Ranking Timberwolves’ Most Important Players for 2026-27 Season
· Yahoo Sports
Minnesota changed the team around Anthony Edwards after a 49-win season ended in the second round, sending Julius Randle to Brooklyn and Naz Reid to Charlotte as part of the deal that brought LaMelo Ball and Josh Green to the Timberwolves.
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The new roster has more playmaking, less proven frontcourt scoring, and almost no room for its best players to miss long stretches.
Importance is not the same as pure talent, so this ranking weighs each player's production, role, health, and how difficult he would be to replace during the 2026-27 season.
The order also reflects how the offseason changed the jobs around Edwards, because losing Randle and Reid puts more pressure on the centers and wings, while adding Ball makes the starting backcourt more skilled and more dependent on shared decisions.
Edwards and Ball Lead the List
Edwards stays first, because every version of Minnesota's offense still begins with his scoring, isolation creation, and pull-up shotmaking in difficult possessions.
He averaged 28.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 61 games last season, and his chemistry with Minnesota's other guards now has to extend to Ball without taking away what makes either player dangerous.
Ball ranks second, because Minnesota paid a huge price for the lead guard who is supposed to lower Edwards' playmaking burden and make the half-court offense easier.
Ball averaged 20.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.1 assists across 72 games, and team president Tim Connelly said, "I think he’ll elevate us, and our environment will be conducive to his continued growth as well."
Defense Puts Gobert and McDaniels Next
Rudy Gobert is third, because Reid and Randle are gone, Donte DiVincenzo is out indefinitely after a ruptured Achilles tendon, and Minnesota cannot replace Gobert's rim protection or rebounding with one reserve.
He averaged 10.9 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 76 starts, while the Wolves' best defensive stretches showed what their identity can be when the guards compete and Gobert controls the paint.
Jaden McDaniels follows in fourth, and his job grows after the two power forwards who carried much of the scoring and rebounding left the roster.
His 14.8 points per game were useful, but Minnesota needs his length, wing defense, and steady outside shot even more, because Ball and Edwards need one forward who can cover difficult matchups without demanding the ball.
Dosunmu Completes the Top Five
Ayo Dosunmu takes fifth over DiVincenzo, whose talent belongs on this list but whose injury gives Dosunmu the more dependable role entering camp.
Minnesota made keeping Dosunmu an offseason priority, then re-signed him for five years and $112 million after he averaged 14.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 24 games with the Wolves.
Dosunmu can guard multiple positions, score without controlling every possession, and keep the pace moving beside Edwards or Ball, which makes him the bridge between the starting group and the bench.
Edwards sets the ceiling, Ball changes the offense, Gobert and McDaniels hold the defense together, and Dosunmu supplies the steady two-way play Minnesota needs after an offseason built on major changes, through the full season that follows.