Timberwolves face life without Anthony Edwards after knee surgery, starting with Golden State

The Minnesota Timberwolves started the season playing some of the best offense in the league. Now they have to keep it going without the player who drove it. Anthony Edwards is having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Thursday. According to Yahoo Sports, new imaging after Monday's loss at Cleveland showed the knee had changed for the worse. It is the same knee that bothered him through the end of last season and the playoffs.

The timeline is still uncertain. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the team hopes to have Edwards back sometime in December. Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic expects the absence to run past two months, which would put his return in January. President of basketball operations Tim Connelly said the problem is not the meniscus and called the surgery a clean-up. He told reporters the team does not expect it to cost Edwards the season and that afterward "he'll be as good as new."

The loss is a big one. Yahoo's Dan Devine noted that Edwards was second in the league in scoring behind Luka Dončić through four games, shooting 40% from three. He also had an unusually productive start alongside LaMelo Ball, and the two have connected on more baskets than any other passer-scorer pair in the NBA. Minnesota came into Wednesday with the league's fourth-ranked offense and leads the NBA in pull-up attempts and pull-up efficiency. Edwards and Ball account for most of both.

A long absence would also cost Edwards money. If he is still out at the end of December, he will have missed enough games to be ineligible for MVP and All-NBA for a second straight season, and that would affect the supermax escalators on his next contract. His camp has said winning a title matters more to him than individual awards.

The Wolves will need more from a lot of players. Devine expects Ball to return to the heavy usage of his Charlotte years, Ayo Dosunmu to move into the starting lineup, Jaden McDaniels and Jonathan Kuminga to take on bigger scoring roles, and the team to play faster. Rudy Gobert and Joan Beringer will be counted on to keep the defense near the top of the league.

What it means against Golden State

The first game without Edwards is Wednesday night at Target Center against the Golden State Warriors. Minnesota comes in at 3-1. The Wolves won by 25 at Miami, 22 at Orlando and 23 against Toronto before losing 127-125 at Cleveland, a game in which Edwards played 41 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back.

The Timberwolves are still favored at home on this site's board, which tracks 12 venues. On Novig, one of those venues, Minnesota is -156 to win outright and Golden State is +150. The spread is Wolves -3.5, priced at -111 on Novig. BetRivers has the best price on Minnesota's side at -110, a small difference. On the Warriors' side, Novig has +3.5 at +108, while Pinnacle offers an extra half-point at +4, -105. The total is 227.5 on Novig. The best under anywhere is Hard Rock Bet's 228.5 at -115. Sportsbook hold on the spread ranges from 2.4% to 5.2%, so the venues are fairly close and the differences come down to half-points and a few cents.

For the full season picture, see our Timberwolves team page.