2020 NBA Draft profile: Anthony Edwards another Zach LaVine?
Defense/Rebounding
Now this is an area on the floor where effort can truly shine through.
Thankfully Edwards does exhaust the necessary energy to impact the game on this end. He’s constantly keeping pace with his man, at times electing to face guard him off-ball, and make sure he does whatever he can to prevent his match-up from getting the ball and making something happen.
To be perfectly blunt, not every college player brings that approach to defense. Some guys are more than content to stand around or just operate in the general vicinity of what’s going on. Even worse, when part of a college zone, they just sit down in their stance, arms up and don’t even move a muscle or look around.
Even when in a zone, Anthony Edwards does what he can to at least show that he cares. And as a scout, it’s much appreciated to see any player take pride on what happens on the defensive side of the ball.
The problem with Edwards’ overall consistency on defense is again more mental than ability or care.
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That laser focus rears its ugly head when talking about his performance in multiple defensive situations. If Edwards’ man makes even the slightest quick cut behind him or runs him into a screen off-ball, Edwards can again look like he’s lost.
Edwards becomes so enthralled with keeping pace with his man or area of the court that he can, by default, lose track of what’s going on around him. And sometimes it’s sad to see because his technique defending on the ball is actually fairly sound for a prospect.
He sits low in his stance, keeps his arms out, and possesses the lateral quickness and physical attributes to create problems for the majority of opposing guards.
But back cuts, screens and deceptive off-ball movement can all create problems in terms of awareness for Edwards, which makes him such a difficult evaluation on this end. On some notions, he looks the part of an NBA defender more than capable of holding his own and sitting around average-slightly above average.
Watch an entire game and study each possession, however, and it’s apparent that Edwards could have a narrative derived around the notion that he’s another guard that doesn’t care about what happens on defense when that’s far from the truth.
There are certainly enough guards that have earned that reputation and rightfully so. Edwards doesn’t deserve that level of criticism, and has his work cut out for him in the film room as far as studying how to maximize his physical gifts to leave much more of an impact.
As far as rebounding is concerned, Edwards isn’t as physical of an in-traffic rebounder as one might hope given his physical profile.
Standing at 6’5″ with a compact frame composed of muscle mass concentrated in his chest and shoulders, Edwards has enough bulk to withstand upper body contact and power through to finish whatever task he’s looking to accomplish. That includes rebounding.
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Anthony Edwards is so much quicker off the ground than the majority of players close to him in size that he can rocket up for boards and snare them with ease. He doesn’t seem to pick many spots to rebound in traffic, so the numbers he puts up primarily on defense point to longer rebounds and easy opportunities he’s able to recognize.
Does he put forth the effort to grab and go when he sees fit? Yes, but if he was willing to mix it up a little more often he could actually end up becoming one of the better rebounders at the guard spot, even in the NBA.