The Minnesota Timberwolves have been busy this offseason. They have made moves to bolster their chances of winning an NBA Championship next season. The biggest move that the Timberwolves made was to trade for Rudy Gobert.
But in order to get Gobert, the franchise had to give up a lot of assets. This move essentially puts them in a win-now mode. Fortunately, they can take this gamble ever since they drafted Anthony Edwards using the first overall pick. With just two seasons of experience under his belt, Edwards is already being touted to become a superstar in the NBA soon.
He had a breakout year last season and proved to everyone why he was picked at the number one spot by the T-Wolves in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green made a similar assessment in a recent episode of his podcast. He explained the importance of Ant to the Timberwolves and why the franchise has activated win-now mode rather than waiting a couple more years to let their young stars grow into even better players.
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“I know Karl-Anthony Towns just signed a $224 million extension, but what this trade says to me is Minnesota believes that they have a superstar in Anthony Edwards… The reason it says to me that they want to build around Anthony Edwards is because you go out and you trade all of them away, that means we’re in win-now mode, we’re not planning for the future.
The reason it says Anthony Edwards to me is because KAT’s been there. And, like, now you’re making these moves, like, they weren’t trading the No. 1 pick when they just had the No. 1 pick. They weren’t trading picks any time before that or really after.
But they’re in win-now mode because I think Minnesota thinks that they have a superstar in Anthony Edwards, and by the way, I believe they do.”
As Green explained pretty well, the Timberwolves have placed their trust in Anthony Edwards. It is evident from the fact that the franchise traded away a bunch of their picks to acquire Rudy.
Acquiring Gobert solves the biggest issue of the team’s game, defending. Now that they have an elite defender on their roster, their other star players can go out and wreak havoc on the offensive end of the court. But at the end of the day, we will truly understand how this move turns out when we see this newly formed T-Wolves team play next season.
