Dynamic duos are the backbone of NBA history. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Two guys lining up next to each other and mowing down the competition is the lifeblood of modern basketball.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have a tepid relationship with the dynamic duo construct. Every time two players were both good and cool at the same time in the Twin Cities, something catastrophic happened. Kevin Garnett was outshining Stephon Marbury. Sam Cassell’s hip couldn’t hold the weight of his big balls. Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio never synced up. Andrew Wiggins never shifted out of second gear. And Jimmy Butler wanted nothing to do with Karl-Anthony Towns.
Anthony Edwards finally brought his ass to Minnesota and created an instant and prosperous dynamic duo with Karl-Anthony Towns. Ant and KAT built a beautiful friendship across four seasons together with the Timberwolves. Anthony Edwards blossomed into a full-blown superstar under KAT’s tutelage. Both were two-time All-Stars as teammates and won 111 out of 204 games played together. They made the playoffs three times and took the Wolves to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2004.
On the eve of the 2024-25 NBA season, they shipped Towns to New York for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and a first-round pick that became Joan Beringer. Randle and DDV took half the season to get acclimated to how the Wolves operate, leading some to believe Ant no longer had a running mate. But Randle figured it out after returning from injury and helped Ant lead the Wolves back to the Western Conference Finals. Now, in Year 2 in Minnesota, Randle is playing the best basketball of his career, and he and Edwards are vying to become the best duo in the NBA.
That sentence sounds crazy — best duo in the NBA.
The NBA is full of fantastic tandems. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams (or Chet Holmgren) just won a championship last year and look to have a chokehold on the league for the decade to come. Luka Doncic and LeBron James are the faces of the league for different generations. Jalen Brunson and KAT reached the East Finals last year and were a Tyrese Haliburton bounce away from the NBA Finals. Nikola Jokic is the best player of the decade and Jamal Murray is a playoff assassin who a Larry O’Brien Trophy on his mantle.
There are half a dozen other worthy candidates. But Edwards and Randle are staking their claim at the top of the list this season.
Randle is playing the best basketball of his 12-year career. He’s averaging 25.4 points per game, 7.2 rebounds, a career-high 6.2 assists, and 1.3 steals, with a 66.3 true shooting percentage, also a career high. He stepped up as the primary offensive hub while keeping the Wolves afloat in the West during Edwards’ four-game absence with a hamstring injury. He’s on pace to surpass his 2020-21 season, in which he won the Most Improved Player award and was second team All-NBA.
Edwards, hamstring issue aside, is also playing at a level we haven’t seen in his six years in the NBA. He’s averaging 27.1 points per game, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists, numbers that would be far more impressive had he not left Minnesota’s win against the Indiana Pacers after just over three minutes of action with a hamstring injury. His 65.9 true shooting percentage is by far a career high and higher than SGA’s through the first three weeks of the season. Both are having career years early in their careers. It’s a small sample size, but things get even better when they’re on the court together.
Minnesota’s net rating for the season is plus-4.8. They’re 8.2 points per 100 possessions better when Edwards is on the court, and 14 points per 100 better with Randle on the court. But the Wolves’ net rating is plus-16 when Edwards and Randle share the court. That’s better than Luka and LeBron last year. It’s twice as good as Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were during the Boston Celtics’ championship run in 2024. And even better than Jokic and Murray in 2023.
Minnesota’s defense holds firm at league average with Randle and Edwards on the court, and the offense soars to league-best status in their 159 minutes together. Last year, while they were still figuring each other out, their net rating was only 3.5. Now the duo is fully unleashed and ready to improve on last season’s disappointing finish in the conference finals.
They complement each other’s games well and are both making quick decisions with the ball. They’re far from the ball-stopping black holes from a year ago. The Wolves are 7-4 and sixth in the West, mostly beating up on bad competition.
For Ant and Julius to become the best duo in the NBA, they’ll need to beat playoff-caliber competition consistently and lead the Wolves past the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets to represent the West in the NBA Finals. It’s within reach, but Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle are knocking on the door to become the best duo in Timberwolves history, and possibly in the NBA.