The excitement is brewing from the Minnesota Timberwolves fan base. Yes, losing the beloved Naz Reid stings, but they now possess their most dynamic backcourt in franchise history featuring Anthony Edwards and Lonzo Ball.
Obviously, Ball will take away some of the ball-handling responsibilities from Ant-Man, which should, in turn, make the Wolves' offense more potent. He will also, in all likelihood, allow Edwards to attempt a good amount more catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, a shot that Ant has thrived at throughout his career.
Ball should help allow Edward to attempt more catch-and-shoot three-pointers
Edwards is one of the game’s elite 3-point shooters. He’s already the franchise’s all-time leader in makes from beyond the arc, and he’s still just 24 years old (until August 5). Edwards led the league with 320 3-point makes in the 2024-25 season. He’s been able to make shots from deep at a very high volume despite never playing with a top-notch point guard.
Per NBA.com, Edwards led the NBA in 2025-26 by connecting on 49.6 percent of his catch-and-shot 3-point tries. The volume wasn’t all that high though as he attempted 139 total, a little less than 2.3 per game. Despite attempting the 23rd-most 3-pointers last season, Edwards somehow placed 202nd in catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts. His teammate, Donte DiVincenzo, led the NBA with 496 such attempts.
Last season, Edwards attempted far more pull-up 3s, an area where he isn't as accurate. In 363 pull-up attempts from 3-point distance, he made 35.3 percent of them. With a minimum of 75 attempts of each, the difference between Edwards’ catch-and-shoot and pull-up 3-point percentage was the third-highest in the league amongst 100 players.
Just to show you how having Ball can create more catch-and-shoot opportunities for Edwards, Kon Kneuppel attempted 493 of that variety from deep last season.
Obviously, it was difficult for Ant to attempt a lot of catch-and-shoot tries when defenses focused on him so much and having to play without a true lead guard most of the time. Ant often was forced to create his own offense, something he will need to do less with the fellow 2020 early draft pick alongside him.
In the last five seasons, Edwards has shot at least 41.1 percent in each of them when it comes to catch-and-shoot 3s. That was without a point guard of the caliber of Ball. Expect his attempts of that kind to increase immensely next season, which will only improve Minnesota’s offense.
