MINNEAPOLIS —The positive buzz surrounding the Minnesota Timberwolves media day and commencement of training camp was palpable.

Between new player acquisitions and teams seemingly bonded together through offseason training and trips, it would be difficult for the ‘vibes’ to be much higher.

Not only will the acquisition of guard LaMelo Ball add a dynamic playmaker and scorer to a team that needed an injection of speed and creativity, but it will also allow the organization’s superstar Anthony Edwards to return to his natural position — an off-ball shooting guard who can play downhill, without the extra responsibility of being a facilitator and creating shots for his teammates as often.

“We're lucky to have him,” said Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch regarding Edwards during his media day press conference. It will be Finch’s seventh season in that position,

This is, effectively, the third iteration of the Timberwolves since the turn of the decade. All three versions have seen Edwards at the epicenter, with feature frontcourt players like Karl-Anthony Towns and Julius Randle being replaced by the aforementioned Ball. It will be the first iteration of its kind for Edwards and Minnesota, as the team’s second scoring option on the team will now share a backcourt with him.

“Now, we get a chance to get (Edwards) back to what I feel like is more of his natural elite role, which is primarily off the ball,” said Finch. “Last season was great for him, and we learned a lot through that as a team, and he did it individually, and we can still use and draw on that. But it's just, you know, getting him back to, you know, a more effective and dangerous position where teams can't, like, you know, attack him as early in the possession as possible to make him give the ball up.”

Finch is not the only person in the organization excited to see this shift in playstyle. Forward Jaden McDaniels echoed a similar sentiment during his availability. “It’s going to be hard to guard him now, because you can’t load up on him and trap him, so I feel like him coming off pin-downs and stuff like that where he already has that head of steam, it’s going to be hard to guard him,” said McDaniels, who said he has ‘MVP’ expectations for the Timberwolves superstar heading into his seventh season in the NBA.

Why is there so much excitement? While Edwards has been productive as a facilitator to a certain extent, the team as a whole has been significantly more efficient when Edwards operates as a score-first shot creator, due to his standing as one of the best pure shot makers in basketball, and because his passing in general has room for growth. His 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio on a 31.5 usage percentage in 2026 ranks below average amongst primary ball handlers.

In 2026, the team’s net rating with Edwards as a primary facilitator was +3.3 — 10th in the NBA, according to databallr. In 2024, however, the last season Edwards played in the role he projects to play this season, that number was +6.5 — third throughout the association.

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“I feel like I’m a natural two-guard at heart,” said Edwards. “I never thought I could develop any point guard skills. I know Finchy harps on me passing the ball, but now we’ve got LaMelo, so I’m happy.”

In addition to his role adjustment benefiting himself and the team offensively, the Atlanta native believes it will also benefit his game on the other side of the ball as well.

“I feel like the last couple years I couldn’t play defense as good as I wanted to because I was bringing the ball up at times; I had to score the ball all the time,” Edwards said. “At times I was super tired. But now I got LaMelo. I got a point guard, so I don’t gotta really bring the ball up at all. I can go to the corner for three, four plays in a row and just guard the best player. So I feel like this year I’m going to be grading my game a lot different.”

The numbers support Edwards’ claim, as his defensive box plus minus was a respectable 0.5 in 2024, and dropped off significantly to a below-league-average -0.1 in 2026.

“I think the game — the business of the NBA forces you to adapt and evolve, you know, the game, the game keeps growing, and also it's also hard to always keep the same core,” said the four-time defensive player of the year and now elder statesman of the new-look Timberwolves roster, Rudy Gobert.

“You know, so we have the same — we lost two of our players, and we brought in LaMelo, and we still have this mostly the same core. So we want to keep some of those core values and that core identity, but also adapt, maybe, bringing some players so dynamic, you know, like LaMelo. …The goal is to, is to be the last team standing in June.”

Edwards, Finch, and the Timberwolves organization believe that this core group and major shuffle has the opportunity to put them in that exact position — the last team standing after surviving some of the most competitive basketball ever played.