After three games this season, Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves are letting the ball fly like never before.

The Wolves made 14 of their 37 three-point attempts in Saturday’s victory against the Raptorsand it was actually their lowest volume of three so far. They shot 50 against the Kings and 41 in the season opener against the Lakers.

That’s an average of 42.7 three-point attempts, the fifth-most in the league. And the approach has been justified, as the Wolves are 2-1 while making a respectable 36.7 percent of those shots from long range.

That’s a notable change from last year, when the Wolves averaged 32.7 3PA per game, which ranked 23rd. It’s even more remarkable when you look at the percentage of their total field goal attempts that come from behind the arc.

Only once have the Wolves made more than 40 threes a night — when they led the league in 2021-22 with 41.3. If this first week is any indication, they plan to get back to that level this season.

Leading the charge was Edwards, who leads the NBA with a career-high 13.3 three-point attempts per game thus far (and making five, or 37.5%). He talked during the preseason about how much he worked on his three-balls in the offseason, and there were signs of that when he shot 37 threes in three preseason games. With the departure of Karl-Anthony Towns, Ant clearly feels emboldened to launch all sorts of long-range attempts in Chris Finch’s offense. His previous career best was 8.4 3PA per night.

What’s encouraging is that it’s not all pull-up shots for Edwards, who on Saturday became the youngest player ever to reaching 800 in career is three. He also gets a lot of catch and shoot looks during the offense, which was an intriguing pre-season trend.

Last year during the regular season, 34.1 percent of Edwards’ shot attempts were threes. This year it’s a small sample size, but 40 of the 70 shots he took were triples (57.1%). It’s a radical change.

Donte DiVincenzo is second on the Wolves with over 8 3PA per game so far. Mike Conley is at 6, while Julius Randle and Naz Reid are both at 4.3. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaden McDaniels aren’t afraid to shoot if they’re open, meaning almost everyone in Minnesota’s 8-man main rotation — Rudy Gobert being the lone exception — is a threat to get. throw deep.

At first glance, it may seem surprising that the Wolves are shooting a lot more three-pointers after trading away Towns, who may be the best three-point shooting big man ever played. But despite his effectiveness, Towns has never been one to attempt those high-volume shots. Typically it settled at around 5-6 3PA per night. With the Wolves trading Towns and non-shooting Kyle Anderson into the rotation for Randle and DiVincenzo this year, it actually makes a lot of sense that their volume of threes has increased.

This may be how NBA basketball will be played in 2024-25. The defending champion Celtics, who run a five-and-out attack with Al Horford under center, have shot 61 threes in their season opener and are averaging 51.3 through three games.

If the Wolves have to shoot threes with this type of volume, their offense may exhibit some level of inconsistency based on variance. “Live in threes, die in threes,” the saying goes. It will be interesting to see if Edwards, in particular, continues to put up 12-13 on nights where he starts cold from beyond the arc. The Wolves are hoping their interior scoring and top-notch defense can bail them out when the three doesn’t fall.

But for the most part, Finch’s team has shooters up and down its roster to benefit from a high-volume approach from distance, provided they move the ball and look good.