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Anthony Edwards will have an arthroscopic procedure on his right knee Thursday and could miss up to two months, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported. The Anthony Edwards knee problem is now a contract problem too. A two-month absence would leave him short of the 65 games needed for MVP or All-NBA.
Those honors are the gateway to a supermax. Either one would have made Edwards eligible next summer for a four-year, $304 million extension, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Its first season would be 2029-30.
The NBA’s rulebook leaves him room to miss 17 games. A two-month timeline would cost him roughly 28.
A 47-point night, then surgery
The news landed a day after one of the best games of Edwards’ career. Monday’s game in Cleveland was the second night of a back-to-back, and the Wolves listed him as questionable. He then played a season-high 41 minutes and scored 47 points in a 127-125 overtime loss, according to ESPN.
It was his second 45-point game of the season. ESPN says that made him the fourth player in NBA history with two such games in his team’s first four. Through those four games he averaged 33.3 points, second in the league behind Luka Dončić’s 34.3. He added 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists on 48% shooting.
The knee was visibly bothering him. Edwards began grabbing it during Sunday’s home opener against Toronto, ESPN reported. Coach Chris Finch called it a “daily situation” but said he was not worried about a long-term issue.
The history is in the same leg. Edwards dealt with runner’s knee in his right knee last season and missed nine of Minnesota’s final 22 regular-season games. He then hyperextended his left knee in the first round of the playoffs. His 21 missed games were the most of his career, and the Wolves went 12-9 without him, ESPN said.
Minnesota hosts Golden State on Wednesday night. Edwards carried a questionable tag, but NBC Sports’ Rotoworld says the surgery news makes that moot and expects him to sit. It also cites The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski, who reported the absence could run longer than two months. The team has not announced a timeline, though KSTP reported more information would follow.
How the 65-game rule works
The rule sits in Article XXIX, Section 6 of the 2023 NBA-NBPA collective bargaining agreement. A player must play at least 65 regular-season games to be eligible for MVP, All-NBA and three other honors. The others are Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player and All-Defensive.
“Played” has a specific meaning. A game counts only if the player logs at least 20 minutes. Twice a season, a game of 15 to 19 minutes also counts.
There is one injury carve-out, and it doesn’t help Edwards. A player with 62 to 64 games can still qualify if he then suffers a “season-ending injury.” He must also have played 85% of his team’s games before it. A two-month absence in October is not season-ending.
The other route is an appeal. The CBA lets a player take an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” to an expert picked jointly by the league and union. He must show it was impracticable to play in the games he missed. He must also show he would have reached 65 by playing them, and that excluding him would be “unjust.” The agreement does not say whether a planned knee procedure would qualify.
Edwards has already lost one appeal
Edwards knows the rule well. Last season it cost him an All-NBA spot.
On April 2 the Wolves ruled him out at Detroit with a right knee injury and an illness. That left him unable to reach 65, the Associated Press reported. He had played 59 games, but only 58 counted under the minutes rule, with six left.
Two weeks later, the league and union cleared Dončić and Detroit’s Cade Cunningham under the extraordinary-circumstances clause. Dončić had missed two games for the birth of his child, and Cunningham had a collapsed lung. An arbitrator turned down Edwards’ challenge, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reported.
Justin Holland, Edwards’ business manager, said then that Edwards had “missed time for an infection.” He added that he was “a bit confused at the clemency for Cade.” Finch said the rule “feels more like a suggestion than a rule.”
The players’ union wants change. In March it said the rule “must be abolished or reformed” to “create an exception for significant injuries,” NBC Sports reported. Commissioner Adam Silver has defended it. “I think it is working,” he said, according to Front Office Sports.
Why this season decides the supermax
The supermax is formally a Designated Veteran Player Extension. Article II of the CBA sets its terms. A player who has stayed with the team that drafted him can sign one for 30% to 35% of the salary cap. He must first meet one of the “Higher Max Criteria.”
The main test is All-NBA or Defensive Player of the Year in the previous season, or in two of the last three. An MVP award in any of the last three seasons also counts.
Edwards made the All-NBA Second Team for 2024-25. He was ineligible in 2025-26.
For a 2027 extension, the three-season window would be 2024-25, 2025-26 and this season. By our reading of the CBA, that leaves him one honor short. In practice, he needs to make All-NBA or win MVP this season, and that means reaching 65 games.
Holland played down the money on Tuesday. “It’s not about individual accolades, All-NBAs, or anything like that,” he told ESPN. “It’s a single focus — winning a championship.”
The math on Minnesota’s schedule
The Wolves play 82 games. Edwards has played four, all over 20 minutes, according to his ESPN game log. He can miss 17 games and still reach 65, provided every game he plays after his return counts.
We counted forward on Minnesota’s published schedule, starting with Wednesday’s game against Golden State. The 17th missed game would be November 29 at Sacramento. The 18th, December 1 at Portland, would end his eligibility.
So Edwards would need to be back about four and a half weeks after Thursday’s procedure. That is well inside the reported two months.
A full two months would run to late December.
By then Minnesota will have played 28 games on its listed schedule. Up to two NBA Cup dates in early December could add to that. That is at least 11 more games than he can afford to miss. Even a quick return would leave no room for a rest night or an illness all season.
Thursday’s procedure should bring the first team-confirmed timeline. The date to watch after that is Dec. 1 in Portland, the first game Edwards cannot afford to miss.
Oklahoma City is working through its own long-term injuries this week. Our explainer on Jalen Williams’ broken fibula covers the Thunder’s options. Our piece on Jalen Hurts’ blood clots looks at another star’s season-ending diagnosis this fall.