NBA: Preseason-Minnesota Timberwolves at Indiana Pacers
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards sets the offense against the Indiana Pacers during a preseason game on Oct. 7, 2026, in Ames, Iowa.
The Minnesota Timberwolves traded for LaMelo Ball largely to accentuate the strengths of Anthony Edwards.
Ball’s arrival could move Minnesota’s star guard off the ball to, in theory, lighten his load of offensive responsibilities while generating easier looks with less effort.
The vision has been on display through three exhibition games. Edwards has 45 points in 41 minutes of playing time with Ball on the floor while shooting 54% from the floor and 60% from distance.
Ball has 14 assists in those 41 minutes.
In 21 minutes played without Ball, Edwards has 14 points on 2-for-11 shooting. That wouldn’t sustain.
Edwards is one of the NBA’s elite scorers and finds a way to produce regardless of who he’s surrounded by. But even the small, exhibition sample size has demonstrated how much easier his life is made by playing alongside one of the NBA’s premier point guards.
It sounds as though coach Chris Finch would like to maximize that tandem’s minutes during the regular season. That sounds obvious — of course Ball and Edwards will share the floor when the games count. But “staggering” is common practice in the NBA.
If a team has two high-end guards, it often wants to have at least one of those guys on the floor at all times. That generally means the two players share the floor for roughly 24 minutes, then play without their partner in crime for 12 minutes apiece to cover the other half of the 48-minute game.
The early evidence suggests Finch would do the same. Thirty percent of Ball’s minutes through three preseason games had come without Edwards, while Edwards has played 34% of his minutes without Ball.
Even Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels hadn’t played a single minute without at least one of Ball or Edwards on the floor.
Finch said he hasn’t “settled” on how he will use Edwards and Ball but noted, “My gut tells me we want them on the floor together.”
“That’s why we brought (Ball) here,” he said.
Finch highlighted the easy looks Ball helped generate for Edwards in Minnesota’s win over New York on Monday while he scored 26 points in just 25 minutes.
“If you look at the shots that Ant was able to make … they were all super easy,” Finch said. “A lot of them were from LaMelo’s playmaking and ability to break down a defense. It takes the pressure off of Ant.”
Wanting your best players to always play together isn’t a groundbreaking thought, but it is a choice with consequences. Obviously, it would leave a chunk of game in which neither is out there.
That’s where, should Finch refuse to stagger Edwards and Ball, the coach would be taking a leap of faith with his reserve guards — and that doesn’t necessarily fit the M.O. of previous seasons. But Finch said the Wolves have “great trust” in Ayo Dosunmu, T.J. Shannon and Bones Hyland, and want those guys to have the ball in their hands when they’re on the floor.
The up-tempo play of Hyland and Dosunmu last season earned the duo the nickname “Twin Turbos,” and Shannon’s dominance from the top of the floor helped Minnesota finish off Denver in last season’s playoffs without Edwards.
“All those guys are really quick decision makers. I think that’s what their chemistry is rooted in, the fact that they all make quick decisions,” Finch said. “They all play in the open floor. They all play at the same speed.”
That chemistry frees Finch up to get creative with his rotations should he choose to follow his gut.
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