Young star Anthony Edwards is taking every measure possible to overcome his latest NBA obstacle: double teams. According to ESPN’s Mark Jones, Edwards reached out to none other than Michael Jordan himself for advice on how to conquer the common defensive tactic.
“I was told by someone in his circle that three weeks ago [Anthony Edwards] reached out to Michael Jordan on advice on how to handle some of the double teams and traps that he’s seeing,” revealed Mark Jones. “He’s been extremely frustrated up until late.”
Anthony Edwards, 23, is one of the NBA’s top young stars and he helped lead the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals last year. But now that he’s emerged into the spotlight, teams are constantly throwing double teams his way and it was effective for a while at throwing him off his game and disrupting his confidence.
This season, despite averages of 26.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game, Edwards has struggled with his shot. He’s at just 44.0% shooting through the first 44 games and it seems the defense factor. Edwards even publicly complained about seeing double teams earlier this season.
So with the young star in desperate need of advice, he turned to Michael Jordan and it turned out to be the perfect solution. As one of the NBA’s greatest players ever, Jordan faced constant double teams every night. As he torched his opponents, Jordan was a target of aggressive tactics, including bullying from the “Bad Boy” Pistons. And yet, somehow, Michael got through them all to dominate almost every game. For his career, the 6x champion averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game on 49.7% shooting.
It’s no secret that Jordan is one of Edwards’ idols and the two have been in contact before. Of course, the two are also always in comparison to each other as two premium athletes with a killer mentality.
We don’t yet know what kind of advice Jordan gave the young Timberwolves star but it has seemingly worked to make life much easier for him on the court. Not only is he less stressed but his play has been much improved with averages of 28.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists over his last 10 games.
With Michael Jordan in his ear, it’s no surprise that Edwards has gotten hot but the hard work is only just beginning for the young shooting guard. This season, at 7th in the West, the Wolves are still 4.5 games back from the Nuggets and 1.5 games back from the 6th-seeded Clippers.
Now that Edwards is fully unlocked, the Timberwolves might have a chance to climb the standings and make a run in the West. For now, they have to take it one game at a time, beginning with their matchup on Monday, January 27th, against the Atlanta Hawks at 8:00 PM EST at Target Center. After that, the Timberwolves play the Phoenix Suns on January 29th at 9:00 PM EST before facing the Utah Jazz at Delta Center at 9:00 PM EST.
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