Every year the NBA will give birth to some dark horse teams, such as the Kings and Grizzlies in the past few years, but in the playoffs, it is difficult for them to play competitive, the biggest difference between the regular season and the playoffs is that the pace slows down and the confrontation increases, and some offensive teams in the regular season will struggle in the playoffs. There are also two super dark horse teams in the West this season, the Thunder dominate the first place in the West in the regular season, and the Timberwolves have been the first in the defensive league from the beginning of the season to the end! In the playoffs, with the Warriors, Suns, Lakers, and Clippers outgoing one after another, only two super dark horses remained, as well as the Mavericks led by the Eastern European combination. The East sees the bottom at a glance, because the Celtics will not encounter much resistance, while the situation in the West is complicated: the Timberwolves and the Nuggets grabbed seven, and the Mavericks took the lead in getting the match point in the face of the Thunder!
Jokic has won three MVPs in the last four years and successfully led the team to win the championship last season, and it is unceremonious to say that Jokic is the most dominant star in the league today, and the Nuggets are also the super favorite to win the championship. But the Nuggets exposed some obvious shortcomings in the playoffs this season, such as Murray, who beat the Lakers in the first round can be called a dimensionality reduction blow, and even sent the Lakers home with a lore; But in the second round against the Timberwolves, Murray suffered Waterloo, averaging only 15.7 points, 4.7 assists and 2.5 turnovers per game. But why were the Timberwolves able to push the Nuggets into a corner? Just because of Edwards! An easy 26-point victory, an unexpected 45-point victory! The toughest star in the playoffs, the first person in the future league!
Here are two examples. Nuggets and Timberwolves G2 battle, Timberwolves won by 26 points, why this one is listed, is because Edwards set a new historical record: in the first 16 games of his playoff career, Edwards averaged 29.8 points per game + 62.1% true shooting rate, the first player in NBA history to do this! And the Nuggets match point game G6, the Timberwolves beat the Nuggets by 45 points at their home court, and unexpectedly beat Nuggets coach Malone to surrender in the third quarter! And Edwards has a plus/minus of +43, setting a new record in the history of the Timberwolves! Edwards did what he said: I'll just say it, I'll go back to the Nuggets arena and play a tie-break, wait! In the regular season, Edwards averaged 25.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, with an effective shooting rate of 52.2%, ranking 236th in the league; With a true shooting percentage of 57.5% and 179th in the league, it looks very mediocre.
But in the playoffs, Edwards averaged 30.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, and his opponent in the first round was the Suns and the Nuggets in the second round! Key Edwards' effective shooting percentage skyrocketed to 61.3% (not counting free throws), and his true shooting percentage reached a terrifying 65.7%! To put it simply, in last year's and this year's playoffs, the league couldn't find a star who was more accurate than Edwards and scored more points than Edwards! Before Edwards, when Towns led the team, the Timberwolves only made the playoffs in the 17-18 season; After Edwards came to the Timberwolves, he reached the playoffs 3 times in 4 years in the Cruel West, and Edwards easily crossed the 30-point mark in the playoffs! This season alone, playing the Suns G4 scored 40 points to send the Suns home; Playing the Nuggets G1 with 43 points and G4 with 44 points, in Jokic's words, it's hard to stop Edwards, he's too tough.
Edwards only turned 23 in August, but he showed maturity and dominance early on the pitch that was not in keeping with his age. Another example: playing Nuggets G6, Edwards threw back to the height of Porter, then fell to the ground with a heavy back, gritted his teeth and got up, did not rest for a second, and then fought! Who else is tougher than him? Before the age of 23, Edwards had scored 40+ in the playoffs 4 times, surpassing James + Durant + Stoudemire in a row, ranking second in history, second only to Doncic's 5 times. Key: Edwards has a good chance of overtaking Doncic this season! Edwards scored 302 points in the first 10 games of the playoffs this season, which is already the third-highest in Timberwolves history, behind Garnett's 438 points and Sprewell's 357 points.
And in this season's playoffs, Edwards averaged 7.0 points per game at critical moments (the last 5 minutes, the difference was within 5 points), and the three-point shooting rate was 100%+100%+100%! Critical moment: plus/minus +7.5, the first in the league! Edwards is not far from the championship, in fact, there are only two key factors; First, Towns can't match the role of the Timberwolves' second leader, and he is still not tough enough in the playoffs, averaging 18.4 points + 51.1% + 47.7% per game with two shooting percentages, which is efficient, but cannot guarantee full output; In addition, the main control Conley is older, although Gobert is the best defensive player, he can't help Edwards on the offensive end, Edwards needs a helper too much! Second, the Timberwolves still need playoff experience, including Edwards himself, but soon!
Regardless of whether the Timberwolves are eliminated by the Nuggets or eliminated by the Nuggets to advance to the Western Conference finals, it is predictable that Edwards will be more convincing than Doncic, Alexander, Tatum and others to become the first person in the future league. After the group of legendary stars James + Durant + Curry are old, the NBA can't expect foreign players to take the lead, Tatum can't support Adou, only Edwards is left, fortunately, Edwards did not disappoint, and the future belongs to him!