Anthony Edwards’ heroics lift Timberwolves out of trade rumor-induced fog

TORONTO — Anthony Edwards rose to let a 3-ball fly, the kind of shot he lives for in these moments. The Minnesota Timberwolves were down one, two minutes to go in a building where they hadn’t won in 22 years.

Airball.

The Toronto Raptors crowd jeered Edwards and taunted him as he turned and headed back up the court. He raised his arm and asked them for more.

“I like when everybody in the arena is against me,” he said.

What followed was a reckoning for that boisterous fan base from a player who has turned what was once a glaring weakness into a strength too great for this league to handle. He started with a steal from RJ Barrett on the very next defensive possession, turning it into a dunk on the other end for a one-point lead. He put his hand up to the Scotiabank Arena crowd again.

More. Give me more.

Jamal Shead missed a 3 on the other end. Edwards gobbled up the rebound, chewing on this game like a lion would inhale a steak and headed back up the court for another bite. He pulled up for a 3-pointer that missed, but Julius Randle came up with the second of two clutch offensive rebounds to get Ant another crack at it.

With Brandon Ingram on him at the top of the key, Edwards took a hard dribble to the left, crossed Ingram over on his way to the right elbow, stopped, spun and dropped a turnaround jumper for a two-possession lead. Suddenly, that crowd wasn’t jeering anymore.

“I told them, ‘Keep coming,’” Edwards said. “Then I hit another shot, and they didn’t wanna boo me no more. That’s how it usually go.”

That’s how it has gone all season for Edwards, who is headed to his fourth All-Star game later this month. He has been the best clutch player in the NBA this year, entering the game with a 74.8 true shooting percentage and a 62.5 field-goal percentage when games are within five points in the final five minutes and overtime.

Edwards checked into the game with 7:04 to play in the fourth quarter on Wednesday night and the Wolves trailing by four points. He put up 13 points, hit all four of his 2-point shots, had five rebounds, three steals and one block to rescue a trade rumor-weary Wolves team. He finished with 30 points, eight rebounds, five assists and only two turnovers in the 128-126 victory, Minnesota’s first win in Toronto since 2004.

“We ain’t beat Toronto since Bruce Lee died,” Edwards crowed as he walked to the locker room. “Wake Bruce Lee’s a– up!”

It may not have been since 1973, but it sure felt like it. The Wolves trailed 72-59 at halftime and were down by 18 in the third quarter and 10 at the start of the fourth.

Bones Hyland scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds, Naz Reid had 17 points and eight boards, and Jaden McDaniels added 19 points and two blocks for the Wolves (32-20), who desperately needed some of Edwards’ trademark comic relief after spending the last week mired in the NBA trade rumor mill.

The Timberwolves remain in discussions with the Milwaukee Bucks about acquiring star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, according to team sources. President of basketball operations Tim Connelly is also looking for guard/wing depth for the bench as he looks to bolster a team that has shown it can beat anyone, and lose to anyone, anytime it takes the floor. The Wolves are in fifth place in the West, just one game back of the third seed.

“It’s hard to block out. It’s everywhere you go on your phone, you see something,” said McDaniels, one of the most prominent names mentioned in reporting on a potential trade for Antetokounmpo. “I try. I’ve been through six deadlines, and I just keep it the same way every time. Try to play as best as I can throughout the season and if something happens, it happens.”

There were certainly signs of all the gossip taking its toll. First, the 22nd-ranked Memphis Grizzlies offense hung 137 points on them on Monday. Then came the 21st-ranked Raptors, who put up 72 points in the first half on Wednesday night.

The Timberwolves have been prone to ups and downs this season, but all the trade speculation seemed to be weighing on them. Players joked about it in the locker room, but it all became real on Tuesday night when the Wolves traded Mike Conley to the Chicago Bulls as part of a three-team deal with the Detroit Pistons, setting up a decidedly weird 24 hours on the road.

It led to a somber mood at Wednesday morning’s shootaround.

“I’m still digesting it,” Rudy Gobert said at the time. “Just sitting on the bus this morning, I looked at his seat. Man, this is the business.”

The Timberwolves issued the kind of conciliatory social media post that comes when a player of Conley’s stature and impact leaves the organization. He deserves a great deal of credit for helping the team truly incorporate Gobert into its offense, which helped it evolve into a two-time Western Conference finals participant.

“Mike is vocal, but he’s not the most vocal person in the world. But even just to get on the bus, he’ll sit next to you,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “You kind of feel a calming presence. You feel kind of at ease. So that was missing. I think that was the biggest thing for me. I got on the bus today, damn this s— feels weird. That’ll take a little bit of time to get used to, the business side of things, and s– sucks.”

There were initial discussions, according to team sources, that the trade with Detroit and Chicago would be structured to allow Conley the option of returning to the Wolves when the dust settled. Collective bargaining agreement rules prevent a player from re-signing with the team that traded him, unless he is traded a second time. The Wolves appeared to be out of luck on that front when the deal with Detroit and Chicago became a three-teamer instead of two separate trades. But the Bulls then agreed to trade Conley with Coby White to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday afternoon as part of a package that brought Collin Sexton to Chicago.

That second trade opens the door for Conley to return to Minnesota if the Hornets buy him out, which is expected. But nothing is guaranteed. Conley would be free to survey the landscape and sign with another team as well.

“Hopefully we can get him back.” Edwards said. “I don’t really know how it goes, but I keep hearing he can come back, so hopefully he will. Hopefully he sees this. We want you back, Mike. He knows we miss him.”

The deal allowed the Timberwolves to save more than $20 million in luxury tax payments and dip below the first apron. They also received cash considerations, more than $1 million, and attached a 2026 pick swap, which will only convey if the Wolves pick between 20 and 31, according to a team source.

While those savings give the Wolves more flexibility in dealmaking, that was not directly related to Minnesota’s pursuit of Antetokounmpo. They remain hot on the trail of that blockbuster deal but also have to look at other options should the Bucks decide to trade him elsewhere or keep him through the rest of the season. Sources across the league started to express skepticism that the Bucks were truly willing to trade the face of their franchise, but the two-time MVP is simply too big a prize for any team in the running to let go of before the deadline passes.

The Wolves would be foolish not to explore the possibility of pairing Antetokounmpo and Edwards, two of the top six or so players in the league. The question becomes if they could do so without liquidating all their depth in the process. Without any first-round picks of their own, they likely would have to give up a good portion of their roster to acquire more picks to entice the Bucks into making a deal. That would include some combination of McDaniels, Randle, Reid and Gobert, in addition to some of their young players like Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr.

The Wolves would not want to give up all of those players. There wouldn’t be a whole lot left for Edwards and Antetokounmpo to roll with, but it remains unclear if they will even have to make that decision.

One thing was apparent in Toronto and Memphis this week: not all trade rumors are created equal. It is one thing for a team or certain players to be involved in the rumor mill. That comes with the territory. But the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes is the story in the league right now. The chatter, the reporting and the headlines with a story of this magnitude are unrelenting.

“It’s hard,” coach Chris Finch said. “Every year is a little different. A lot of it depends on the scale, the size of the possible deals that might go down. Some of them, you just can’t get away from them. You have to have a lot of empathy with the players.”

All the uncertainty appears to be affecting Randle the most. He was 5 of 14 from the field, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range, and was awful defensively against Memphis on Monday. He followed that up with a truly ugly first half in Toronto, going 4 of 12 from the field with only one rebound against the small-ball Raps and spending much of his time jogging back up the court and looking for foul calls that were not coming.

When the third quarter started, Randle threw a pass to nowhere in the half court, then didn’t run back on defense to surrender an easy layup that put the Raptors up 18 points. Finch stuck with him, and he hit a big 3 and grabbed those two boards to create four second-chance points in the closing minutes.

Several other players whose names have come up in the chatter were off their games as well. Reid missed four of his five shots in the first half after missing five of his six 3s against the Grizzlies. Gobert, who has been a Defensive Player of the Year candidate for most of the season, spent almost the entire fourth quarter in Memphis on the bench because he couldn’t contain Jaren Jackson Jr. and then was having trouble chasing around the smaller Raptors in Toronto.

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that Minnesota’s two best players for much of the night were DiVincenzo and Hyland. DiVincenzo, whose name has not been as prominent in the Antetokounmpo talks, was 5 of 9 from deep. Hyland went 4 of 7 on 3s on the first night he did not have to look over his shoulder to wonder if Conley was coming in.

“I’ve learned so much from Mike,” Hyland said. “First, just being that same energy guy every day, no matter what’s going on, coming in, being that same energy guy, not worrying about yourself, putting others before yourself.”

To the entire team’s credit, they gathered themselves over the final 18 minutes of the game to post their eighth comeback from a double-digit deficit this season.

Edwards has been at the forefront of most of them, with a newfound clarity of purpose in those moments that wasn’t there earlier in his career. After the game, he thought about all the big shots he missed over his previous five seasons, and his eyes started to twinkle.

“But those don’t count,” he said with a grin. “It’s the ones that go in that people remember. I don’t really care about the ones that I miss. I want to make them as bad as any other one, but I’m going to make more than I miss, I promise you that.”

The day began with the Wolves saying goodbye to a beloved teammate. It ended with the idea that they may be welcoming him back sooner than later as they braced for the possibility of another big move. Just another day in the NBA.