From the moment the Minnesota Timberwolves traded Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics in 2007 till they drafted Anthony Edwards first overall in 2020, success was few and far between. Sure, they made the playoffs in 2018 with Jimmy Butler, but most Wolves fans try to forget about that era altogether.
For more than a decade, it was a revolving door of terrible front office hires, bad coaches, and poor rosters with very few All-Star-level talents (shoutout Karl-Anthony Towns, Kevin Love, and Al Jefferson). A bad season was always expected, and the most exciting time of the year was the NBA draft lottery, despite how many top picks didn't pan out.
However, all their luck changed in the 2020 draft, when they selected an athletic freak of a shooting guard from Georgia.
Anthony Edwards has transformed the Wolves into a winning team
Before Edwards was drafted, the Wolves had made the playoffs only once in the previous 16 years, and since he's been on the team, they've only missed the playoffs once in his six seasons, and that was his rookie year.
The front office has definitely helped, as they did a phenomenal job surrounding him with winning players and savvy veterans early on in his career. Guys such as Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell, Patrick Beverley, and Ricky Rubio provided him a good backbone to lean on when he was a young player.
Those guys helped show him how to win in his first few years, but it didn't take long for him to become the best player and the alpha on the team. His "coming out party" as a true face of the league was in their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2022 playoffs.
Despite the series loss, he was arguably the best player on the court, which included Towns, Ja Morant, and Jaren Jackson Jr. He averaged 25.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3 assists in his first playoff series at 20 years old.
Later, they upgraded their core by trading for Rudy Gobert and then Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Since then, he's led the Wolves to two conference finals appearances and one conference semi-final appearance. Now, with the new acquisition of LaMelo Ball, there's a lot of talk that they could go to even higher heights, and I would buy a lot of stock in that.
The Wolves are now one of the premier organizations in the NBA
Freed from the shackles of Glen Taylor's ownership, the Wolves aren't just a sustainable winning team now; they're also a top superstar destination. Even during the KG days, this wasn't the case, and it's worth noting they won just two playoff series (in the same year) during this era.
Heck, the Wolves were even on LeBron James' free agent shortlist this summer. If you told someone that 10 years ago, they'd call you insane. They've also been firmly in the mix for other superstars and were one of the three teams Giannis Antetokounmpo would sign a long-term extension with.
The new ownership, headlined by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, has done a great job running the team, and despite some criticisms of Chris Finch, he's been an extremely successful coach here. However, all of the recent success the Wolves have had doesn't happen without Anthony Edwards.
He's a generational talent, and with some more years under his belt, he'll become the greatest Wolf of all time.
One player rarely has such a positive effect on a franchise, but that's exactly what he's done. Wolves fans are fortunate to watch greatness every game, and when it's all said and done, No. 5 will be in the rafters and on a statue in front of Target Center.
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