MINNEAPOLIS - Anthony Edwards is in his sixth NBA season, but he is still only 24 years old. Those two numbers can lead to conflicting viewpoints among fans. In six seasons, it is easy to say Edwards should have the league figured out by now after more than half a decade in it - that he should be consistently great night in and night out.
Last season, when he was struggling to run the offense in clutch situations, the natural question was why. Why did he keep doing the same things, settling for the same tough shots?
It was also in January last season when Edwards complained about the volume of double teams he was facing. How far both things have come in a year. Yes, there are still things you learn as your career progresses in the NBA. You do not figure it all out after four or five years.
That is where being 24 comes in. Edwards is already a three-time All-Star guard, but he is still about three or four years away from entering what are considered peak years in the NBA: his late 20s. It was not until age 27 that future Hall of Famers such as Stephen Curry and LeBron James won their first titles.
The season Edwards is having in 2025-26 is proof that even in Year 6, a player can still build on his game. For instance, you can still learn how to manage late-game situations and how to deal with double teams more effectively.
For all the talk about what the Minnesota Timberwolves need to round out the roster at the trade deadline, there was always one surefire way they could close the gap between being a conference finals participant and becoming a true championship contender: Edwards making another leap.
The past two seasons, Edwards has been a second-team All-NBA selection. But there is room for more, for Edwards to become a first-team All-NBA player and a potential MVP candidate. It has not been the smoothest of seasons for the Wolves, but it feels as if Edwards is leveling up midway through it.
These are the areas in which Edwards has improved this season, and his career-high 55-point performance in a 126-123 loss at San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night was emblematic of that advancement.
So was his 23-point performance in his previous game, a victory over the Spurs at Target Center on Jan. 11, before he missed the next two games because of a right foot injury.
Edwards is shooting 72% in the clutch this season, better than every major star in the NBA and well above the 43% he shot last season. That percentage will fluctuate. But if you watch Edwards operate late in games, the difference is evident: less settling for shots, more probing of the defense and more options from the midrange and post. And he is making the right play when faced with double teams rather than forcing shots.
About those double teams: The calendar had just turned to 2025 when Edwards complained after a loss to the Boston Celtics that he was giving the ball up too much and that it was bothering him. Since then, Edwards said recently, he has become “super comfortable” dealing with those looks.
Edwards has always improved gradually when it comes to mastering the game. The comparison I like to use when explaining his development is that he is like a certain kind of piano player. Some are naturals who can hear a song, sit down and keep up with the band. Some NBA players have that level of feel for the game at a young age. Edwards is more like a player who needs the sheet music, a metronome or a drummer to keep time, and repetition. He has the capability of playing the song at a high level; he just needs reps before mastering it.
What Wolves fans saw over the past few seasons was that rehearsal happening in real time, as Edwards gained the institutional knowledge and muscle memory needed to keep growing his game. In Year 6, all of that is starting to come together in ways it has not previously. Despite back-to-back losses in Texas over the weekend, the Wolves have rounded into form in 2026, and it begins and ends with Edwards and the leaps he continues to make in his career.