Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards was recently tasked with building his perfect NBA player. Edwards had to pick a player in the five categories provided to him by Topps to create perfection, and he made some pretty good choices.
Handles: Kyrie Irving
Shooting: Stephen Curry
Defense: Jaden McDaniels
IQ: Chris Paul
Dunking: Zach LaVine
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Handles was the first category, and Edwards unsurprisingly wasted little time in picking Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving. Irving is widely regarded as the greatest ball-handler ever.
Even the great Allen Iverson believes Irving has the best handles. The 33-year-old is a magician with the ball in his hands, but we haven’t seen him play for a while now. Irving tore his ACL back in March 2025 and won’t be returning this season.
Much like with handles, Edwards’ pick for shooting was quite an obvious one, too. Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry is the greatest shooter of all time. There is nothing even to debate here. Curry is the all-time leader in threes made with 4,233, and is well clear of the chasing pack. Cleveland Cavaliers star James Harden is a distant second with 3,353.
Like Irving, though, Curry is currently on the sidelines as well. He has missed the Warriors’ last 18 games due to patellofemoral pain syndrome, commonly known as runner’s knee. It’s unclear when he’ll be back.
The streak of injured players ended when Edwards chose his Timberwolves teammate Jaden McDaniels for defense. That was always going to be his pick, with how highly he has always spoken about McDaniels. Most famously, Edwards brought up the forward on SiriusXM NBA Radio when asked about the Phoenix Suns acquiring Kevin Durant in 2023.
“They got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels, who can guard him,” Edwards said.
ICYMI: Anthony Edwards on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving’s trades.
“I feel like I’m just as good as anyone of those guys that got traded.”#NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/JCygAyxEDl
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) February 18, 2023
Well, McDaniels would go on to do a pretty good job defensively when the Timberwolves swept Durant’s Suns in the first round of the 2024 playoffs. He is one of the best defenders in the NBA today, but surprisingly has only made one All-Defensive team. McDaniels certainly doesn’t get the respect he deserves.
Speaking of players who didn’t get the respect they deserved, we get to Edwards’ pick for IQ: Chris Paul. We should be witnessing the final months of Paul’s retirement tour with the Los Angeles Clippers right now, but things did not go according to plan. He returned to the Clippers this past offseason, but the team then sent him home in December 2025.
Paul appeared to have rubbed people the wrong way and was eventually traded to the Toronto Raptors in February 2026. The Raptors waived him, and he subsequently announced his retirement.
While Paul’s career ended on a sour note, it doesn’t take away from the fact that he was an incredible player. He has gone down as one of the greatest floor generals of all time. Paul’s basketball IQ is off the charts, and Curry has called him one of the two smartest players he has witnessed.
The other? Well, of course, it was Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. James was probably the best pick for IQ, but Paul isn’t a bad choice either.
Lastly, we get to dunking. Fans were calling for Edwards to pick himself, but he ultimately went with Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine. LaVine famously won back-to-back dunk contests in 2015 and 2016.
You might have expected Edwards to pick Michael Jordan here. The 24-year-old is often compared to Jordan and has gotten some advice from the great man as well. Jordan has spoken glowingly about Edwards, too, and his stock seems to rise with each passing year. It is only a matter of time before he gets to the very top with the Timberwolves.
