Michael Jordan Reveals Helping Wolves Star Anthony Edwards Handle Double Teams

NBA legend Michael Jordan spoke about the advise he gave to Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards.

Michael Jordan Reveals Helping Wolves Star Anthony Edwards Handle Double Teams

Anthony Edwards (Image credits - Firstsportz)

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One of the greatest players and scorers of all time, Michael Jordan, recently revealed that he gave some advise to Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards during the offseason. Ever since Edwards was drafted as the number one pick in the 2020 NBA draft, he has often been compared to the NBA legend due to their similar style of play and their offensive skillset.

Anthony Edwards has always been a student of the game. His athleticism combined with an improved three-point shooting has surged him to one of the best players in the league. The 24-year-old has led the Wolves to back-to-back Western Conference finals and will be hoping to go further this campaign as he continues to show immense growth to his game.

After the Wolves traded Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle last season, teams started double teaming Edwards, especially in the postseason. While he did average 25.3 points in the playoffs, he started to have problems in offense when he was double-teamed by opposition defenses. Jordan spoke on NBC and shared about how he helped Edwards in the offseason this year.

I had a conversation this summer with a high executive at Minnesota, and he was talking about Anthony Edwards. I heard during the course of the year that they were double-teaming. He didn’t know how to deal with the double team. That’s the highest respect you can ever get if a team feels like they gotta double-team you. Now, how do you break the double team? Those are the types of conversations I try to have when players seek that information.

It is no secret that Edwards watched Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s tapes in the offseason after getting knocked out in the Conference finals to eventual champions, Oklahoma City Thunder. The early signs have been promising and the improvements have been noticeable so far as the guard is currently averaging 29.8 points per game, a jump from his previous season where he averaged 27.6 points.

Minnesota Timberwolves scrape past New Orleans Pelicans with Anthony Edwards on a hot streak

It was a game that nobody expected to go down the wire as the Timberwolves narrowly escaped with a 149-142 overtime win over the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Tuesday. The Wolves needed star player Anthony Edwards to rescue them as he went on to score a game-high 44 points.

Anthony Edwards 2
Anthony Edwards (Image credits – The New York Times)

Edwards’ offensive arsenal was on full display as he shot at 53.3% from the field and made 6 three-pointers from 13 attempts. Wolves center, Rudy Gobert, had a rare scoring night as the Frenchman recorded 26 points to go along with 13 rebounds. Following the close-fought victory, Edwards spoke to the media about the win and the team’s defense.

At that point, you just need everything to go your way. They missed some free-throws at the end. (On the team’s defense) It is just a collective effort from everybody, gotta be locked in from the start of the game. I’m not making excuses but they don’t have a go-to guy so it’s not like we locking in on somebody, it’s just like everybody playing out there free. We don’t really know what they gonna do.

The match was a heavy workload on Edwards as the shooting-guard played over 47 minutes, including the entire second half and overtime on Tuesday night. But it all worked out in the end as this is the first time in his career he has hit a game-tying or winning shot in the final three seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime.

The three-time NBA All-Star is on a tear over the last six games. After the win over the Pelicans, Edwards has scored 30 points in six consecutive games which includes three 40-point games in that stretch.

It seems that Jordan’s advise and watching the tapes have helped propel Edwards’ offensive game to an even higher level. It will be interesting to see how far will Edwards carry the Wolves as they are currently placed at sixth in the Western conference standings with a 13-8 record.

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