30 NBA Players in 30 Days: Anthony Edwards
Day 18 of our NBA season countdown brings us to Minnesota to break down the upcoming season for their young superstar, Anthony Edwards. The wing out of the University of Georgia is entering his third season, where most superstars really cement their place amongst the league’s best. This past year we saw Ja Morant rise to the level we knew he could, but it was more consistent and on a nightly basis. I am for certain that Edwards will have a similar jump this season. Could he be playing in the All-Star Game this season? Could he lead the league in scoring? Could we possibly see the Timberwolves make it past the 1st Round of the playoffs? Yes, yes, and yes. The sky’s the limit for the polarizing, young athlete, and the scariest part of it all is that he is just scratching the surface.
Last year in the regular season, Edwards posted 21.3 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 3.8 APG, 44.1 FG%, 35.7 FG3%, with a sneaky 1.5 SPG. Pretty decent numbers for a 2nd year scoring wing that was the #1 pick. The real sample size that I want to focus on is his series against Memphis in the playoffs. In the close, 6-game series, Edwards put up 25.2 PPG at a 45.5% clip and 40.4% from beyond the arc. He had a special game in Game 1, scoring 36 points in Memphis, and basically taking over the game in his playoff debut. There’s this certain feeling as a sports fan that you get when you see a young star perform on the big stage for the first time. You can tell right off the bat that they are different, that they were born to play in games like those. I felt that the moment Edwards started to get hot in that game. Even though it was one series, you were able to see why he was picked 1st overall, and why he has a very bright future as an uber athletic, scoring wing with unwavering confidence in himself. He has every offensive tool in the book with a scoring mentality. It is difficult to make comparisons to the late, great Kobe Bryant, and I know it can almost pass as blasphemy to compare certain guys to Kobe, but Edwards has that “it” factor for a shooting guard that I do not think I have seen since Kobe. The “it” factor is very cliché in sports, and I know it’s used way more than it should, but I just have to use it in the case of Edwards. Now he is not cut from the same cloth as Kobe and MJ where they are the most cutthroat, hardest working guys in the world. But, just the talent and oozing confidence I see Edwards have is what reminds me of those two (mostly Kobe since I was born in ‘97). The difference between Edwards and Kobe is that Edwards has this almost “I’m too cool to try” type of attitude, yet he is still above some of his peers already in terms of what he can do on a basketball court. If you have not seen Adam Sandler’s Netflix movie Hustle, I encourage you to watch it just to see how Edwards acted in it. The funny thing about that movie is that I don’t think Edwards had to change his personality at all, and that he just showed up to film his role as himself. The ceiling for him is as high as he wants to put it.
The Timberwolves look to make a huge statement this year. With the newly acquired Rudy Gobert, it seems like Edwards and KAT are primed to be the two young stars to bring the franchise back from the NBA cemetery, with Edwards being the driving force. The team added some solid veterans to the rotation, as well as more complimentary pieces to the core stars, with Kyle Anderson, Bryn Forbes, and Austin Rivers. As polarizing as the Gobert trade was for the Timberwolves, It is difficult to deny that Edwards will still be the player that everyone should be looking out for this year. We all know what Gobert brings to the table, a huge, plotting big that brings elite rim protection, but not much else. His playing time in the playoffs will be dependent on the matchup and how the Timberwolves want to play said matchup. The Timberwolves ship will go as far as Edwards takes them, so all they have to do is be the best ship crew a captain can have.
