David Levine
Posts: 76611
Joined: 7/14/2007
From: Las Vegas
Status: offline
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Lowe's 10 things: LA and Miami at the deadline, Philly's quiet dominance and what's alarming in Golden State 2. So is Anthony Edwards Edwards' past 18 games: 25.5 points on 45.5% shooting, six rebounds, and five assists. Minnesota has needed all of that; it's 13-13 with Karl-Anthony Towns out. Several key players have missed games in that stretch. Edwards has missed none. He leads the league in minutes. Since Towns' injury, the Wolves are plus-2.4 per 100 possessions with Edwards on the floor -- and minus-8 without him. He's been more diligent on the glass -- almost no one on the Wolves boxes out -- and in tracking shooters off the ball. His one-on-one defense is airtight when he dials in. On offense, Edwards is adding craft to his power game. He's changing pace, slowing down to keep help defenders guessing until they expose something in their indecision: https://media.video-cdn.espn.com/gifs/mp4/dm_20230117_Ant_1_2gif.mp4 Edwards freezes the defense until he sees the pass he wants. (He has become really good at corner-to-corner passes when he spots up there instead of initiating. Minnesota has several guys who can orchestrate, including -- for now -- D'Angelo Russell. Part of Edwards' playmaking growth is being an active catch-and-go threat off the ball.) https://media.video-cdn.espn.com/gifs/mp4/dm_20230117_ant_2_2gif.mp4 Edwards slithers around that pick with a languid lefty dribble before snaking back to his right and pausing with a live bounce. Caris LeVert is on the back foot, unsure. He lurches at the ball right as Edwards accelerates into a crossover. Edwards slips into his more predictable comfort zone -- ball-pounding isolations, bonked long 2s, wayward drives, sloppy passes. Development is rarely linear. There is no sudden mega-leap -- no "before" and "after" point of demarcation. There is a gradual rebalancing -- a little more of the best stuff every week, every month. Edwards has even added a bruising post game against switches -- something he promised in the preseason, key for punishing switches on the pick-and-roll. Edwards has 22 post touches, already a career high, per Second Spectrum. Minnesota has scored an absurd 1.6 points per possession on those plays. The Gobert era has been a huge disappointment, but the Wolves are hanging in the play-in despite Towns' absence -- with Edwards trending up. https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/35485221/la-miami-deadline-philly-quiet-dominance-alarming-golden-state
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