Five Minnesota Timberwolves stars made the cut on The Ringer's updated list of the Top 100 players in the NBA. Let's take a look at where the quintet was ranked and give some thoughts on each player's outlook.
Edwards trails only Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and Stephen Curry on this list. Among those players, you could potentially argue that Ant should be higher than Luka or Steph, given his two-way impact, but both still probably deserve their spots because of their gravitational offensive dominance.
"Ant is so many things to the Wolves, but he’s not quite an offense unto himself," Rob Mahoney said in his Edwards playoff review. "A great scorer, absolutely. A capable passer, without question. Yet the most frenetic playoff defenses can scramble the floor just enough to muddle Ant’s process, making it challenging at times for him to control the game the way the league’s most dominant playmakers do."
Edwards had an incredible fifth season at 23 years old, leading the NBA in three-pointers while earning second team All-NBA honors and leading Minnesota to the WCF for the second straight year. Can he take that next step to MVP contention and get the Wolves over the hump? As Tim Connelly said in his recent post-season press conference, the Wolves are either going to win a championship or not on the back of Edwards. His continued growth will largely determine their ceiling.
"To get over the championship hump, Edwards might have to learn to see the game at the speed of OKC’s frenzied rotations," Mahoney said. "Or he might have to improve his game off the ball, moving with enough purpose to open up entirely new kinds of offense. The beauty of having incredible skills and ridiculous athleticism is that it’s kind of all up to Ant. One of the league's most dynamic players just has to see that progress through."
There's a sizable drop before you get to the next Wolves player on the list (for what it's worth, Karl-Anthony Towns is at No. 18). Randle had an up-and-down season in Minnesota that mostly ended on a positive note. It took him a while during the regular season to find his groove on a new team, but after returning from a groin injury that cost him all of February, he and the Wolves hit their stride. Randle's bully-ball scoring and playmaking were highly effective in the first two rounds of the playoffs, though his series against the Thunder left plenty to be desired.
His future in Minnesota is unclear. Randle has a player option this year and could be an extension candidate with the Timberwolves. Or he could wind up moved in another blockbuster trade.
"Appreciating Randle means accepting it all: The same player who bulldozed his way through the Warriors stepped into every trap laid by the Thunder," Mahoney said. "Randle is the reason why the Wolves made it to the Western Conference finals, yet he’s also part of the reason they couldn’t proceed any further. The give-and-take is Randle in a nutshell—and a fascinating dilemma for a Minnesota team looking to advance."
Speaking of fascinating dilemmas, Gobert also presents one for the Wolves. The four-time defensive player of the year remains an elite floor and ceiling-raiser on that end of the court, having earned the eighth all-defensive team selection of his career this year. But to what extent does his defense make up for his diminishing abilities on the other end of the floor? Gobert has never been much more than a lob threat on offense, but his struggles to even catch the ball rendered him unplayable at times in the postseason. His rebounding also dropped off quite a bit.
Gobert is under contract for three more seasons in Minnesota. It wouldn't be shocking if Connelly shipped him out this offseason while his value remains fairly high, even if that would mean needing to find a replacement or two at the center position.
McDaniels averaged a career-high 12.2 points during this regular season, exactly matching his scoring average from last year's playoffs. For the second straight year, he leveled up as a scorer in the postseason, averaging 14.7 points in 15 games. Now the task has to be translating that over to the regular season once again and approaching 15 PPG next year.
If he keeps growing on offense, McDaniels has all the makings of a perfect long-term co-star for Edwards on a championship contender. He's an elite defender who started rebounding at a high level this season and has a deep bag of tools he can use to get buckets. He should be untouchable in trade talks this summer.
"His shape-shifting role as a point-of-attack defender and weakside rim protector provides the skeleton key for an elite modern defense, but his growth as a steady third option on offense might be just as essential to Minnesota’s thesis moving forward," wrote Danny Chau. "In a sense, this year’s offseason evaluation of McDaniels isn’t much different from last year’s. But after this playoff run, there is optimism that it all might finally click soon."
The Wolves would love to see McDaniels earn a leap into the top 50, if not higher, next season.
Reid, the Wolves' longest-tenured player and a cult hero in Minnesota, is another guy with an uncertain future. He seems likely to decline his player option and become a free agent, though he remains open to working out a long-term deal with the only franchise he's ever known. It feels like the Timberwolves will try to make every effort to keep Reid around, knowing his value both on and off the court. He's one of the best sixth men in the league and possesses all of the skills to remain effective if his role is eventually scaled up to 35 minutes a night as a starter.