Why Anthony Edwards Could Be Ready for an MVP Season

Anthony Edwards did not receive a single MVP vote last season, and the reason had almost nothing to do with how he played.

He scored more points per game than he ever had for the Minnesota Timberwolves, he shot the ball better than he ever had, and none of it counted, because he appeared in only 61 games and the league's 65-game rule took him off the ballot before anyone got to vote.

That is where any MVP case for this season has to start, because the talent was never the question.

Edwards turned 25 last month, and last season he averaged 28.8 points a game on 48.9 percent shooting while hitting 39.9 percent of his threes, all career highs.

He played 79 games in each of the two seasons before that and finished no lower than seventh in the MVP voting both times.

The missed games were the whole problem, a hamstring issue in October, a foot injury around the turn of the year, knee inflammation in March, and a three-minute night on Oct.

26 that counted as an absence under the rule.

The team still went 49-33, finished sixth in the West and beat Denver before losing to San Antonio in six games.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the award with 83 of the 100 first-place votes, but a healthy Edwards belongs in that conversation.

The summer was about making his life easier.

The four-team trade that became official on July 10 brought LaMelo Ball from Charlotte and sent out Naz Reid and draft picks, with Julius Randle going to Brooklyn in the same deal.

Ball is also 25, and he gave the Hornets 20.1 points and 7.1 assists in 72 games last season.

The Associated Press noted he played in only 43 percent of Charlotte's games from 2022 to 2025, so the risk is real, but somebody else now brings the ball up and Edwards gets to hunt his shot.

Tim Connelly said as much in July.

"I think he'll elevate us, and our environment will be conducive to his continued growth as well," Connelly said.

The projected starting five puts Ball and Edwards next to Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga and Rudy Gobert, and a look at how that group measures up shows Edwards, at 6-foot-4, would be the shortest starter.

Kuminga signed a two-year deal the team announced on Friday, and he gives Chris Finch more options up front.

Trey Lyles is back from a season with Real Madrid on a one-year deal, while Donte DiVincenzo is still working back from the torn Achilles he suffered in the Denver series, with no timeline from the team yet.

The case comes down to games played, because Edwards cleared 65 in every season of his career except the last one.

If Ball stays on the floor and takes the playmaking load, the way the rotation is set up gives Edwards more size and shooting around him than ever.

Passing Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama means winning a good deal more than 49 games, but a 30-point season on a top-two team in the West would put him in the middle of the vote.