The door is open for Anthony Edwards to win NBA Rookie of the Year
Anthony Edwards has played increasingly well over the course of the season, and with LaMelo Ball out for the season the path is paved for the 2020 No. 1 overall pick to take home Rookie of the Year.
If the NBA season ended today, LaMelo Ball would be the Rookie of the Year. He has made the long-uninteresting Hornets exciting, with elite passing ability and all-around stat-filling. But he suffered a right wrist injury on Saturday night, and at minimum he’s going to miss some significant time. Barring a more promising second opinion, he’ll miss the rest of the season.
One of two players taken before Ball in the 2020 draft was Anthony Edwards, No. 1 overall to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota still has the league’s worst record (10-32), but they have played better since the All-Star break and Edwards has been a leading reason.
Edwards put up a scoring dud last Friday night against the Phoenix Suns (11 points; 4-for-18 from the floor). He did have a career-high 10 rebounds though, and Wolves head coach Chris Finch gave Edwards some high (and unique) praise.
The previous night against Phoenix Edwards scored a career-high 42 points, setting the Timberwolves rookie record for points in a game. He also became the third-youngest player to score 40 points in game. Perhaps you’ve heard of the only two who were younger, and the guy behind Edwards on the list.
Over the first five games after the All-Star break, with the noted spike of that 42-point outing, Edwards averaged more than 30 points per game on close to 48 percent from the floor and a shade over 39 percent from 3-point range.
Going back to over his last 10 games, pre-All-Star break and including the aforementioned recent dud against the Suns, Edwards is averaging 24.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game. He has topped 20 points in eight of those games, and he averaged over 26 points per game in the first nine.
Whether Ball is out for a few weeks or the rest of the season is ultimately not all that consequential for Edwards to make a run at winning Rookie of the Year. If he continues to play as well as he has, it’s at least going to be a conversation over who will win the award and Edwards now has a path to usurp Ball. And more broadly, the Timberwolves may have found their actual alpha.
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