How much more can Anthony Edwards grow? 🤔 ‘I NEED MORE!’ – Marc J. Spears | NBA Today

How much more can Anthony Edwards grow? 🤔 ‘I NEED MORE!’ – Marc J. Spears | NBA Today

Ever since Since I was a kid, I’ve always been confident in everything I do. On to the next chapter. Here I come, baby. We lit. I’m a competitor. Whoever they say the best in the league, I want to go against them every night. [Music] With the first pick, the Minnesota Timberwolves select Anthony Edwards. I bet I’ll be A1 from day one. Edwards gets it. The electricity in this kid game off the charts. Do you feel like you have something to prove? For sure. Feel like I still got something to prove. Are you not entertained, ladies and gentlemen? Can you guys believe Anthony Edwards has already been in the league for five seasons? Well, today is his 24th birthday. Hence the music right there. So, let’s celebrate by going top of the top. The best moments from his five years in the NBA. Let’s start with this one. Top ridiculousness. This this crazy spin right here. Spin cycle for the turnaround jumper versus the Pistons. I mean, what are we even talking about? Look at this. Tumble dry low right there. Whoa. Oh my gosh. Don’t get dizzy with the spin. And then what about this? The steel and running the three-pointer to beat the third quarter horn against the Bulls. This is just what Anthony Edwards does though. presence of mind knowing the time score situation. I mean, come on. And then take a look at this. A nasty heady. Oh my gosh. Ain’t saving block. Come on. That’s against the Pacers in 2024. And you see him amped up right there. Top playground moments. The nasty heavy dribble right here. Michael Porter Jr. Oh my god. Just get out the way. Just get out the way. Oh my gosh. Those two that better be there that aren’t there yet, man. And then how about some superstar silencers? Here is Cooked AD on the perimeter. Hits the jumper. Then in the 2024 playoffs also with this one still against Memphis. That one off the glass. Two dunks I haven’t seen yet. Come on. There’s two dunks I haven’t seen yet. Oh, you still you’re still waiting for some. I got you. All right. So, this one is a superstar silencer. Oh, no. No. This one right here on AD. Hello. Oh yeah. Hello. You were there for that one. I’m there for you win over the Lakers over the years. Just a just a couple. And then look at the attitude. Look at the attitude right there also. And then how about this one? Oh my gosh. KD on Idol. Idol. Idols become rivals. That’s exactly what they say. And then what about this one right here? Got this one too. Dave, are you getting some flashbacks right now? He has a highlight on both sides of the trade. I was like both sides. Exactly. Uh and then this is the one you’ve been waiting for on Jack. Oh my god. There’s two others. Come on. I love that he has so many highlights though. Other one before we get to the one of Lakers and Mark was just waiting. Mark was just waiting for him. Is this the one you were waiting for? No. No. Not the Kavon Looney sent Kavan always on that one. He’s coming. I I I have faith in my guys. Are you waiting on the producers to pull it up? I have faith in them. Okay, here we go. There we go. That’s it. That’s it right there. Uhhuh. There’s one more. Don the Baptist during co that they better show. You know what? They didn’t show it. Mark was waiting for Mark was waiting for him with and turning 24. Here are some notable players who won their first MVP before turning 25, including Derek Rose, the youngest player to win MVP in league history. Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James also all won their first MVP before turning 25. We now bring in our reporter Dave McMenan who covered the Wolves during their playoff run. And Dave, just how much more room does Anthony Edwards have to grow when you talk about his ceiling in the NBA? Yeah, when I was covering this past playoffs, I spoke to his uh trainer and assistant coach, Chris His. And Chris told me that he worked on kind of teaching about the history of the game. We know you can score. We know how great of an athlete you are, but watch these clips of Kobe. Watch these clips of Michael Jordan. See how they read the defense when they collapse on him late in the shot clock. And we saw it pay off in the playoffs. First round against the Lakers, game five, the clincher on the road that’s the hardest game to win. Beat a team on their home court to end their season. Double team comes late, finds Mike Connley in the corner. Connley cashes it. They move on to the next round. And you know, it’s been a constant process for him though in the regular season. There was a game in December in Golden State where he goes 0 for six in crunch time. He talks to his teammates afterwards. He says, “That’s on me. I apologize. I got to be better.” And he’s trying to add the playmaking piece to the offensive repertoire. If he gets that, I mean, the sky’s is the limit. Mark, I feel like there’s so much more room for Anthony Edwards to grow, even though we’re seeing him do crazy things right now on the court. Well, first they saved that guy from the Grizzlies cuz that was the nastiest one. I heard he’s celebrating his birthday with his family. So, happy birthday to him. Uh, I do think he could be a victim of his age and and we saw that when they got eliminated. Um, Mike Connley was crushed and man’s like, “Well, we’ll be back there next year.” You can’t assume that you’re going to get to the West Finals every year. You can’t assume that you’re going to have opportunity to smell the finals every year. Um, I think for a I need to see, we keep hearing these Jordan comparisons. I need a Jordanesque attitude. He is so talented, so gifted shooting wise, athleticism, but I think he needs a sense of urgency, a kill switch. Kill him. I know it’s Anthony Edwards. We the one sounding spoiled asking more from a dude who’s 24 years old, who’s been in Western Conference Finals twice, who’s beaten LeBron, who’s beaten KD. We need more. I need more. Who’s done this more? I will say this, there are some there’s one thing I would like to see from Anthony Edwards is I want him to get the indefensible shot, the shot that nobody can stop. I think what we saw against the Thunder, he was on 23 points, had 16 points a game uh in last second last game, 19 points in the last game. They really flustered