Putting on my tinfoil hat regarding Anthony Edwards

[BloopOracle]

I believe his star whistle is coming next season with Ja tanking his face of the NBA chances permanently. The NBA prefers to have the face always be a Black American born perimeter player with at least some charisma. Enter Anthony Edwards. He and De'Aaron Fox are head and shoulders above the rest of the candidates, and with Ant being younger and arguably the most charismatic player in the NBA he will be the choice. Expect him to receive those ridiculous calls Ja consistently got for merely catapulting towards his nearest defender, I will now take off my tinfoil hat and get back to work.

Thank you for reading

[AbeVigodaLive]

I don't disagree with you.

I think we already saw it a bit in the playoffs. Edwards shot a career high 15 free throws vs. Denver in Game 3.

Hopefully, learning the subtle nuances of getting calls is his #1 priority this offseason. It could be a +3 or +4 point difference every single game. That's huge. Maybe he should watch tape of Austin Reaves...





[Note: Edwards' 75.6% from the line is meh. And he was only 67.8% after the break. Yuck. He must improve once he gets there, too.]

[Lipoli390]

I don't disagree with you.

I think we already saw it a bit in the playoffs. Edwards shot a career high 15 free throws vs. Denver in Game 3.

Hopefully, learning the subtle nuances of getting calls is his #1 priority this offseason. It could be a +3 or +4 point difference every single game. That's huge. Maybe he should watch tape of Austin Reaves...


[Note: Edwards' 75.6% from the line is meh. And he was only 67.8% after the break. Yuck. He must improve once he gets there, too.]

Ant’s has a career 77.0% FT average. His highest percentage was yr. 2 when he hit 78.6% of his attempts. So he’s never been a stellar 85%+ free throw shooter. But it was a little disappointing to see his percentage dip a bit last season. The good news is that his average FT attempts jumped to 5.3 from 3.8 and 3.9 the previous two seasons. That’s a really encouraging trend. He’s a good FT shooter and I always feel confident when he’s on the line in crunch time. I think his dip to 67.8% after the break was a function of fatigue. Up to that point, Ant hadn’t missed a game while averaging 36 minutes a game, shouldering nearly all the scoring burden and also rebounding and defending at a high level.

Just glancing now at Ant’s stats last season makes me even more excited about his prospects: 24.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.6 steals, 0.7 blocks, 46% FG shooting and 37% 3-point shooting. Let’s compare those stats to a couple hall-of-fame SGs:

Here are Kobe Bryant’s stats from his 4th season. I’m comparing Kobe’s 4th season to Ant’s 3rd because Kobe Kobe was younger when he came into the League right out of high school. Kobe was 21 years old in his 4th season - the same age as Ant in his 3rd season:

Kobe (yr. 4): 22.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.6 streaks, 0.9 blocks.

Note that Kobe really took off in his 5th season, averaging 28.5 points per game. Perhaps Ant will take a similar leap forward in his 4th season.

Here are Dwayne Wade’s stats from his second season. I’m using his second season because was already 23 years old then (2 years older than Ant was last season) having played college ball for two years.

Wade (yr. 2): 24.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.6 blocks.

Bottom line is that Anthony Edwards’ statistical trajectory is right in line with two of the best SGs to every play in the NBA. From this point forward, it’s about Ant’s work ethic, drive and will to be great.

Imagine what Ant’s stat line last season would have been if he hadn’t come to camp fat and out of shape. Questions going forward is whether he learned his lesson. Note the old adage: “take care of your body and your body will take care of you.” It starts with Ant making sure his body is as finely tuned and fit as possible to maximize his performance throughout the season start to finish. We talk about the Miami Heat culture as if it’s something mysterious. Well, there’s nothing mysterious or magical about it. The Miami culture starts with accountability. And accountability in that organization starts with being in top physical condition. The Heat organization requires every player to test and hit basic physical metrics, including body fat composition. I’m still dumbfounded that the Wolves organization allowed Ant to come to camp as out of shape as he was after what Ant described as a summer of eating bad food. He’s our star and hope for the future. The Wolves organization should have had a chef and personal trainer assigned to him all summer with periodic testing to make sure he was doing the right things.

