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MINNEAPOLIS — Anthony Edwards received a looping entry pass from Naz Reid with just over seven minutes to play on Thursday. He took a dribble, put his shoulder into Cleveland Cavaliers wing Sam Merrill to create a little space and feathered in a 13-foot jumper to give the surging Minnesota Timberwolves a 13-point lead.
The 3,508th bucket of Edwards’ career was the definition of a milestone, because it showed how far he has come — in more ways than one.
When the jumper splashed through, it gave Edwards 10,000 points for his career. He became the third-youngest player to hit that plateau, trailing only LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and just ahead of Kobe Bryant. When it comes to the way stars ascend in the modern NBA, the company doesn’t get more exclusive than that.
James and Bryant came to the league straight from high school. Durant, who was Edwards’ favorite player growing up, had to play one season at Texas before being chosen by the Seattle SuperSonics in 2007, two years after the NBA instituted a rule requiring players to be at least one year removed from high school before they were eligible to be drafted.
James was 23 years and 59 days old when he hit 10,000 points. Durant was 24 years and 33 days old when he joined the club, and Bryant was 194 days into his 24th year when he hit the mark. After scoring his 23rd point in the game against the Cavaliers, Edwards got there at 24 years and 156 days — 38 faster than Bryant.
“I’m kind of sick that I got it from Kobe,” Edwards said after a 131-122 victory over Cleveland, the Timberwolves’ fourth straight win. “I wish I would have waited like 100 days or something. But it’s all good.”
Watch Anthony Edwards record 25 points, becoming the third youngest player to reach 10,000 career points vs. Cavaliers.
In professional sports, it is easy to be transfixed by round numbers that look good in a headline. In the grand scheme of things, what makes 10,000 points more significant than 9,993 or 10,682? But for Edwards, 10,000 is more than just a number. It is validation for a player who entered the league in 2020 with question marks surrounding his love of the game and his ability to be more than just an incredible athlete.
Now here he stands among three of the most dedicated and serious-minded basketball players of all time. He has beaten Durant and James in the playoffs. As James did with the Cavaliers and Durant did with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Edwards came to a wayward franchise and gave it direction and purpose. Like Bryant, Edwards isn’t impressed by shiny objects.
“To be honest, it’s cool,” he said after finishing with 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting. “But I know I got a lot more to go, so it’s really nothing.”
It is not just the grand company he is joining, but how he joined it that carries so much weight. His latest triumph came on a 13-foot, baseline jumper. It was born out of a crushing defeat.
10,000 career points and counting 🐜
VOTE ANT » https://t.co/PycQA58rBr pic.twitter.com/VrmayVZ2C6
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) January 9, 2026
In the summer of 2025, after a dispiriting loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals, Edwards and Wolves assistant coach Chris Hines went to work on honing his 3-point shot to combat how the Mavs packed the paint to take away his superpower — attacking the rim. Edwards went on to make more 3-pointers last season than any player in the league, unfathomable for a guy who shot just 33 percent from deep as a rookie.
Last summer, Edwards was smarting again from a 4-1 loss to the Thunder in the conference finals. The Thunder hounded him with physical defense on the perimeter, forcing him into 28 percent shooting on 3s and neutralizing all that work he put into his game. Meanwhile, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams had the perfect counters for Minnesota’s defense.
“They were cookin’ us in the midrange,” Edwards said.
All series long, SGA and Williams zagged against the zigging of modern convention that put a heavy emphasis on 3s, layups and free throws. The Wolves took those shots away, so the two Thunder stars beat them with the kinds of shots that were supposed to be extinct.
Edwards knew he needed to add the same counterpunch. If opponents were going to take away his 3-point shot and crowd the paint to limit his drives, there was only one place left to go — to the midrange, the land that KD and Kobe called home.
“That’s what it’s going to take,” he told The Athletic last summer. “They can do everything on that 3-point line. They can trap you and do all that.”
It is where Edwards has always wanted to be, but he had to earn it. He shot a putrid 39 percent from the midrange last season, worse than he shot from 3-point land. It was a highly inefficient way to try to make a living, so Edwards and Hines did what they always do — they went to work.
Head coach Chris Finch entered the season a little wary about Edwards trying to unveil another layer to his game. Finch preferred his star pupil to remain focused on 3s and layups, but the two are in their fifth full season together. A trust has been built, and Finch gave Edwards the license to explore the midrange as long as he continued to emphasize 3s and drives.
“They don’t run the fullback off tackle for 20 times a game any longer. It’s just not a super-efficient play,” Finch said. “But it’s a great accent to what the whole package is, and we need him to be the whole package.”
This season, Edwards has found the perfect mix. He is shooting a career-high 41.2 percent from 3 on 8.2 attempts per game, is converting 71 percent of his shots at the rim (way up from 64 percent last season) and is hitting 47 percent of his middies. He is getting to that shot in all different ways, including off the dribble and in the post, making it difficult for opponents to take everything away.
“Nine times out of 10 last year when the teams would trap me, I probably just have to get off of it,” Edwards said. “But now I can go to the post and play out of that. So just expanding my game.”
Jaden McDaniels has seen every one of Edwards’ 10,002 points. The two of them came in together with the Class of 2020, and McDaniels has watched his friend evolve with the times.
“Each year he gets better and he adds something to his game,” McDaniels said. “I remember he was always telling me he wanted to shoot midrange; now he doesn’t miss midrange anymore. It’s just the work he puts in. He’ll be in the gym day and night. That’s what happens when you work as hard as he does.”
Finch likes how Edwards has mixed his shots, but he is even happier with the way he is getting his teammates involved of late. The Wolves (25-13) have started to find a groove offensively over the last four games on the strength of superior ball movement and off-ball cutting, two elements that were not always present on a team that can lean heavily on isolation from Edwards and Julius Randle. Edwards draws as much attention from defenses as any player in the league, and now he’s starting to leverage it.
Minnesota had 33 assists against the Cavaliers on Thursday, including a season-high nine from Edwards. Randle had 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight dimes, McDaniels had 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting and Donte DiVincenzo went 6 of 10 from 3 on his way to 22 points.
“What I’m most pleased (with) is he’s playing a great floor game. Really is,” Finch said of Edwards. “He’s just driving it when the drive is there, getting off of it in a crowd, trusting his teammates, executing the offense, running plays, making the next pass and moving well off the ball, too.”
DDV HEAT CHECK
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/FniAPGHUCT
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) January 9, 2026
Edwards has had the ball in his hands more than ever this season, and his decision-making is improving by the week. He may be scoring at a rate that only the greatest in the game have achieved, but the Timberwolves’ chances of taking that final step hinge on his ability to help his teammates put the ball in the basket as well.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I don’t mind spacing the floor and catching and shoot and playing off the catch, just spacing around them,” he said.
As Randle did a postgame interview in front of the Target Center crowd, he was asked about playing with Edwards. A big smile creased his face.
“He’s one of one,” Randle said. “He’s the best player in the league, what can I say?”
He may not be there quite yet, but he is doing things that only legends have done. It has taken him 413 games to come this far, and he still has so much further to go.
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Jon Krawczynski is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Minnesota Timberwolves, the NBA and the Minnesota Vikings. Jon joined The Athletic after 16 years at The Associated Press, where he covered three Olympics, three NBA Finals, two Ryder Cups and the 2009 NFC Championship Game. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonKrawczynski
