One jaw-dropping stat illustrates the greatness of Edwards-Randle pairing

When the Minnesota Timberwolves made their trade for Julius Randle, they took a sizeable risk. There is a certain stability in retaining a franchise cornerstone for nearly a decade. Karl-Anthony Towns was a constant presence on and off the court for nine seasons in Minnesota, and taking him out of the equation was always going to change things for this team.

On top of that, fans had reason to question Randle's fit even before he ever suited up for the team. His offensive repertoire is far from synonymous with KAT's, and the pairing of he and Rudy Gobert was a questionable one to many. After Randle put up a somewhat disappointing performance in his first game with the Timberwolves, the critics were out in full force.

But then came Minnesota's Thursday night victory on the road over the Sacramento Kings, and much of the widespread criticism died down for the time being. Randle led all scorers with an incredibly efficient 33, and showed what kind of impact he can have on the interior.

While Julius and Anthony Edwards led the Wolves to a win, they also achieved a remarkable statistical achievement. Ant and Randle became the first pair of Timberwolves teammates ever to record 30 or more points and five or more three-pointers made each in a victory.

Randle and Ant achieved something that KAT and Edwards did not

Mind you, that is a franchise first, and it is not something Towns and Edwards ever achieved as teammates. For that to happen just two games into these two playing alongside each other has to breathe some optimism back into even the harshest critics.

It would have been one thing if this duo had started to really mesh sometime later in the season, say December or January. But the fact that we are less than a week into the season and these kind of outcomes are already occurring is a fantastic sign.

Randle is still going to have some rough games, and he and Edwards still have a lot to figure out when it comes to how to optimize their output alongside one another. But early returns are promising, and there is plenty of reason to believe in this one-two punch leading the Timberwolves' offense.