Anthony Edwards
Anthony Edwards is the Minnesota Timberwolves guard and 2020 No. 1 pick whose scoring leaps, two conference finals and Olympic gold made him an NBA centerpiece.
Anthony Edwards is the shooting guard the Minnesota Timberwolves took first overall in the 2020 NBA Draft and built a franchise around. Across six seasons he climbed from a raw, high-usage rookie to a league scoring force, averaging 24.6 points per game on 442 games through the 2025-26 season, dragging a long-dormant team to back-to-back Western Conference Finals and winning Olympic gold along the way. By his mid-20s he had become one of the NBA’s most-discussed young stars and the centerpiece of the league’s search for a next marquee face.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 5, 2001, Atlanta, Georgia |
| Position | Shooting guard |
| Teams | Minnesota Timberwolves (2020–present) |
| Draft | 2020, 1st overall, Minnesota |
| Contract (Oct. 6, 2026) | Under a five-year maximum extension, reported by ESPN at up to $260M, running 2024-25 through 2028-29 |
| Number | 5 (wore 1 as a rookie) |
Before the league — Atlanta and Georgia
The hometown prospect. Edwards grew up in Atlanta and starred at Holy Spirit Preparatory School before committing to the University of Georgia, where he played a single season in 2019-20. A top-ranked recruit built like a strong safety at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, he declared for the draft after one college year.
The No. 1 pick. Minnesota selected him first overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, a class led by Edwards, LaMelo Ball and James Wiseman. The pick made him the Timberwolves’ latest franchise bet in a long rebuild.
Minnesota Timberwolves: the arrival
The rookie. Edwards debuted in December 2020 and finished the 2020-21 season averaging 19.3 points over 72 games. He was a unanimous selection to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, joining Ball, Tyrese Haliburton, Saddiq Bey and Jae’Sean Tate.
The jump. In 2021-22 he raised his scoring to 21.3 points per game and reached his first playoffs, where Minnesota lost a first-round series. The outline of the player to come — a high-volume scorer with improving range — was already visible.
The leap: All-Star and a conference finals
The first All-Star nod. Edwards made his first All-Star team during the 2022-23 season while averaging 24.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists. Paired with Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota was building a core that could defend and score.
The breakout. The 2023-24 season was his arrival as a star. He averaged 25.9 points and 5.1 assists, earned All-NBA Second Team honors, and led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals — the franchise’s first appearance there since 2004. Minnesota fell to the Dallas Mavericks in five games, but Edwards’s playoff scoring announced him as a genuine lead option.
The franchise on his shoulders
The scoring title. With Towns traded to New York before the 2024-25 season, the offense became Edwards’s. He averaged a career-best 27.6 points and led the NBA with 320 made three-pointers, the first time he had led the league in any major category. That season he also became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 1,000 career threes.
A second conference finals. Edwards carried Minnesota back to the Western Conference Finals in 2025, where the Timberwolves again lost in five games, this time to the eventual-champion Oklahoma City Thunder of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The milestones mount. In the 2025-26 season Edwards posted 28.8 points per game across 61 games, passed 10,000 career points before his 25th birthday, and was named 2026 NBA All-Star Game MVP. He had by then overtaken Towns as the Timberwolves’ all-time leader in made three-pointers.
Paris 2024
The Olympic breakout. Edwards was part of the United States team that won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, averaging 12.8 points over six games. Playing alongside LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, he was cast as the youthful engine of the roster, and the tournament amplified his profile well beyond Minnesota.
By the numbers
| Season | GP | PPG | RPG | APG | FG% | 3P% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | 72 | 19.3 | 4.7 | 2.9 | .417 | .329 |
| 2021-22 | 72 | 21.3 | 4.8 | 3.8 | .441 | .357 |
| 2022-23 | 79 | 24.6 | 5.8 | 4.4 | .459 | .369 |
| 2023-24 | 79 | 25.9 | 5.4 | 5.1 | .461 | .357 |
| 2024-25 | 79 | 27.6 | 5.7 | 4.5 | .447 | .395 |
| 2025-26 | 61 | 28.8 | 5.0 | 3.7 | .489 | .399 |
Career totals
Ranks
- 1st Made threes, franchise history (1,314)
- 3rd Points, franchise history (10,854)
- 1st Points per game, franchise history (24.6)
Honors
- 2024 Olympic gold medalist
- 2026 NBA All-Star Game MVP
- 4× NBA All-Star (2023–2026)
- 2× All-NBA Second Team (2024, 2025)
- NBA three-point leader (2024-25)
- NBA All-Rookie First Team (2021)
Per Basketball-Reference and StatMuse, through the 2025-26 season.
The arguments
Is he the face of the NBA? As the league’s long-dominant stars aged, coverage increasingly cast Edwards as a leading candidate to become its next marketable face, citing his scoring, charisma and crossover appeal after Paris. Comparisons to a young Michael Jordan followed him through the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Skeptics counter that the title tends to follow championships, and that Edwards, for all his conference finals runs, had not yet reached an NBA Finals by the end of the 2025-26 season.
The 65-game rule. In 2025-26 Edwards appeared in 61 games, below the 65-game minimum the NBA requires for major individual awards. Sports Illustrated reported that a challenge to his eligibility was denied, ruling him out of All-NBA and award consideration that season. Supporters argued the threshold penalized a durable star over a handful of games; the league’s position was that the rule applied uniformly.
Can he carry a champion? The third debate concerns ceiling. His defenders point to rising efficiency — a career-best field-goal percentage in 2025-26 — and two deep playoff runs as evidence of a true No. 1 option. Critics note that his assist rate dipped as his scoring climbed and that both conference finals ended in five-game losses, leaving open whether a scoring-first guard can anchor a title team.
Why it matters
Anthony Edwards matters because he turned the Timberwolves from a punchline into a perennial contender and, in doing so, became a central figure in the NBA’s generational handoff. A No. 1 pick who delivered on the billing, he climbed to the top of Minnesota’s three-point and scoring charts, led the league in made threes, and won Olympic gold before turning 25. Whether he ultimately claims the “face of the NBA” mantle or a championship, the record through the 2025-26 season already reads like that of a franchise cornerstone in full.