Anthony Edwards is making big strides in his fourth NBA season. Amid a particularly hot start for him and the 5-2 Timberwolves, the conversation is starting to change on where he ranks among the best players in the league. Speaking to one league scout, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon was hit with a comparison between Edwards and famed Bulls legend Michael Jordan.
“Was talking to some scouts before last night’s game, one of them said about Anthony Edwards that ‘he’s the next Michael Jordan’… He’s coming for Giannis crown as the best two-way superstar,” the scout said.
Edwards still has a long way to go before he can sniff the same air as no. 23, but he’s showing some really promising signs so far. And this season, with career highs across the board, Edwards seems to have taken another leap in his game which could put him in the conversation as one of the 10 best players in the game. If he can stay healthy and continue his upward trajectory, there will be nothing stopping him from stepping into he highest tier of superstardom.
Edwards Is On A Tear This Season
Drafted first overall in 2020, there was a sense from the very beginning that Edwards had superstar potential. As a rookie, he didn’t disappoint for Minnesota and showed amazing flashes of his shot-making and floor-spacing ability. His best stretch so far, however, has been the start to this new season. Posting a career-high 27.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game on 51% shooting, he’s playing like a bonafide All-Star this year and is showing no signs of slowing down. Comparatively, Jordan averaged 35 points per game in his fourth season, but it took him several more years before the playoff success finally came.
Most impressive with Edwards is the impact his play is having on the Timberwolves. After decades of dysfunction, Edwards is leading the franchise down a new path and he’s opening doors for them that they couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Now, with everything finally falling into place, the results are starting to reflect something of what we’d expect this team to look like given their star-studded roster.
Are Timberwolves A Legitimate Contender?
While it’s still far too early to speak with any certainty on the West standings, something feels different about this Timberwolves team. At 5-2, Minnesota leads the league in defensive efficiency and they are the only team in the NBA so far with wins over the Celtics and Denver Nuggets. Besides the breakout play of Edwards, this rise can be traced to the impact of Rudy Gobert, who is looking like a star again after a few down years.
Historically, the Timberwolves have always struggled to be taken seriously in the West and the last time they posed any real threat was during the Kevin Garnett era in the early 2000s. Needless to say, there is some hesitation to believe in their odds this year but they look better than they have in a long time and Anthony Edwards is a huge reason why. Whether he’s actually the “next Michael Jordan” or something else entirely, the Timberwolves need him at his best if they want to finally have a breakthrough in the Western Conference. So far, they should be feeling pretty good about where things are headed.
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