Like MJ and Kobe, Anthony Edwards evolves beyond hero-box
Will Anthony Edwards guide the Timberwolves to the NBA championship this season? Let’s examine the evolution of ant.
Two days later of which Anthony Edwards He called the “most important game” of his career, in which he assured a victory against the Golden State Warriors to avoid a 2-0 hole at the Semifinal West Conference, the star of the Minnesota Timberwolves Again he found his team in another fight away from home for game 3.
With “Playoff Jimmy” Butler III fully compromised, returning to the main scorer role he had dominated in Miami, Edwards – the fourth best scorer of the league in the regular season – began to take off. Butler scored 18 points in the first half, guiding his team, without Stephen Curry, to a two -point advantage at part time.
Edwards, meanwhile, had scored only eight points in the first half, with 3 of 12 shots, including 1 of 6 in triples. The Wolves had been surpassed by 11 points during their 20 minutes on the court.
But then, as so many ago, the 23-year-old All-Star went out to a clean shot, his supreme ability and elite athletics often even leaving an 18-year-old veteran as the Wolves shipping base, Mike Conley, amazed.
“There are moments when I go home, I feel there and (I think) that I could be, now at this time, (in the midst of) being a teammate of one of the best players who ever played this sport,” Conley told AM850.
Edwards not only scored points – 28 only in the second half – he did it with style. His second half moves were a reminder of why the chiseled escort of 1.93 meters (6 feet 4 inches) and 102 kilos (225 pounds) has already evoked Comparisons to Michael Jordan.
His dive was, with his team below five points late in the third quarter, when he shot from the semicircle just inside the free throw line and ended with a right hammer that reduced the 2.09 meters (6 feet 9-inch feet) of the Warriors, Kevon Looney, equivalent in the basketball of an insect from an insect crushed in a windshield.
And his triple was, with his team below six points early in the last quarter, when the Warriors escort, Brandin Podziemski, refused to give him space, so Edwards simply created it, taking a step back and reaching the maximum point of his jump before letting his shot in suspension.
And then his most critical play was perhaps.
In the left wing, Edwards was triple marked by Butler, Looney and Podziemski. Given his obvious offensive rhythm, he would not have surprised anyone to see him rise and shoot the trio.
Instead, he made a pass to a Julius Randle open at the top of the key with the ball then oscillated to the right wing to get a clean look at Jaden McDaniels for a triple to put Minnesota up for six points by subtracting 3:20. Golden State never approached more than four after that.
No official statistics were associated with Edwards play. Randle was given credit for assistance. But the sequence was a tangible example of the real -time evolution of Edwards as a total threat, with its decision -making that was fuel for the improbable radical turn of the Wolves of being one of the least reliable teams of the NBA in clutch time to one of the best.
Minnesota has registered a 4-0 record in games with clutch time this postseason, surpassing its opponents for 45-16 in those minutes, according to AM850 Research.
Edwards has 15 points in 4 of 7 shots in its 14 minutes Clutch in the postseason, and has strengthened that effort with five assists and no ball loss – the greatest number of assists without a loss of ball in clutch time by any player in the 2025 playoffs.
“My physical trainer (Chris) Hines always tells me, ‘Michael Jordan had Steve Kerr’, Edwards told AM850. “He always tells things like that. So, it’s about being able to trust my teammates.”
But as a natural one looks for Edwards now, it has been a process of the whole season to make it get there.
Five months ago, Edwards entered the stub on the second night of a two -game series at the Chase Center against the Golden State Warriors. The Wolves lost 114-106, worsening their seasonal record to 12-11-and Edwards was a main reason for why.
After putting them in the game with their shots in the third quarter, scoring 15 points with 6 of 8 in shots and scoring a triple advantage with 4:47 for playing in the room, he proceeded to take out his team with his shots. In the decisive time, he triggered 0 of 6 and a loss. The Warriors closed on a 9-0 streak.
The Wolves have seen this before.
“In the last five minutes, he just wanted to write down, write down, write down because he wanted to prove that the Warriors he could knock them out,” said Minnesota coach Chris Finch, Espn. “He came to the team later and apologized. He said: It was my fault. ‘As he stopped creating for everyone in the final stretch.”
What exacerbated Finch’s frustration was the fact that only two days before, the Wolves had defeated the Warriors easily, with Edwards scoring 30 points and distributing nine assists.
“He played an amazing game,” said Finch.
Hines remembers that defeat – and the lessons derived from it.
“He is the child who tells him not to eat chocolate and has chocolate on his face,” Hins told AM850. “And you say, ‘Hey friend, did you just eat chocolate?’ He says, ‘No’. That is him. “
Even so, as blatantly poor as his execution was late in the games, his teammates gravitated him.
