Anthony Edwards continues to be one of the following faces of the NBAif he is not already there. We just voted him #10 in our annual CBS Sports Top 100 NBA players list, and it will only go up from there if he continues the way he is on.
Edwards exploded with career highs across the board last season. He earned his first All-NBA selection and finished seventh in MVP voting before leading the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals — taking down Kevin Durant’s Suns and Nikola Jokic’s Nuggets along the way.
And as great as he was in the regular season, he got better in the finals, which is no small feat against the best competition in the world. He went from 25.9 PPG to 27.6 and 5.1 assists to 6.5. Meanwhile, his shooting clips went from 46% overall and 35.7% from 3 to 48% and 40%, respectively. His defense can, and does, qualify as just as dominant when he puts his foot down.
It makes you wonder what Edwards can improve on this season and in seasons to come with such a high standard set already. For that, he paid close attention to his legendary Team USA teammates during their run to Olympic gold in Paris.
At the Timberwolves’ media day on Monday, Edwards talked about Team USA’s practices as the most impactful part of the Olympic process because he got to see how some of the greatest players ever go about their business.
He marveled at the way Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry “don’t miss” in trainings. He paid particular attention to LeBron James’ pregame routine in terms of how he prepares to play at the highest level at damn near 40 years old.
But mostly, he watched Curry move without the ball, and in that one carry Edwards believes he can find easier scoring opportunities that will take his production to another level as his NBA career hits full stride.
“I think the best part about the whole thing [Olympic experience] it was the practices,” Edwards said. “I think the best thing I learned was from Steph. I took Bron’s pregame routine, but Steph just played without the ball. So like, the last few days [with the Timberwolves] we played five on five, I just cut, get out of the way, and I get easy shots. So I think I learned the most from Steph.”
This certainly isn’t the first time another player has pointed out the power of Curry’s off-ball movement — which, for all his theatrics on display on the court, has arguably become his most lethal weapon. Almost every big scorer in the league does most of his work with the ball in his hands, which Curry can do as well, but it’s a bit of a different challenge to defend a player who never stops moving.
Defenders naturally lower their guard when their man gives up the ball, and it’s in these split seconds that Curry bursts into open space, either with a cut to the basket or a move behind the 3-point line. It’s nearly impossible to cover an entire property, let alone an entire game. It’s a superpower, and it’s shocking that more players haven’t adopted this off-ball aggression.
Trae Young, in particular, needs to add this to his bag. It’s hard because great scorers are control freaks. They don’t trust someone else with the ball as much as they trust themselves, and there’s an element of knowing if you make a move that you’re going to get the ball later in the possession in an advanced position to score that motivates you to give. it up in the first place.
Curry has built such trust and anticipatory chemistry with the Warriors over the years. They are all on the same wavelength. It’s amazing that Edwards has recognized the power of moving without the ball rather than passing and standing still until you get it back, and if he consistently implements it, he’ll become even harder to defend.
But it takes commitment. The conditioning aspect cannot be overstated. These top players expend so much energy creating offense that on the rare occasion that the ball isn’t in their hands, their instinct is to take a breather, both physically and mentally. Curry goes the other way. When he gives up the ball, he hits the turbo button.
Imagine a player with Edwards’ speed and athleticism doing that, and now imagine his teammates seeing it enough that they begin to develop chemistry to anticipate cuts and go one beat in front of momentarily disoriented defenses. That’s where the easy buckets Edwards talks about come in, and the more success he has with it, the more committed he’ll be to doing it consistently. That’s when things could get really scary for Timberwolves opponents.
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