Before he even takes step onto the NBA hardwood, the public perception around Anthony Edwards seems to have already been cemented. Many have found it easy to disregard the tantalizing talents that has the young Bulldog as a near-certainty to go within the first three picks on draft night, focusing instead on the mid-range clanks, the inconsistent motor, the lack of effort defensively and the ever-frustrating habit of not playing to his strengths.
Sound like some familiar? Perhaps a certain high-jumping, braid-rocking Canadian who may or may not have spent the better part of a decade in Minneapolis?
After watching Andrew Wiggins and his on-court capers rise and fall so dramatically and so often, Minnesota Timberwolves fans have been especially scorned by potential-laden prospects whose endeavor and “want-to” leave something to be desired. The bone-chilling thud of mid-range jumpers on rim has been etched into the minds of Wolves fans for a long time, and it’s understandable to want to put that player archetype out of sight and out of mind now that Wiggins’ peaks and valleys now reside in San Francisco.
Make no mistake, those similarities are real. Like Wiggins, Edwards has serious problems with shot selection, namely his nasty habit of settling for long 2-pointers, instead of using the overwhelming athleticism he possesses to get easy shots at the rim. When you see Edwards dozing off on defense, those alarm bells start ringing again. While he has shown flashes of on-ball defensive prowess, the 18-year-old is caught ball-watching or flat-out daydreaming far too often as an off-ball defender.
Of course, a Wiggins apologist could comfortably apply wallpaper over the cracks of the former Jayhawk’s game by citing his scoring numbers. On the surface, averaging 19.7 points per game on 44.1 percent shooting on a plethora of subpar teams is far from a bad NBA player’s output, and the same could be said for Edwards. The Georgia product averaged 19.1 points himself, although his 40.2 percent shooting clip leaves a little more to be desired.
Looking deeper, even their collegiate Synergy numbers line up to be eerily similar. In their lone freshman season, both were involved primarily as ball-handlers in pick-and-roll, transition, isolation and spot-up plays. Here’s how those numbers stack up against each other:
Andrew Wiggins
Anthony Edwards
So what gives? Why would Edwards be touted so highly when NBA front offices have witnessed the careers of talents like Wiggins and plenty more before him crater right before their eyes? Well, while there are quite a few comparisons, there are also some extremely important differences. Differences that, if fostered correctly, could see the trajectory of Edwards’ career go a very different way than the aforementioned Maple Jordan.
Strength
If there was one thing outside of Andrew Wiggins actual basketball abilities that fans constantly lamented, it was his perceived inability to put on muscle and become something more than the skinny kid that arrived out of Kansas back in 2014. While he has certainly improved his physique, Wiggins never put on enough mass to truly make a difference with his overall game.
Even without strength on his side, Wiggins is supremely talented as a finisher around the rim. The eye-popping bounce and ability to finish around or through contact has translated well from his days as a high school phenom. However, being unable to hold his ground against stronger wings or as a rotation defender on bigs has consistently plagued him.
Combine that with his complete powerlessness when fighting through screens and his complete nonchalance as a team defender and you can see why only 59 of the 516 players in the Wins Added Player Impact Plus/Minus system had a worse Defensive Player Impact Plus/Minus than the Golden State Warriors wing.
It’s no secret that Edwards has similar problems with defensive consistency. This off-ball snoozefest is hardly an aberration. The intention behind digging in hard to help stifle Kentucky’s Tyrese Maxey is lined in good intentions, but the total lack of awareness afterward results in an open triple for his man Immanuel Quickley, who shot 42.8 percent on almost five 3-pointers a game last season.
And, while Edwards has his technique and positioning issues on defense as well, his outlier strength is something that Wiggins hasn’t and maybe will never have. At 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds with elite burst and lateral movement, Edwards is already built like a seasoned veteran. He will immediately be able to hold his own against any wing and even some bigs, giving him an instant advantage over Wiggins and a real shot to eventually make himself a presence defensively.
On the offensive end of the floor, that strength gives him a bulldozing advantage that Wiggins simply doesn’t possess. Plays that require physical prowess, like the one you see below, occur far more often with Edwards compared to Wiggins.
His shot selection prevents it from happening as often as it should, but it’s easy to see how Edwards’ huge size and crazy athleticism for an 18-year-old will lend itself to productivity around the rim.
If an NBA training staff can harness and further Edwards’ already advanced physical profile and teach him to use it in the right ways, he could be a super-impressive specimen. Unfortunately, even despite athleticism that saw him dubbed “Maple Jordan,” that’s a claim Andrew Wiggins could never truly embrace.