“That was part of our growth as a team,” Randle told AM850. “And it was not really for him. He said, ‘to the devil, I will try to guide the team to the victory for pure will.’ He is the consummated competitor. But he could recognize, ‘he hears man, I must improve.’ He simply is Ant. He does not hesitate to assume the fault – and obviously he will receive praise – but he constantly wants to improve.”
Hines says he knows that Edwards looks at himself as an alpha and gravita towards murderous competitors like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. But Jordan’s six championships came before Edwards was born. And his birthday was two months after Bryant’s second title with Los Angeles. Then Hines still educate Edwards about his games, beyond the wining mates and shots that still fill social networks
“Jordan had Steve Kerr,” said Hines. “He had (John) Paxson,” LeBron (James) had Boobie Gibson sometimes. Type that actually achieved these shots, timely shots. The (Robert) Horry and others, throughout the history of the game. And if he does not study such things, then he will continue to collide his head against a brick wall.
“So it has been a good transition for him to see. We see Kobe clips when he connects with Rick Fox (with a pass). Ant says, ‘Who is Rick Fox?’ He had no idea who Rick Fox is. But he sees who scores the shot.
Edwards acknowledges that he has had difficulty evolving beyond his “Hero-Ball” trends, or heroic game.
“My first couple of times in the playoffs in the final stretch, I always wanted to win the game myself,” Edwards said. “Because growing, when you look at the games, you always think, ‘Oh, they always find the important shots!’ But sometimes they make the extra pass, the right play. “
But as much That he still strives to match the afternoon heroism in the games of Jordan and Bryant, has a mark of 0 of 15 (0 of 10 in triples) in his regular season. Race in binding or forward shots in the last 10 seconds of the four overtime or hours, depending on AM850 Research. Included in the playoffs, it has a mark of 1 of 18.
This season, Minnesota fell to a 20-26 record in at odds-the second largest total of clutch time defeats in the league-and Edwards was a main factor. It was 7-0 in those draws of draw or advantage-the maximum number of this type of attempts without a success in the league this season and tied for maximum without success in the last five seasons.
The coaches and teammates of Edwards do not seek to deactivate what motivates him to desire to dominate, they say. It is a change of direction, another dimension, while it also always provides him with all the defensive coverage that he is destined to see.
He is learning.
“That is the balance with which he has been having to deal with because he is a type of let’s go, come on,” “And we say all the time, we want it to be aggressive to score. Do not think of us as, ‘Oh, let me try to send the ball to Mike’. I think that is when he decreases the speed a little, when he says, ‘Oh, I just need to pass it.’ He becomes just a pin.
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“So it is fair about getting him to understand, stay in an aggressor mode, be aggressive all the time, but while you are doing that, can you process it? Can you pick up when you see someone at the last minute that comes to help, you know where your departure is? I think that’s where it is coming.”
It is not intuitive yet. “Every three possessions. I’m going to shoot one of three,” Edwards said. “Especially in the final stretch.”
The metronome in his mind reminds him: he passes, passes, pulls. Or pull, pass, pass. Or pass, pull, pass. He has been motivated to El Ball too, because he has worked to optimize his shots in trapa-y-tir jump. Playing as The proverbial Kerr, not just passing him to him.
He caught that last summer, when he was trained by Kerr at the Olympic Games and formed a team with Curry, James and his idol, Kevin Durant.
“KD told me to be able to catch and shoot the ball will be the biggest for me,” Edwards said.
Sometimes it is the messenger, and not the message.
“We have been trying to get him to do that for a number of years because the figures were so good,” said Finch. “He was a trapa-and-my trap so good, but he had always played with his rhythm with the ball in his hands, he tried to generate his own shot from dribble. So I think he felt a little uncomfortable, he even had great success.”
His success in Paris last summer, winning a gold medal, changed it for better, according to his teammates.
“He talks about Team uses more than he has talked about anything. And he speaks a lot,” Conley said. “I think he opened a new world for him.”
At the same time, he only fortified his worldview. “(That) put it in an area of, ‘Look, they are the same as me. Caramba, (actually) I am better’ in his head,” said Hines.
While his evolution continues, Edwards has guided the Wolves to his second consecutive conference finals. He attended Conley in a triple with 1:22 for playing in game 5 of the first round to leave the Lakers outside; But it is still the one that scored 16 of its 30 points in the third quarter of game 4 of the second round to give the Wolves a 3-1 advantage over the Warriors.
And the Wolves believe that it can be the player who will finally guide their first championship in the 36 years of franchise history.
“I’ve been close to many excellent players. He has so much in his self -confidence as … it’s to the Kobe’s. And I was close to Kobe,” Randle told AM850.
“He is not afraid of any time and yearns for those moments. His belief and confidence in who is as a player are the highest I have seen, in anyone.”
As Edwards has learned to trust teammates around him, they have promised to trust him as well.
“We preach to him:” Make the right play, make the right play, “said Finch.” Ant once told me: ‘Maybe I am the right play.’
“And he is not wrong.”
