“He’s an awful rebounder. He doesn’t box anybody out.”
OK. So it wasn’t all positive from ESPN’s Zach Lowe on his podcast talking about Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards. But the rebounding gripe is legitimately the only negative thing Lowe had to say about Edwards’ game. The rest was the equivalent of Lowe shoveling coal as fast as he could into the furnace on a locomotive.
“After watching hours of film of him on defense, I think, as early as this season, if he dials in, it’s probably premature this season but somewhere in the next 3 or 4 seasons, he’s making an all-defense team,” said Lowe, talking with longtime Timberwolves reporter Jon Krawczynski, of The Athletic.
“He’s that good defensively when he dials in. He is their best on-ball defender now. Full stop. Against pretty much any position you could imagine. Off ball is where he’s a little cavalier, a little inattentive, a little I think almost overconfident in his ability to recover in a snap because of how athletic he is. He has incredible footwork, balance, timing, strength, physicality. I think he’s making an all-defensive team sooner rather if he really commits to it. I think he can be that good.”
Arguably the most cavalier moment of Edwards’ young career is when he tried to steal an inbound pass late in the fourth quarter of Game 5 in last season’s playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies. Edwards whiffed and Ja Morant exploded to the hoop for the game-winning layup.
That play gave Memphis a 3-2 series lead and they went on to beat the Timberwolves in Game 6 in Minneapolis to advance to the second round.
While Lowe is very high on Edwards, his positive remarks are some of the very few about Edwards since he deleted a video of his homophobic comments that resulted in a $40,000 fine from the NBA. Edwards will undoubtedly address the situation when the Timberwolves report to training camp Sept. 28.
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