If things go the way Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves currently envision, he\u2019ll be back from arthroscopic knee surgery in plenty of time for a playoff push and possibly making a run at winning an NBA championship.<\/p>\n
In other words, his injury could have been worse.<\/p>\n
Edwards is out of Minnesota’s lineup for the foreseeable future, since the long-term goal \u2014 a title \u2014 obviously is far more important than anything like the individual awards that he won’t be eligible to win this season because he’ll miss too many games. He was playing in pain. His knee was only going to keep hurting. The decision was clear and fixing it now is the smart move.<\/p>\n
At least Minnesota had that option. Oklahoma City wasn’t so fortunate in that regard; Jalen Williams’ horrific leg and ankle injuries could only be repaired by surgery that likely will be season-ending, and Thunder teammate Cason Wallace is looking at a similar long road back after shoulder surgery. Both got hurt Sunday night, creating serious early season angst for a team that was widely expected to contend for a second championship in three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a unique experience with this. It\u2019s not something you want to have a lot of experience with, but we do,\u201d Thunder general manager Sam Presti said, noting that Oklahoma City has not had the best luck in recent years when it comes to injuries. \u201cI think we\u2019ll probably lean on some of that. Then a large portion of it is we\u2019re very process-oriented. I think it keeps you humble in good times and keeps you stable when you\u2019re going through some adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n
And adversity clearly has hit Oklahoma City, Minnesota and a few other places.<\/p>\n
Toronto will be without Kawhi Leonard for at least a week, probably more, because of knee swelling. Given his injury history, any mention of \u201cLeonard\u201d and \u201cknee\u201d in the same sentence likely sends chills down the spines of Raptors fans. The good news is that the Raptors say there’s no acute left knee injury causing the problem. The bad news is, well, there’s a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the game,\u201d Toronto’s RJ Barrett said. \u201cObviously we wish everybody could play every game, but injuries are part of the game. That’s why you have a whole team. … Until he gets back, we’ve got to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlando is already down two players, with Paolo Banchero out for perhaps a month with a high ankle sprain and Jalen Suggs out with a knee issue that will sideline him for a couple of weeks \u2014 although when he got hurt, the initial fear was that it could have been something far more serious. Utah, a team that hopes to reenter the playoff chase for the first time in years, just lost center Jaren Jackson Jr. for perhaps two months with a torn knee ligament.<\/p>\n
Indiana \u2014 which didn’t have star guard Tyrese Haliburton last season because of a torn Achilles suffered in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals \u2014 is bracing for him to be limited again, at least for a while, with a left hamstring issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ll hope this hamstring thing is not a big deal or not any kind of a long-term thing,\u201d Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Wednesday during an appearance on Indianapolis radio station 107.5 FM, adding that the team has enlisted a specialist to try to figure out the next steps.<\/p>\n
All is not lost. But especially in what many believe could be very tight playoff races by season’s end, no team wants to be without its stars for too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s very early in the season,\u201d Banchero said. \u201cThere’s a lot out in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He’ll be back. So, too, will Edwards. Leonard should be playing before long. They’re fortunate compared with many; Sacramento’s Ben Simmons blew out his Achilles tendon before the season even started and will miss another year, Golden State’s Kristaps Porzingis is away from the team while dealing with a health issue and a few other players \u2014 like the Warriors’ Jimmy Butler III and the Timberwolves’ Donte DiVincenzo \u2014 are still sidelined while dealing with major injuries suffered last season.<\/p>\n
Losing Edwards is a tough blow to Minnesota. It likely will cost the Timberwolves some wins in November and December. But if it leads to wins in May and June, whatever struggles happen now surely will be deemed worthwhile.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
On Basketball analyzes the biggest topics in the NBA during the season.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
\n See AP\u2019s full NBA coverage here\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If things go the way Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves currently envision, he\u2019ll be back from arthroscopic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[160359,2724,355,99],"class_list":["post-897995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ap-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}