Set your alarms, because you don’t want to sleep on these Timberwolves
By Tim Garrison
![Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/a8a634a763444af4800572a20fc93d5d5b415c8714469a1cfd9fbaf636085c7f.jpg)
Anthony Edwards is a man on a mission:
The Timberwolves struck gold on November 18th, 2020. The Wolves put stock into an athletically gifted 18-year-old packed to the gills with personality and charisma. In a year that all of us endured trying times, this kid from Atlanta gave us reason to be hopeful for a franchise that has done everything possible to remove hope from a dwindling fanbase.
Timberwolves’ high-flying 21-year-old guard Anthony Edwards has breathed life into a franchise that was bordering on desperate for success. “A1 from Day 1.”
This Anthony Edwards interview is straight comedy 😂
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 24, 2020
(via @Timberwolves) pic.twitter.com/t4X33K6ePF
How can you not love a young NBA player with that much belief in himself?
Now let’s get one thing straight here, my argument is not to say that Edwards is underrated. It’s to say that Anthony Edwards’s impact in Year 4 on the Timberwolves roster and the team’s win total has become underrated.
Anthony Edwards: "I think I should be in conversations with one of the best players in the NBA. Not now, but after next year I will be."
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 7, 2023
Chris Haynes: "Why next year?"
Ant: "I mean cuz of the season I'm gonna have." 👀pic.twitter.com/uYtT4mnWEx
He makes a great point, doesn’t he?
I get by with a little help from my friends
While other factors will contribute to the likelihood of success such as 2x All-NBA forward Karl Anthony-Towns being healthy, and overall team continuity, the one bankable line item on this year’s Wolves squad is that their 21-year-old budding superstar is not done getting better.
A recent profile you can look at is the Memphis Grizzlies. In Ja Morant’s age 22 season, he exploded for 27.4ppg and took home the most improved player accolades, and his team leaped from the play into the #2 seed in the Western Conference.
While I am not suggesting that the Wolves will explode to the top of the Western Conference, yet, I am however suggesting that pegging the Timberwolves as a play-in team with minimal improvement could leave to swept aside by the wake of Anthony Edwards.
And then there is the entire conversation of getting a full season out of power forward Karl-Anthony Towns, and the fact that the Timberwolves organization is quite familiar with the play of center Rudy Gobert. And how about the fact that the team will get full seasons out of veterans Mike Conley Jr. and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, two guards who arrived at the 2023 NBA Trade Deadline?
Hot. Down on Towns? The low down on Minnesota Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns 2023 revival. light
Only a handful of players in the league today are capable of being an automatic playoff ticket for their respective franchises. Anthony Edwards’s first three seasons in Minnesota have demonstrated that he’s capable of reaching elite company within the NBA landscape. Because the Wolves have Anthony Edwards, sleep on them at your peril.
Anthony Edwards is the NBA’s wake-up call.