him defensively and he kind of relies on that three-point shot. He was only shooting 28% from three in that series. I want to see him do kind of what SGA does. SGA gets right to that spot that he wants and he gets a shot that you can’t defend and he knows where those spots are. I want to see Anthony Edwards sort of get to those spots and make the defense have to figure out what to do with him. Whether that’s passing out of that spot or getting to the jumper. I want to see the one move, the signature move from Anthony Edwards that’s not just dunking on somebody or shooting the three that you cannot defend anywhere on the court. And I think that’s coming. Yeah. No, I think it’s coming as well. Anthony Edwards has that confidence just like you said. He’s like, you know what, I know we lost, but we’ll be back. So, the confidence is there. The ceiling is there also for him. He’s already the Wolves all-time leader in playoff scoring and has the eighth most points by any player before turning 25. So, Ant has a case for being the best player under the age of 25. So, DDJ, I hear you have a little ranking for us. Top five players that you would start a franchise with, and I feel like it might start a couple of arguments as well. Okay. Hey, I’m going to put my GM hat on. And I want you guys to look at the list of players that we have. We have a bunch of big talent down here under the age of 25. And usually we do these lists. I know my guy Big Perk likes to start at five and build the drama up. But I’m going to start at number one because there’s not a lot of drama at the top. I think we could all agree that number one, Victor Wimyama. You are building your franchise around this dude. Uh if you have not won a defensive player of the year yet, I’m sorry. You may not win another one for your career. This dude has these on lock and when he starts winning MVPs, it is probably not going to stop for a very long time. If you are the Spurs, uh you are very happy with this guy and you are anybody you would want to build your franchise around this unicorn of a dude. This guy is somebody that at this current state of the way he plays, he can elevate you to a championship right now. We saw him last summer right around this time with France versus USA as the maybe you know one of the best guys on the court. Next Olympics he will be the best player no matter who we playing. So there’s no drama there. I’m not sure if there’s any drama really. At number two, Anthony Edwards. Another guy who, like I said, two times in the Western Conference Finals as the best player on the team, beating LeBron, beating Luca, beating KD. This is a guy that looks jordesque in the way that he plays and could be a Jordanes type of guy. You got to get your glasses. Wait, wait, hold up now. Come on, C. We going Hold on. This I know this dude better be coming up. Number two, three and four is where the drama is. This This was really tough for me to figure out. It was between your guy Ben Carro and Kade Cunningham. I was torn between I’m gonna go leaning Van Carro. You got another guy. It was It was close. I think these guys are neck andneck in terms of guys who are franchise player. Ben Carol is a guy we saw in the playoffs is when he plays the best. I think healthy last year. This Magic team could have made a lot more noise. He had to suffer from injuries. Averaged 29 points against that Boston Celtics defense. Went neck andneck with Jason Tatum right there. I think Ben Carroll is a guy this year especially we’re looking at Orlando. I think they’re a top three team in the East with him at the front. Now the guy other guy I mentioned Kade Cunningham. Okay. Guy had an allNBA year last year. This guy went against the Knicks learned a lot. I think he’s going to be better this year. Gets everybody involved. Is an absolutely dynamic player. Three and four are switchable. I think we can have those guys are right there. Now I was torn between number five. Number five Moy could be in there. He’s a great defender. could be the best player on that Cav team. We’re dropping a little drama. I told you we going to do a little drama. Scroll down the list. We got LaMelo Ball. Jayd Dub had 40 in the finals. Yeah, with the Maxi Barnes Vagner there. I’m going to go with somebody we have not seen yet who I have faith in as a dude you can build your franchise around. We’re going Cooper Flag. We’re going Cooper Flag. I think this dude has franchise player written all over him. Already a good defenser. Already top athleticism. I love what I saw in the summer league. The competitiveness, had a rough first game, came back with more than 30 points. Cooper Flag is the real deal. I know I skipped some people who’ve been in the league, but Cooper Flag as the number one option. I think you build a franchise around him. Dallas and Nico Harrison thinking they’re lucky stars. They have this dude. He could already have playoff experience this year. Come on, guys. Perfect. Mark, you can put your glasses on. I know you How you feeling about this right here? How old is SCA? over 25. I’m just saying we got two champs out here. Like, aren’t we discounting a champ? So, J Dub and Homegrren, they were close. The thing is, I’m not sure how when they’re going to be have to be the best guy in their franchise. Well, I don’t know about Cooper either, though. When’s he going to be the best guy in this franchise? I mean, yes, the X Factor. We haven’t seen him in like an NBA game yet, but I mean, I understand the logic though, DJ. I understand the logic. So, you can go through the list. Go through them all. We got them all. I ain’t going to fight you on it. You you good with it? You’re fine. You can call you can call it perfect if you want. It’s okay. You can call it perfect if you want in your humble opinion. I was with you till Kate. I’m with you on K. I guess I’m with you till K. Who might you put at five though? Who might you put at five, Dave? I got to go with the champ. So, give me Jaylen Williams. That makes sense. You know that makes sense. I’m not too bad. Maybe we give you like a A minus. A A Okay. A minus. You wanted an A+. That’s all right.

On NBA Today, Dave McMenamin, Marc J. Spears and David Dennis Jr. react to Anthony Edwards top plays for his 24th birthday and debate how much room he has to grow entering his sixth season.

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