Any Anthony Edwards MVP talk in recent years has always felt a little facetious.
One of the 10 best players in basketball? Absolutely. But MVPs tend to collect counting stats like candy while posting dominant net ratings.
Last season, Edwards averaged 28.8 points per game, but his net rating was just 3.5 points per 100 possessions, he averaged five rebounds and 3.7 assists and his defense slipped while he attempted to navigate handling point guard duties.
He didn’t play in enough games to qualify for award voting, but even first-team All-NBA may have been difficult to reach.
MVP? That is a different stratosphere — one that looks like the level he played at Wednesday night in Miami.
In Minnesota’s season-opening win over the Heat, Edwards poured in 45 points — on the strength of nine made triples — to go with 10 rebounds and a dominant defensive display.
Minnesota won Edwards’ 32 minutes by 25 points.
The sharpshooting was familiar to all who’ve watched Edwards ascend to become one of, and probably the, best jumpshooter in basketball in recent years. He shot 55% from the field, 14 percentage points higher than his expected number based on where his shots came from.
But everything else about the performance was different. The points came easy. While sharing the floor with offseason acquistion LaMelo Ball, Edwards was able to get easier shots both off Ball’s creation and his gravity.
Edwards was efficient across the board, but he went 5 for 7 from distance specifically when sharing the floor with his point guard. There’s simply more space in which Edwards can operate now that he’s flanked by another high-level scorer and creater.
And if an opposing defense ever picks any option other than selling out to stop Edwards, it will pay accordingly.
But the scoring is merely half the equation. Edwards scored 41 points in last year’s season opener. He finished the year third in points per game (28.8).
What stood out Wednesday was everything else. The 25 year old was active in every facet of the game. His defensive was disruptive. Both of his steals led to easy transition buckets. He helped set the tone for a Timberwolves’ defense that lived in passing lanes all evening, forcing 19 Heat turnovers that led to 31 Minnesota points.
Coming off a year in which he nabbed double-digit rebounds in only two regular season games, Edwards collected 10 on Wednesday. His postseason performances (he had two in the playoffs alone in the spring) are reminders that he’s more than capable of contributing on the glass.
But his mind has to be on it. And, in Miami, his mind was seemingly on everything. Edwards was locked in. He impacted every phase of the game in a way in which only he can. The Heat didn’t look like they belonged on the same floor as the Wolves, and it was largely because they had zero answers for No. 5.
Edwards dominated with his motor consistently revved to levels he often reserves for the postseason and the occasional performance aganist a marquee opponent.
Perhaps that’s what Wednesday was — a nationally-televised season opener against one of the league’s top-five players could have been enough to get Edwards’ juices flowing for one night in October.
But if it was a sign of things to come? What if that version of Edwards takes the floor again Friday in Orlando?
Minnesota hoped Ball’s ability to lighten Edwards’ offensive burden would free the superstar up to exert himself more forcefully elsewhere. One game in, the plan is playing out to perfection.
If Wednesday’s performance was the new status quo for Minnesota’s best player, Edwards could soon catapult himself, and his team, into *legitimate* conversations to lift valuable hardware — in terms of dollars and legacy — by season’s end.
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