defensive assignments for teams get easier once all the fatigue start to seep in for Edwards or if his injuries start to reaggravate. This is also exactly why the Timberwolves' offense, with the exception of nights when someone like Jaden McDaniels pops off, tends to disappear when Edwards is not playing.
Moreover, these rough schemes without a secondary star is also the reason for why Edwards slowly became inefficient in the Timberwolves' most recent campaign. From having a 48.9% field goal percentage throughout his regular season campaign, teams in the NBA Playoffs deliberately decided to bother him with double teams so his field goal percentage dropped all the way to 42.8%.
Ball helps with these problems. Edwards no longer has to become the floor general who is also a scoring threat due to this trade with the Hornets. For Timberwolves fans who do not know the former Hornets superstar that much, he bears the 13th-highest assist percentage of all-time even when records of the ABA and NBA are merged. Ball's 39.14% assist percentage sits above players like Jason Kidd, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James, James Harden, Tony Parker, and Stephen Curry, among others. So, their offense is pretty much in good hands. Their offensive distribution will be in good hands and will no longer continually rely on Edwards.
Now, the Timberwolves' backcourt does not seem like it will have schematic problems, but there are big roster needs that need to be addressed. See, Julius Randle was dealt to the Brooklyn Nets before the NBA Draft, and Reid will be sent to the Hornets in this trade package. Rudy Gobert is also aging, and the front office needs to account for this also. The front court is the next thing they need to fix, and the Timberwolves have a lengthy offseason to do so.
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