Minnesota Timberwolves without suspended Anthony Edwards

It only took three quarters last night for Edwards to earn his 15th and 16th technical fouls, in played 58 games played. Sixteen technical fouls leads the NBA, meaning he is obviously the first player in the league in 2024-25 to be suspended for exceeding the maximum allowed number of techs. The NBA officially handed down Ant’s discipline on Friday.

The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/F8KargiwIM

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) February 28, 2025

Most of the time, it’s great to see that Edwards’ personality manifests itself in so many raw and comical ways. That tends to generate a significant amount of buzz for him. It has helped push him towards the top of league popularity. The problem is that he also has lacked the maturity on the court.

Each of the past two seasons, Edwards has played 79 of 82 regular season games for Minnesota. He’d have to remain on the court for all of the Wolves’ final 21 games, in order to reach that mark again this season. It’s worth noting that Ant has been nursing a calf injury too.

What happened against the Lakers?

Early on in the game Anthony Edwards went after former Minnesota Timberwolves teammate Jarred Vanderbilt. A shove of the big man, earned him his first technical of the evening. Later in the game he received his second infraction and was tossed from the game.

Anthony Edwards ejected for arguing this no-call pic.twitter.com/MZ5KyjkdrY

— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) February 28, 2025

Related: Report: Timberwolves Big Man Seeking New Contract This Offseason

Anthony Edwards vs. Jarred Vanderbilt. 👀

(via @LADEig)

pic.twitter.com/8cUNp8Im08

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) February 28, 2025

The MN Timberwolves are four games above .500 and sit at 32-28 on the season. They are on the road Friday against the Utah Jazz and will be without Anthony Edwards. Due to injuries for Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert as well, the lineup will be lacking a significant amount of star power.

This season the Timberwolves have been entirely Edwards’ team. From the moment that Karl-Anthony Towns was traded to New York, there was zero question as to who the leader was going to be. He has responded with a career-high 27.3 points per game as well as a 40.5% three point percentage. On a nightly basis the offense goes through him and he has elevated his game.

If the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to make noise in the playoffs it will be because Anthony Edwards contributes on the court and remains locked in. Chris Finch needs to see that from his star, and it has to happen quickly.

Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards gets ejected vs. Lakers and throws ball into stands pic.twitter.com/jgmSd4Xs0O

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) February 28, 2025

Related: Timberwolves Sign Former Tim Connelly Draft Pick; Reward Jaylen Clark

Chris Finch on Ant's techs: "He's gotta be better, he's had too many outbursts … he's gotta be better and we've been talking to him about it so, it's on him" pic.twitter.com/LXhLPRlTE6

— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) February 28, 2025

Ryan Hartman has been suspended for ten games for roughing Tim Stützle. pic.twitter.com/hDJJQrMMIl

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 4, 2025

And this isn’t Hartman’s first time making questionable decisions on the ice involving the physical wellbeing of opponents. In fact, entering last weekend’s contest vs Ottawa, the 30-year-old former first round pick had already been suspended four previous times by the NHL.

All of that led to the fifth suspension of Hartman’s professional hockey career, a whopping 10-game penalty handed down on Tuesday, the longest in Minnesota Wild history and the lengthiest in the league this season. But that doesn’t mean Ryan Hartman has to go quietly.

Ryan Hartman appealing record-setting 10-game suspension

As previously rumored, it was announced Wednesday that Hartman is appealing his suspension, meaning his case will now be reviewed by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who rarely reduces suspensions.

The NHLPA has filed an appeal on behalf of Ryan Hartman regarding the NHL’s disciplinary decision to suspend him 10 games.

— NHLPA (@NHLPA) February 5, 2025

Really, the appeals process in the National Hockey League appears to be broken. In most cases, according to Michael Russo (The Athletic), player suspension appeals aren’t even heard until the suspensions are over, making the process completely pointless.

Related: Minnesota Wild Claim Ryan Hartman’s Buddy Off Waivers

But for the MN Wild and Hartman, an upcoming two week break for the 4 Nations Tournament makes the appeal attempt at least worth a try. Prior to his suspension, Ryan Hartman had accumulated 7 goals and 10 assists in 48 games, good for a disappointing -8 +/- on the season.

Ryan Hartman gets a 2 game sussy for this slew foot 🥾 pic.twitter.com/O3bJfyfSUX

— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) November 27, 2023

Ryan Hartman suspension comes amidst difficult Minnesota Wild news day

Coincidentally, the suspension announcement came just minutes after news broke that the president of hockey operations, Bill Guerin, had fired Dean Evason and already hired his new man, John Hynes.

Related: The Minnesota Wild Suck and Bill Guerin Has Nobody to Blame but Himself

Hartman’s suspension is not a surprise because he is a repeat offender on the list of dirty hitters. In fact, some might say it is a bit surprising he only got two games.

