NBA teams are sniffing around the league’s next disgruntled star.
Anthony Edwards, the enigmatic Minnesota Timberwolves forward, could be the next significant piece to request a trade from his current team now that Giannis Antetokounmpo was dealt in a blockbuster to the Miami Heat.
Just minutes before the Antetokounmpo trade was completed, the Timberwolves traded Julius Randle and their No. 28 pick to the Nets in exchange for the No. 33 pick in a salary dump that shows Randle was a negative asset on the open market.
“My question is: What’s Ant Edwards thinking?” ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst said on the “Hoop Collective Podcast.”
“If you were to say who’s next after Giannis? We would have said Ant. And that [the Randle trade] happened at the exact same time as the Giannis trade. It’s fascinating.”
“The NBA vultures are swirling around Ant in anticipation of him potentially becoming the next superstar who’s available in the trade market,” Tim McMahon responded.
Windhorst added that Edwards has been annoyed with the team since it traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks in return for Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, who is also out with a torn Achilles.
“Ant has really been frustrated since Towns got traded, just about how he gets double-teamed,” Windhorst said. “They have to do something this offseason about addressing the Ant double-team situation, especially knowing you may not have DiVincenzo.”
Randle scored 21.1 points per game last season, though his 6.7 rebounds per game marked a career low.
Meanwhile, Towns just played a huge role in the Knicks winning their first NBA championship in 53 years — and has been a trusted complementary star for Jalen Brunson.
“I don’t think Ant was the biggest Julius Randle fan,” Windhorst said. “And I don’t think [the issue is] Randle being traded. It’s Randle being traded as part of a salary dump. I don’t think that Ant was like, ‘No, no, don’t trade Julius, never.’ Because there was some significant disconnect between those players by the end of the season.”
Windhorst added that the Timberwolves’ President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly, appears to be in the last year of his contract and that Minnesota wants to re-sign him.
The apparent provocation is that Connelly hasn’t re-upped his deal for fear that Edwards will request a trade in the near future, and Connelly does not want to be the one to trade him.
“As far as I know, Tim Connelly is in the last year of his contract. And I don’t think it’s because the Wolves don’t want to extend him,” Windhorst said. “I think the Wolves do want to extend him. So process that however you want to process that. Keep that in mind as we go forward with Ant Edwards.”
