Minnesota Timberwolves: Ranking Anthony Edwards and the rest of their offseason moves

No. 1: Trading for Ed Davis

The biggest move of the whole offseason, and it’s frankly not even that close, was trading for Ed Davis.

Minnesota went into this offseason with one major whole to fill: forwards. James Johnson and Hernangomez, the two bigs on the roster at the time, are fine role players but are also players whose ceiling is that of a sixth man. Davis is a veteran who will be able to help mature the rest of the big men on the team, who are all relatively young still.

Along with strengthening the TImberwolves’ big rotation, Davis also brings some much-needed rim protection to Minnesota. Last season, Minnesota ranked 21st in opponent second-chance points (13.5), 24th in opponent points in the paint (51.2), and 20th in overall defense (111.6 DRtg).

Along with that, Minnesota allowed their opponents to shoot 62.7 percent from less than five feet and 41.6 percent from 10-16 feet out. These struggles to keep their opponents from scoring down low led to Minnesota having the sixth-worst opponent field goal percentage, allowing their opponents to shoot 47.7 percent from the field.

Over his career, Davis has averaged 6.6 rebounds, 6.3 points, 0.8 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 0.5 steals per game. However, these numbers are likely deflated by the fact that Davis has yet to have a starting role in the league, as he likely will in Minnesota.

If you only calculate Davis’ averages with years that he’s started 10 or more games, those numbers go up to 7.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 0.9 blocks, 0.8 assists, and 0.5 steals per game.

Davis’s experience and defensive prowess will go a long way towards helping Towns take that next step in his development, and he may prove to be the link that Minnesota has been missing for the past few years.