While NBA analysts discuss how the Minnesota Timberwolves can survive without Anthony Edwards, his right knee surgery will cost him a hefty amount of money ahead of a potential contract extension. Edwards is expected to miss two months or more after undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his ailing right knee.

The projected time missed will knock him out of the running for NBA awards, costing him millions, as ESPN's Shams Charania noted, per The Pat McAfee Show.

“He's gonna miss about two months with that injury. So, knock him out of the Christmas Day game, potentially, that they have on December 25. The Timberwolves do at home against the Thunder,” Charania said. “So he's out the next two weeks. And if you think about it, he actually just put up 47 points on Monday night. He's been ballin. He had 45 last week. He's been dealing with knee issues in that right knee since last year. Swelling; things of that sort. They've had to get multiple images.

“Every few weeks he'll get more imaging to make sure everything is on point, while he's been laboring through it the last week or so, ever since the season started. You can see in some of these games he's grabbing down, clutching that knee. They got a new series of tests this week that showed further damage that had to get cleaned up. His hope now is that the second half of the year he'll be ready.”

Timberwolves All-Star Anthony Edwards will miss the 65-game limit that required in order to qualify for NBA awards.

“As I'm talking to players and coaches and GMs and executives, and people around the league, it's become a war of attrition. It's getting right so you can be right for the second half of the season, because right now you're seeing a lot of these guys go down, and now, you have a guy in Anthony Edwards who's going to be ineligible for All-NBA Team, for MVP; that's going to cost him $115 million extra in salary based on the super max extension he's eligible for this offseason,” Charania added.

“I believe it's four years, $304 million if he'd made either an All-NBA Team or MVP. But now, he's going to be ineligible. He's going to miss too many games. So, he's going to be eligible for a three year, $189 million extension. Now, he could wait and push that off until next summer or the summer of 2028. But there's a lot of ramification across all of this. But just a ton, a ton of injuries in the early going right now,” Charania concluded.

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Without Edwards, the Timberwolves lost to the Golden State Warriors, 119-114, on Wednesday.