Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 storylines from the first week of games

Anthony Edwards is showing why he’s the No. 1 pick

It has to be said that, coming into this season, there were a lot of questions surrounding Anthony Edwards. Action Network gave him 11/2 odds to win Rookie of the Year compared to LaMelo Ball’s 13/4. DraftKings didn’t even list Edwards as one of their favorites. Sports networks from The Ringer to Yahoo! Sports to 10 out of 15 ESPN analysts (ESPN+ paywall) predicted someone other than Edwards to take home the Rookie of the Year award. NBC Sports did have the courtesy to list him as a favorite, but then quickly mentioned that he only, “…narrowly outpaces…LaMello Ball.” And, it has to be said, even dashing internet commentators were wary of his potential.

And still, despite all of that negative noise, Edwards has found a way to shine. Through the Timberwolves’ first two games, Edwards has averaged 16.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 54.2 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from 3-point range and he has yet to miss a free throw.

At the very least, it seems that Edwards has shaken off any early comparisons to Andrew Wiggins, who is having a starkly opposite start with the Golden State Warriors. There haven’t been too many times where Edwards has seemed complacent or indifferent, and he seems to be fully energized whenever he is on the court.

In the short span of just two games, Edwards has already worked his way into the Timberwolves closing lineup along with Ricky Rubio, Josh Okogie, D’Angelo Russell, and Karl-Anthony Towns. For a rookie to accomplish this, especially with a shooter like Malik Beasley on the team, is really impressive, and is the first step to cracking the starting lineup.

For now, so long as Edwards continues to put up the same kind of numbers he has so far, it may very well be up to the rest of the team to determine whether Edwards wins the Rookie of the Year award or not. If Minnesota fares better than the competition, Edwards can likely be the third Rookie of the Year Minnesota has seen in six years.