Ball-Handling
He may be far away in the Bay Area, but the shuttering memory is still there, clear as ever. Your eyes widen with anticipation as Andrew Wiggins sees the lane open up before him. Could the rim-protector be in store for one of those few-and-far-between baptisms? At worse it’s going to be a swooping hoop with a foul to boot, right?
Then, it happens ... again. Instead of bringing you to your feet, your head hangs in frustration as the ball dislodges from number 22’s grasp, almost like an invisible Robert Covington worked his dark magic in the driving lane. I know you don’t need a visual reminder, but have one anyway:
Regrettably, no amount of leaping ability or acceleration can make a player a better ball-handler, and that was certainly the case with Wiggins. Even when it looked like he had turned the corner and his handle had become lower and tighter, it wouldn’t last. Eventually, his ball-pounding would always end up above hip height and result in far too many turnovers.
This might be the biggest point of difference that Anthony Edwards possesses. Of course, his ball-handling is far from perfect, but it is about as polished as one would hope from an 18-year-old off-guard or wing. When faced with that triggering open lane scenario that has bedeviled Wiggins for the entirety of his career, Edwards is far more likely to string together a nifty dribble move and finish with aplomb.
Like here, where he obliterates the pick-and-roll defense with a double in-and-out move followed by a lightning quick crossover, before finishing with a hop-step layup.
Edwards has flashed a varied bag of ways to free himself from a defender using his advanced ball-handling techniques. Unlike Wiggins, it figures to be a strength of his from the moment he arrives in the league.
While it seems like a basic move, his favorite in-and-out dribble does enough to freeze defenders and force them onto his heels for the split second he needs to inflict his punishment. In broken floor situations, this is especially devastating. This quick and decisive change of directions often leaves defenders frozen in place, opening up an easy lane for the former Bulldog.
Like Wiggins, the concerns about Edwards’ shot selection shouldn’t be glossed over. He takes far too many bad shots, not just from the mid-range area, but in the form of contested 3-pointers as well. However, his shot-creation is truly fun to watch, even when he doesn’t make them.
Wiggins has three main ways of creating his own shot, as you can see below. He either tries to get into a post-up, which usually ends in a turnaround scud, he rises straight up into a hesitation pull-up, or he attempts to make space with a simple step back. While the latter has improved over the years, it still struggles to create enough space to seriously weaponize it.
Edwards certainly hasn’t lit the world on the fire with his shooting exploits, but he does have a much stronger foundation when it comes to creating space for a jump shot — giving him a higher ceiling as a potential isolation and pick-and-roll shot-maker.
While they don’t always rip the nylon, plays like these are regular occurrences for Edwards. Vicious crossovers into chasm-creating step backs are his bread and butter, but he also uses jab and side steps to his utmost advantage. All while still being able to rise up and hit with a hand in his face as much as you’d like to see from a freshman on a terrible team.
For Wiggins, it was always a blemish on his resume (and one that has never fully been reconciled). For Edwards, however, the ability to put the ball on the deck and create could end up one of the sharpest weapons in his arsenal. Another huge and possible career-altering difference between the oft-compared duo.
Contract
This is by far the biggest one. The Andrew Wiggins pill was never easy to digest in the first place, but when you add in the fact he put ink to paper on a 5-year, $146.5 million contract back in October of 2017, it makes it virtually impossible to swallow.
If Wiggins was to apply his talents and on-court production with a contract that suited him better, there would be far less negative discourse around him. Hovering around 20 points a night — mediocre auxiliary stats and volatile defense included — become much more palatable if the contract is in the $10-15 million range. When it’s a whole 25 percent of the team’s total salary cap? Rancid tasting stuff.
That’s where this debate really shifts in Anthony Edwards’ favor. Assuming the salary cap projections are unaltered in the wake of the current pandemic and he was the first pick in the 2020 draft, the Atlanta native would essentially guarantee himself a 2-year, $17.5 million deal. After that, the controlling team has the option to let him walk, or to offer him $9.4 million in year three and then $11.8 million if they decide to keep him around for his fourth season.
If Edwards does reach anywhere near his potential, that would be quite a salary cap heist for the foreseeable future. By year three or four, most budding stars have already emerged and completely outplayed the number next to them on the cap sheet. Take Jayson Tatum, De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo as recent prime examples.
And if he does hit the lows of an Andrew Wiggins, one would hope that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor and President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas had learned their lesson and shipped Edwards out (or let him walk) — rather than offering him a huge extension based on unseen potential. Good front office work permitting, it’s really a win-win for Minnesota in this hypothetical, and the biggest reason why Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Edwards are vastly different case studies.