The Minnesota Timberwolves, facing an impending financial crunch, decided to rip the band-aid off, trading away Karl-Anthony Towns, he of the four-year, $224 million supermax extension, to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. Towns has been the face of the franchise for so long, but it has become evident over the past few years that Anthony Edwards has surpassed him in terms of importance to the team.

The Timberwolves could not have afforded to pull the trigger on a Towns trade without Edwards' emergence as one of the best players in the association. Edwards has blossomed into one of the best three-level scorers in the league, and there is plenty of confidence regarding his ability to lead the team to the promised land.

While Edwards and the Timberwolves' primary goal is to build upon last year's trip to the Western Conference Finals, the 23-year-old guard is daring to dream bigger. As tough as the competition might be, he declared that his aim is to end the 2024-25 season as the best and most impactful player in the association.

“Yeah, hell yeah, for sure, no question [that I have the game to be the MVP in the league]. And that's what I'm going for. At this point, ain't nothing else to go for. I got a great team. I got no excuses [not] to win games. Great coaching staff, great organization. Now it's on me to make it happen. I'm definitely going for it,” Edwards said in an appearance on NBA TV.

Edwards has made it clear in the past that his ultimate goal is to win a championship with the Timberwolves, so perhaps he's only alluding to individual accolades when he said that he has “nothing else to go for”. And Minnesota has, indeed, built a championship-caliber roster around him, and it's up to him now to get a historically-bad franchise over the hump.

There are a few facets of the game that Edwards has to round out before he becomes a legitimate MVP candidate. But he's only 23 years old and getting better by the day, so perhaps he takes another gigantic leap as he enters the prime years of his career.

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Timberwolves give Anthony Edwards the runway for a potential MVP campaign

The Timberwolves' decision to trade Karl-Anthony Towns away was a major show of faith in Anthony Edwards. It felt like Edwards and Towns were 1A and 1B for the team in terms of importance, but Towns' departure means that Edwards is now the team's undisputed number one option.

It will be interesting, however, to see how Edwards operates alongside the new-look frontcourt of Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert. Randle can hit some threes, but he only shot 31 percent from deep last year, and Gobert is strictly a rim-running screen-setter. Teams can suffocate Edwards' driving lanes with those two on the court.

The Timberwolves can alleviate that by bringing in Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo, two of the most explosive sharpshooters in the association. This could also allow Edwards to flourish more as a playmaker, given all the capable shooters the Timberwolves can put alongside him. Even Joe Ingles will help make Edwards' life easier.

Edwards has to improve his court vision and conditioning to become an even more impactful player for the Timberwolves, as the opportunity will be there for him to reach the next level of superstardom.