Minnesota Fixed Its Point Guard Problem and Got Smaller Everywhere Else

The Minnesota Timberwolves spent a summer turning a towering, Rudy Gobert-anchored roster into a guard-heavy one. Anthony Edwards is staying. Almost everything around him moved.

The headliner was LaMelo Ball, the kind of ball-handling, pass-first guard Minnesota has spent years cycling through without ever really solving. The fit logic isn't complicated: Edwards carried a 28.8-point scoring load last season on 35.0 minutes a night across 61 games, and asking him to also be the primary creator is what coach Chris Finch has publicly hinted needs to change. Ball, at 7.1 assists per game last season, lets Edwards return to scoring off the catch and in transition — the "easy buckets" the Wolves have talked about unlocking.

Jonathan Kuminga, meanwhile, may be the most cost-efficient addition of the summer. He signed a two-year, $13 million deal with a player option on the second year, choosing Minnesota over a richer Lakers offer. He averaged 12.2 points and 5.6 rebounds in just 23.1 minutes across 36 games last season — modest counting numbers attached to real athletic upside. Edwards helped recruit him, and by all accounts that recruitment is already paying off in on-court chemistry.

Getting Kuminga official wasn't free. The Wolves sent Josh Green and cash to Utah for Cody Williams and John Konchar, then waived Konchar, a move designed to keep Minnesota under the second apron. The front office has been operating $4.1 million from that cliff all summer, and every subsequent move has been shaped by it. That's the unglamorous part of this story: the Wolves didn't just get better, they got more flexible, and they protected a three-year window in the process.

The hole they didn't fill

Here's where the boom-or-bust framing comes from. Minnesota swapped size for creation and never replaced the size. There is no natural starting power forward. Frontcourt depth is now a genuine concern, and the emergency fix being floated internally is Jaden McDaniels sliding to center in a pinch — a solution that works in stretches, not across 82 games.

The defensive math is the part that should worry Wolves fans. Minnesota posted a 113.6 defensive rating last season; Oklahoma City sat at 108.4. The Wolves' net rating was 2.16. The Thunder's was 10.57. A 49-33 team with a +3.4 point differential just voluntarily downgraded the end of the floor that kept it competitive, and the team still has one open roster spot with an obvious need for a veteran center.

The most-discussed available name is Kevin Love, and the reporting suggests that door is closing — Finch has been candid that Minnesota has intentionally avoided veteran additions. A reunion would be poetic. It may also be a non-starter.

What the market sees

The odds say the market isn't buying a leap. Minnesota opens at +2500 to win the title, while Oklahoma City and San Antonio are both +260 — a chasm, not a gap. The win total sits at 48.5, essentially flat against last season's 49 wins, with both sides priced at -110. The books are treating this as a team that traded one strength for another and landed roughly in the same place.

That's the tension of this Wolves season. The offense should be more dynamic, Edwards should get cleaner looks, and Kuminga gives them a young forward on a bargain. But the rebounding and rim protection behind Gobert just got thinner, and the West's top tier didn't get worse.

Minnesota opens Oct. 21 on the road in Miami. By then we'll have our first real answer to the only question that matters: did the Wolves actually get better, or did they just get different?