As the 2020 NBA champion, Anthony Edwards is saddled with the "great mission" of reviving the Timberwolves, and his and Towns' inside and outside combinations are showing strength, coupled with Russell, who has been selected as an All-Star, to make this season's Timberwolves quite powerful. This season, the Timberwolves are ninth in the West with a record of 14 wins and 15 losses, only 0.5 wins away from the eighth place in the West, even with the Lakers who rank sixth in the West, and just recently, they also beat the Lakers by a big score. So in terms of overall strength, this season's Timberwolves have a chance to re-enter the playoffs.
Edwards, NCAA Southeastern Conference (SEC) Newcomer of the Year
From childhood, he liked football, and only in high school did he really accept basketball training, averaging 29 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists in his senior years. Entering the University of Georgia as the 5th high school student in the United States and competing in the NCAA is Edwards' story.
As a 5-star high school student, Edwards showed great personal ability in his debut at university, and in the game against West Carolina, he slashed 24 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals, and finally helped the team win 91:72. And it's also the highest score for a Georgia rookie since Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Dominic Wilkins in 1979.
Throughout his freshman season, Edwards played in 32 games, averaging 19.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.7 turnovers, shooting 40.2%, shooting 29.4% from three-point range and 77.2% from the free throw line, and finally winning the Southeast Conference (SEC) Newcomer of the Year and Woodden Award. After freshman year, Edwards gave up his college basketball qualifications, announced his participation in the NBA Draft, and was eventually selected by the Timberwolves with the 1st pick in the first round.
In the first grade, he showed great talent
Edwards is 196cm tall and weighs a terrifying 103kg, making him a proper heavy defender. As an NBA champion, Edwards became the core of the Timberwolves' outside line in his rookie season, playing 72 games this year, averaging 32.1 minutes per game, and getting 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.5 blocks, shooting 41.7%.
As an outside player, Edwards is not very efficient, but he is very popular with fans, but he has a strong ball, a variety of scoring methods, and a lot of confidence. One-arm smashing dunks, partition buckles Yuta Watanabe, big windmill dunks, stealing a dragon dunk, everything. Edwards plays like a young Westbrook, except that his outside projection is significantly better than the latter. In this era of advocating three-pointers, Edwards's mid-range shooting proportion is not large, and the offense tends to impact the inside line and the three-point projection of the outside line, and he has made 528 shots on the inside of his rookie season, and can hit 290 of them, shooting 54.9%. There were 516 shots from outside the three-point line, 169 of them shooting, or 32.9 percent.
In all the same drafts, Edwards scored the highest number of points, and was finally selected as the NBA's best rookie and won the rookie of the month three times.
Grade 2 continues to grow
After a season of experience, Edwards has played more and more freely in the NBA, and in the new season, he averaged 35.9 minutes per game, averaging 22.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals, 0.7 blocks, shooting 43.4%, shooting 3.1 three-pointers per game (7th in the league), and shooting 36% from three-point range. From the data point of view, Edwards has ushered in a lot of improvements compared to last season, especially the outside three-point shooting, the shooting rate has exceeded the league average, and in the game against the Nuggets, he has hit 10 three-pointers in a single game (10 of 14), becoming the youngest player in NBA history to hit 10+ three-pointers in a single game.
Unlike many Timberwolves stars in the past, Edwards exudes confidence and bravado, and in the game against the Warriors, he made 16 of 27, including 7 of 13 three-pointers, 48 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, and the performance pressure on Curry and Wiggins. After a brilliant performance, Edwards showed the young man's frenzy to the fullest, saying to 2-time MVP winner Curry: "I will cut 50 points." ”
Does Edwards have a giant star statue?
Judging from Edwards' performance in the past 2 seasons, he definitely has a superstar image, historical-level physical fitness, good outside projection, self-confidence, as long as the future more polished technology, can definitely become an NBA superstar, or even superstar. Speaking about his style of play, Edwards said: "I think my teammates are doing a great job, they tell me to be myself and let go and do it. If I hadn't shot, Patrick Beverley would have looked at me like crazy and the coach would have looked at me like crazy. It's only my second season, so I haven't reached my peak yet. ”
Indeed, Edwards has not yet reached the peak, he also needs to polish his skills, especially with the ball singles and initiate the blocking, as a defender, he averaged 4 singles per game this season, only 0.88 points per round, the efficiency is not high, while the average of the launch of the blocking 5.6 times per game, each round can only get 0.76 points, such efficiency is really difficult to compliment, to know Trae Young, Paul, the league's top defenders, can score more than 0.9 points per game, and good people like Mitchell can score 1.08 points, and it is clear that Hanako still has a long way to go to become a superstar.