[AbeVigodaLive]

To be fair... NBA scoring is up across the board from Kobe's and Wade's eras.

Consider, Wade's 24.1 ppg was good for 9th in the league in 2005. Kobe's 22.5 ppg was good for 12th in the league in 2000.
6 NBA players scored 30+ ppg in 2023.

And we've discussed the Kobe stuff before. It's tough to compare across eras sometimes. For example, we must account for him being the ONLY high school drafted guard in the history of the NBA when comparing his early career stuff. He literally was doing things that had never been done before. He was also doing it for a veteran-led team that won 67 games and the NBA title... next to the league MVP in his prime.

All that being said... yes... we should definitely be excited about Edwards. He could evolve into a 30 ppg scorer... as soon as the 2024 season.

[Lipoli390]

To be fair... NBA scoring is up across the board from Kobe's and Wade's eras.

Consider, Wade's 24.1 ppg was good for 9th in the league in 2005. Kobe's 22.5 ppg was good for 12th in the league in 2000.
6 NBA players scored 30+ ppg in 2023.

And we've discussed the Kobe stuff before. It's tough to compare across eras sometimes. For example, we must account for him being the ONLY high school drafted guard in the history of the NBA when comparing his early career stuff. He literally was doing things that had never been done before. He was also doing it for a veteran-led team that won 67 games and the NBA title... next to the league MVP in his prime.

All that being said... yes... we should definitely be excited about Edwards. He could evolve into a 30 ppg scorer... as soon as the 2024 season.

That’s good perspective, Abe.

[Q-is-here]

Yes, tough to compare across eras. The other thing is that Ant has below average efficiency level by today's standards. So while his true shooting % might be comparable to Wade and Kobe in their early years, it's NOT comparable to the other top scorers of today. Just a few years ago, a TS% of 55 or 56% was still pretty decent. By today's standards, that's actually pretty inefficient.

As you guys mentioned, he should be able to get to the line more and he needs to start making more of his free throws when he gets there. And I agree with Bloop that I think we'll see him start getting a more generous whistle this season, so that should help.

A lot of folks are rightfully excited about Ant's upside, especially because of his playoff performance. But we need to remember that this was the second season in a row where he had a long stretch of mediocrity during the dog days of the season and it cost us some games that would have seeded us higher. Hopefully he grows out of that and dials himself in mentally and physically as he matures.

[AbeVigodaLive]

To be fair... NBA scoring is up across the board from Kobe's and Wade's eras.

Consider, Wade's 24.1 ppg was good for 9th in the league in 2005. Kobe's 22.5 ppg was good for 12th in the league in 2000.
6 NBA players scored 30+ ppg in 2023.

And we've discussed the Kobe stuff before. It's tough to compare across eras sometimes. For example, we must account for him being the ONLY high school drafted guard in the history of the NBA when comparing his early career stuff. He literally was doing things that had never been done before. He was also doing it for a veteran-led team that won 67 games and the NBA title... next to the league MVP in his prime.

All that being said... yes... we should definitely be excited about Edwards. He could evolve into a 30 ppg scorer... as soon as the 2024 season.

That’s good perspective, Abe.

For what it's worth... I was definitely NOT a fan of Kobe Bryant. I hated watching him play most of the time, and it went back to his rookie season.

[TheFuture]

I believe his star whistle is coming next season with Ja tanking his face of the NBA chances permanently. The NBA prefers to have the face always be a Black American born perimeter player with at least some charisma. Enter Anthony Edwards. He and De'Aaron Fox are head and shoulders above the rest of the candidates, and with Ant being younger and arguably the most charismatic player in the NBA he will be the choice. Expect him to receive those ridiculous calls Ja consistently got for merely catapulting towards his nearest defender, I will now take off my tinfoil hat and get back to work.

Thank you for reading

But then we remind ourselves that some people still think Minnesota is tundra all year. ANT in LA probably leads the league in FTA, in Minnesota during the regular season when only local fans are watching ... not so much.