Ryan is one of many Wild players who are not playing up to par, especially after he signed a three-year contract extension this offseason that has him in Minnesota through 2026-27.

Why did Rudy Gobert sit out of first play-in game?

Rudy Gobert sat out of Minnesota’s first round play-in game in LA vs the Lakers, due (officially) to a team suspension after he throat-punched his teammate, Kyle Anderson, on live television in the regular season finale.

But on Thursday, Gobert admitted that it was highly unlikely he would have played, even had he not been suspended. Rudy has been dealing with back issues, which played into his poor play and helped lead to the Wolves infighting earlier in the week. Gobert said he hopes to play tomorrow and, if they had a game tonight, would warm up and give it a shot. But he didn’t seem confident

Some thoughts a few of us gathered from Rudy Gobert after #Timberwolves practice today. He confirmed what a few of us opined: He wouldn't have played Tuesday if he wasn't suspended. His back just isn't right. But it's improving daily. If OKC game was tonight, he'd try and play. pic.twitter.com/5lSI1FLfyG

— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) April 13, 2023

Reporter: ‘Would you have played Tuesday had you not been suspended?’

Gobert: “Probably not, yeah probably not. Just sitting on the plane for three hours and all that would not have helped. I don’t think I should have played the last [regular season] game. I tried to be a superhero but I couldn’t move, so. I come out there and I can’t move, I can’t be myself.”

Rudy Gobert (video above via KSTP Sports)

Hollow suspension

I was never convinced that the Minnesota Timberwolves benched Rudy Gobert strictly to send him a message. If he were healthy and could have helped them win, there is no way a suspension would have been levied. The game just carried too much importance. But, if Gobert is too hurt to travel with the team, “suspending” him is a lot easier.

What might be more interesting, is that Rudy didn’t cover for the Wolves when asked about his suspension vs injury absence vs the Lakers, instead fully volunteering that his back injury would most likely have kept him out of the contest anyway and proving how hollow the suspension really was.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

In case you missed it, benches cleared during the Minnesota Twins vs Cleveland Indians game on Friday night. Francisco Lindor just missed on a pitch he should have hit out of the ballpark and smiled at the ball in frustration. Sergio Romo took offense to that smile and justifiably retaliated. See how it all unfolded here.

How did Romo address Lindor’s ultimate disrespect? He stared REALLY hard at Lindor and followed him on his trot to first base (before eventually being thrown into the dugout by Miguel Sano). I’m not sure how, but Romo’s death stare didn’t lead to any physical or emotional injuries for anyone involved…

…unless they work in the disciplinary sector of the MLB offices. Because everyone knows that staring isn’t allowed in baseball.

Romo will not appeal. He will serve the one-game suspension tonight, per Derek Falvey.

— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) September 12, 2020

Remember the good old days, back when pro athletes actually had to do or say something harmful to get suspended? Guys used to throw bases around the infield, throw fists at each other and even…. spit on umps. People get arrested for that shit in 2020.

For the good of baseball and all of humanity, the MLBPA and Sergio Romo should have fought this suspension at all costs. We can’t make staring at people the next thing that we lose to coronavirus or the PC culture…. but it might be too late

I won’t be able to bring my kids into public places pretty soon. They stare at everyone.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

Holton Hill has been suspended an additional 4 games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. He was already suspended for 4 games earlier this offseason and is now not eligible to return until Week 9. Big hit to the Vikings cornerback depth. pic.twitter.com/pNkE3uC1oD

— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) July 23, 2019

Nope, apparently Holton Hill can’t get off of banned substances. Whatever he took last time that got him suspended, was on the NFL’s banned “Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED)” list (he refused to name the substance) and now, we haven’t even started training camp yet, and he’s been suspended for not being able to piss clean, again.

Given the verbage of this release this time around, it doesn’t seem to be PED-related…

Hill will now be held out of football activities (and approximately half of his paychecks ~ $260,000) until week 9. He just gave an interview to Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press a FREEAAAKING MONTH AGO, where he talked about being more careful with what he puts into his body…

“I’m just learning from my mistakes, knowing what you put into your body. I’m responsible for everything that goes into it. I’m taking it as a learning experience, and I’m just growing from there.”

“I have to be more educated with like pre-workouts and stuff I take.

“Just knowing that I’m not going to be here for the first four games, I still prepare myself as if I was going to be here. Everything that I put into the tank, it’s going to eventually come out, and the more work I do, it doesn’t matter when I get the opportunity, it’s going to come for sure.”

I’m not against PED’s and I’m not against certain recreational drugs…. but I am against getting caught. We’ll see if the Vikings are sick of it too, or if they are willing to wait 8 games to get Hill back in their thinning secondary.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan