Should Karl-Anthony Towns feel threatened by the rise of Anthony Edwards?

Whereas the Minnesota Timberwolves are struggling an underwhelming season to this point, Anthony Edwards and his emergence as an All-Star are among the few vibrant spots. The staff struggles to contain low season acquisition Rudy Gobert offensively. Gobert shouldn’t be the defender they hoped he could be, they play an excessive amount of iso-ball and lack defensive effort. Most significantly, nevertheless, Karl-Anthony Cities has been injured for a lot of the season.

Regardless of all these points, the Timberwolves managed to remain afloat, at the moment holding the eighth seed within the West with a 32-32 report, underneath Edwards’ management. The teen has made the anticipated soar into stardom, and the Timberwolves are actually formally his staff. That poses the query if Cities is now expendable Minnesota.

If worse involves worst, they usually have to interrupt up the staff, Cities appears the most certainly participant to be traded. The Wolves can’t hand over Edwards, and will probably be tough to curiosity groups in Gobert and his large contract, in order that solely leaves Cities in the marketplace. Now we have not reached that time but, although, and with the Timberwolves willpower to win within the close to future, the reply is straightforward. Cities shouldn’t be expendable proper now.

Edwards at the moment averages 36.4 minutes per sport and has not missed a single match but. His utilization fee is within the top-15 in your complete league and would in all probability be increased if he had performed your complete season with out Cities and D’Angelo Russell. Russell, like most of his teammates, by no means fairly discovered how one can get Gobert concerned offensively, however he helped Edwards carry the scoring load. In gentle of the primary difficulty, the Timberwolves made a daring transfer on the commerce deadline, buying and selling Russell’s shot creation for Mike Conley’s playmaking and expertise taking part in with Gobert. This commerce solved a few of their points, as Conley considerably managed to unlock Gobert offensively and get Jaden McDaniels concerned extra as a scorer, nevertheless it additionally introduced up new issues. There’s nonetheless a scoring hole to be crammed, and the reply is to not count on Edwards to do much more.

Edwards has been carrying rather a lot for a 21-year-old who remains to be rising as a participant all season lengthy and appeared as much as the problem. However after taking part in quite a few video games with out Russell and Cities, the exhaustion is beginning to present. It isn’t simply because he has to play many minutes and carry the scoring weight principally by himself, but additionally the truth that defenses are making his life hell. The Golden State Warriors, for instance, threw Donte DiVincenzo and Jonathan Kuminga at him on the similar time to ensure that the ball wouldn’t spend a lot time in his palms. Groups know that the Timberwolves are beatable so long as somebody apart from Edwards has the ball. Any such defensive consideration will train Edwards rather a lot, but when the Timberwolves need to win now, they want somebody to disrupt that rhythm.

They want a secondary scorer and a few further firepower, that are two issues that Cities can present as top-of-the-line taking pictures huge males within the sport. Cities can simply put up 20 factors a sport and draw a big quantity of defensive consideration away from Edwards. As a flexible scoring expertise, he can enhance the Timberwolves entrance court docket manufacturing immediately when he returns. Naz Reid deserves quite a lot of credit score for the numbers he has been placing up in Cities’ absence, however Cities can add one other dimension to their huge man sport as a post-up risk. Reid is extra comfy on the perimeter and Gobert primarily scores off lobs and put backs, so having somebody who can go to work within the paint will change the way in which groups have to protect the Timberwolves.

Plus, Edwards, McDaniels, and Reid are all nonetheless younger and will use an All-Star veteran subsequent to Conley who can information them and make the sport simpler. Particularly, Edwards and McDaniels want each likelihood to develop their sport and develop, however because the Gobert commerce there may be additionally quite a lot of stress on the staff to win now.

None of that may occur this season as a result of uncertainty of Cities’ return date. One other issue is the time it’ll take to determine how one can incorporate cities into lineups as he will get again into form after the harm. At any time when he does return, nevertheless, he will probably be coming again to a staff that’s now firmly in Edwards’ palms. His function is likely to be lesser than when he was the franchise’s sole centerpiece, however he’s nonetheless not expendable in the event that they need to win quickly. Anyone must take part of the offensive load off Edwards’ younger shoulders, and plainly with out a main commerce, Cities is their best choice. The Timberwolves merely can’t afford to wear down Edwards, who already has a lot duty on each ends of the ground and is the important thing to their success.

After all, there are nonetheless quite a lot of uncertainties. If Cities can’t keep wholesome, or in the event that they merely can’t make all of the items click on, none of this issues, however for now Cities remains to be an essential puzzle piece on this staff.