2026 FA/Trades/Resigns

[Lipoli390]

https://www.reddit.com/r/timberwolves/c ... _new_york/

So why is KG on the Wolves payroll? Does he do anything to help the organization? As I recall, I don’t think he even attended any of the Wolves playoff games last season. KG was a great player and remains the 2nd best player in Wolves history. But I’ve alway viewed him as a dick and a bit of a clown. He is probably the least interesting commentator among all the former NBA players. Actually, watching him is downright embarrassing much of the time.

Agreed Lip

I think they made a pretty big deal out of him attending a home game In the Denver series?

Edit:last home game, fan appreciation night.

Just some final clarification on the KG v Edwards thing. I’m not going to argue that KG was not the best player in Wolves history. He is certainly the most accomplished player to play for our team through a long completed career that included a championship in Boston and induction into the basketball hall of fame. But there is merit to the view that Edwards is the better of the two. Edwards has certainly had more team success than KG with the Wolves, including 3 playoff series wins and 2 Conference Finals appearances in his six years compared to KG’s 1 series win and 1 trip to the Conference Finals in his 14 years. Of course KG wasn’t exactly surrounded by a ton of talent when he was here thanks to a bad front office. And ultimately, KG ended up with 3 conference finals appearances and 1 championship after going to Boston. Of course, it took him 14 years to do that while Edwards has played only six seasons so far, but the bottom line is that Edwards has yet to make the finals much less win a championship. Individually, the two are very close. KG has much better rebounding stats but Edwards has better regular season and post-season scoring stats. Ultimately, there is no question that KG is the more accomplished of the two and he is certainly at least arguably “the best” of the two as well.

But when I think of the best player ever in a Wolves uniform, I think about who I would draft between the two if I had a choice knowing what we all now know about both of them. That’s a close call for me.

In my ideal imaginary world we’d have both of them playing together in their prime. I wonder how many championships we would have one with those two guys together? That would have been fun. But if I had a choice between the two I’d take Edwards because of all the things he can do on the court at an elite level. That’s how I ended up referring to Edwards as the best player ever in a Wolves uniform. But if you caught me on a day before seeing the clip of KG saying LeBron should go to Cleveland (or any day before seeing KG talking on any podcast and making me cringe) I might still say KG is the best ever. . Again, it’s very close in my view although others might disagree.

I’m just glad we’ve been lucky enough to have both players in a Wolves uniform. And I’m also glad we’ve had two competent front office regimes in the Anthony Edwards era - Rosas and Connelly. I can’t help but think about how different things would have been for KG here if the McHale/Saunders front office had kept Chauncey Billups instead of Terrell Brandon, drafted Josh Howard instead of Ebi, and/or not stupidly put the illegal Joe Smith deal in writing. KG took the Wolves out of the abyss and we should thank McHale and Flip for bringing him here. Those were great years and I’ll never forget being at the Target Center when KG stood on the table pumping his fist after we eliminated Sacramento. Great memories thanks to KG.

Unfortunately, KG hasn’t been impressive as a former player to say the least. I probably shouldn’t let that affect my judgment of his career as a player.

Regular Season Career Stats (with Timberwolves)

Statistic Kevin Garnett Anthony Edwards
Points Per Game (PPG) 19.8 24.6
Assinds Per Game (APG) 4.3 4.1
Rebounds Per Game (RPG) 11.0 5.2
Blocks Per Game (BPG) 1.6 0.6
Field Goal Percentage (FG%) 49.1% 45.3%
3-Point Percentage 28.8% 36.9%
3-Point Attempts Per Game 0.6 8.1
Free Throw Percentage (FT%) 77.9% 80.2%
Free Throw Attempts Per Game 5.0 5.5

Postseason Data Breakdown

Playoff Metric Kevin Garnett Anthony Edwards
Total Playoff Games 47 52
Playoff Series Wins (Advanced Past 1st Round) 1 (2004) 3 (2024, 2025, 2026)
Trips to the Western Conference Finals 1 (2004) 2 (2024, 2025)

Per Game Playoff Statistics Table

Playoff Statistic Kevin Garnett (47 Games) Anthony Edwards (52 Games)
Points Per Game 22.3 25.9
Assists Per Game 5.0 4.9
Rebounds Per Game 13.4 6.5
Blocks Per Game 1.9 0.8
Steals Per Game 1.3 1.5
Field Goal % 47.0% 46.1%
3-Point % 24.0% 38.1%
3-Point Attempts 0.5 7.5
Free Throw % 77.3% 81.0%
Free Throw Attempts 6.1 6.4

[AbeVigodaLive]

Interesting development on the Garnett v. Edwards discussion.

I'm going with Garnett pretty easily on this one... but Edwards still has so much more time (and development) to close the gap or even surpass him.

The craziest thing about the two is that they would be PERFECT for each other on the court. Their games (and probably temperaments) complement each other so well. Garnett didn't need a top-tier closer next to him. He just needed a serviceable and willing one to mask his greatest flaws.

Garnett remains the best (or 2nd best... Pippen) sidekick in NBA history. It just took far too long for McHale and Co. to realize it.


[Note: Some of those Wolves teams that made the playoffs were woefully short of top-end talent. Heck, they earned the #1 seed and made the WCF with Trenton Hassell and Ervin Johnson as starters. They combined to average 7.9 ppg that season.]

[Mnwild1128]

Garnetts only in game flaw was he was not a good three point shooter. In an era it did not matter so its only half detrimental on him. He even played point forward in a meaningful playoff game and won the series with lots of assists. At the time he was a top 15 offensive player in the league and a top 2 on defense. If you want to make a case Ant is top 5 on offense, i will bite, but he is not even in the top half of the league on defense if you ask me.