Charles Barkley explains why Anthony Edwards has regressed this season

The Minnesota Timberwolves hosted the Boston Celtics as part of TNT’s first Thursday night doubleheader of 2025. With the Timberwolves off to a rough 17-15 start after going to the Western Conference finals last season, Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson asked Charles Barkley what he sees from Minnesota right now.

Barkley had a whole list of problems for the franchise, starting with the loss of Karl-Anthony Towns. He also took a shot at Rudy Gobert’s offense, suggesting the team had “screwed up” Naz Reid with the addition of Julius Randle, but his harshest criticism was aimed at Anthony Edwards.

“I actually think Anthony Edwards has regressed in my opinion,” Barkley said. “Because he’s become an outside shooter. He’s not aggressive like he was last year.”

“Because he takes too many threes in my opinion,” Barkley continued, while Shaquille O’Neal agreed. “Because, Ernie, when — he’s such a great player. If you guard him, you want him to shoot threes. Because if he goes to the basket, he dunks on people, he gets you in foul trouble. He gets you in the penalty. before when he shoots threes, even if he makes them…”

And do them he does. Edwards is shooting a career-high 41.5% on a career-high 9.7 attempts per game. match. He shoots a higher percentage than Steph Curry on fewer attempts per game. match. He shoots better from three than Kevin Durant with four more attempts per game. match. He shoots slightly better than Tyler Herro on exactly the same number of attempts per. game.

It doesn’t seem like that would be the problem, but considering Edwards made just 2-of-9 attempts in a 118-115 loss on Thursday, it’s hard to argue.