For the past few years, the Minnesota Timberwolves have been Anthony Edwards‘ team, but that didn’t appear to be the case in their New Year’s Eve loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Late in the game, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch pulled the starters out of the contest with eight minutes left, replacing them with the bench unit, a move the franchise star, Edwards, wasn’t pleased about.
The sixth-year shooting guard threw a towel and left the bench in the fourth quarter and headed to the locker room, a move that caught the ire of his coach. After the loss, Finch called out Edwards for not staying on the sideline with the rest of the team.
“Obviously frustrated with the performance and rightfully so, but he needs to stay out on the floor and root for his team,” Finch said to reporters postgame.
Minnesota lost 126-102 to the in-flux Hawks team, in a game that was out of reach for much of the night. Edwards finished the matchup with 30 points, five rebounds, and two assists in 33 minutes, but was a -21 while on the court as his team fell to 21-13.
Timberwolves Coach Calls Out Anthony Edwards
Finch made it clear that he wasn’t happy about his franchise star leaving the rest of the team to head back to the locker room. The game already appeared out of reach, but his move to bench the starters clearly caught a nerve with the 24-year-old.
After the game, Edwards did not speak to reporters about his side of the story or the decision to leave the court early.
Back in his hometown of Atlanta and close to his alma mater, the University of Georgia, Edwards reportedly had a number of family members attending the game.
His move comes just days after the star was ejected in the Timberwolves’ overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets on Christmas Day, a game in which he had 44 points but had two technical fouls, the second coming after attempting to slap the ball out of Nikola Jokic‘s hands while he attempted to pass the ball in play after a made Minnesota bucket.
“Man, I don’t know, it be the same answers every time,” Edwards said after the Christmas ejection against the Nuggets. “I don’t know, we got to change something. I don’t know what it is.”
The Timberwolves have now lost three of their last four games to Denver, the Brooklyn Nets, and now Atlanta. They snuck in a win against the Chicago Bulls, and while Edwards’ season averages of 29.1 points (8th), five rebounds, and 3.6 assists on 49.9% shooting remain strong, Minnesota has dropped a bit in the Western Conference standings, currently sixth, and just a game and a half outside the Play-In zone.
Minnesota Injury Updates, Prevailing Concerns
Despite the recent poor stretch for the Timberwolves, they’ve been mostly healthy, and the losses have come in mostly underwhelming offensive performances.
After the defeat to the Nuggets, it was reported that Edwards had suffered a minor shoulder injury. He was initially listed as questionable for their next game against the Nets, but after suiting up and dropping 27 points, those injury concerns were quieted.
Additionally, Terrence Shannon is the latest Timberwolves player to hit the injury report. He suffered a left foot abductor hallucis strain in their loss to Brooklyn, and according to Charlie Walton of ZoneCoverage.com, he will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
But overall, the biggest concern for Minnesota heading into 2026 is its lack of a point guard. They have Mike Conley, Rob Dillingham, Bones Hyland, and Shannon in their guard depth, but none have been consistent or productive enough for Finch to trust in the playmaking role on a nightly basis.
Donte DiVincenzo has taken a bigger chunk of that role alongside Edwards in the backcourt, but throughout his career, he has never been seen as a true point guard. Interestingly enough, Julius Randle leads the team in assists, averaging 5.8 per game, with DiVincenzo behind at 4.1 per game, and no other Timberwolves player averaging more than four per contest.
Minnesota was rumored to be interested in ex-Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul, but those reports have quieted, and even if he does head North, like Conley, he isn’t at the point in his career to be a meaningful difference maker on the court. As the trade deadline approaches, the Timberwolves will likely make an effort to find another playmaker, but the market is relatively sparse, and they could have to give up some decent assets to add that missing piece.
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