Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves letting it fly from deep early this season

The Wolves seem to have fully leaned into three-point volume this year.

Oct 26, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) looks on against the Toronto Raptors in the second half at Target Center. / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Three games into this season, Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves are letting it fly from deep like never before.

The Wolves made 14 of their 37 three-point attempts in Saturday's win over the Raptors, and that was actually their lowest volume of threes so far. They shot 50 of them against the Kings and 41 in the season opener against the Lakers.

That's an average of 42.7 three-point attempts, fifth-most in the league. And the approach has been justified, as the Wolves are 2-1 while making a respectable 36.7 percent of those shots from long range.

It's a notable change from last year, when the Wolves averaged 32.7 3PA per game, which ranked 23rd. It's even more noteworthy when you look at the percentage of their total field goal attempts that have come from behind the arc.

NBA's highest percentage of shot attempts being 3-pointers:

1. Boston Celtics, 56.0%
2. Minnesota Timberwolves, 50.4%
3. Golden State Warriors, 49.2%

Nothing new for the Celtics or Warriors, obviously.

But it's a big change for the Wolves, who ranked 17th last season at 38.4%.

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) October 27, 2024

Only once have the Wolves ever put up more than 40 threes a night — when they led the league in 2021-22 at 41.3. If this first week is any indication, they plan on getting back to that level this season.

Leading the charge has been Edwards, who is leading the NBA with a career-high 13.3 three-point attempts per game thus far (and making five of them, which is 37.5 percent). He talked in the preseason about how much he worked on his three-ball in the offseason, and there were signs of this when he shot 37 threes in three preseason games. With Karl-Anthony Towns gone, Ant clearly feels emboldened to put up all kinds of long-range attempts in Chris Finch's offense. His previous career high is 8.4 3PA per night.

The encouraging thing is that they aren't all pull-up shots for Edwards, who on Saturday became the youngest player ever to reach 800 career made threes. He's also getting plenty of catch-and-shoot looks within the flow of the offense, which was an intriguing preseason trend.

Anthony Edwards deep catch-and-shoot 3, assisted by Donte DiVincenzo pic.twitter.com/hl5rYkbpKN

— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) October 27, 2024

Last year, during the regular season, 34.1 percent of Edwards' shot attempts were threes. This year, it's a small sample size, but 40 of the 70 shots he's taken have been triples (57.1 percent). That's a stark change.

Donte DiVincenzo is second on the Wolves with over 8 3PA per game so far. Mike Conley is at 6, while Julius Randle and Naz Reid are both at 4.3. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaden McDaniels aren't afraid to shoot if they're open, which means almost everyone in Minnesota's main 8-man rotation — Rudy Gobert being the only exception — is a threat to launch from deep.

At first glance, it might seem surprising that the Wolves are shooting far more threes after trading Towns, who is maybe the best three-point shooting big man to ever play. But despite his efficiency, Towns was never one to attempt those shots at high volume. Generally, he settled in at around 5-6 3PA per night. With the Wolves swapping out Towns and non-shooter Kyle Anderson in the rotation for Randle and DiVincenzo this year, it actually makes plenty of sense that their volume of threes has gone up.

This just might be how NBA basketball is played in 2024-25. The defending champion Celtics, who run a full five-out offense with Al Horford at center, shot 61 threes in their season opener and are averaging a whopping 51.3 through three games.

If the Wolves are going to shoot threes at this type of volume, their offense may have some level of inconsistency based on variance. "Live by the three, die by the three," the saying goes. It'll be interesting to see if Edwards, in particular, keeps putting up 12-13 of them on nights where he starts out cold from beyond the arc. The Wolves will hope their interior scoring and top-notch defense can bail them out when the threes aren't falling.

But for the most part, Finch's team has the shooters up and down its lineup to benefit from a high-volume approach from distance, as long as they're moving the ball and getting good looks.