NBA Analyst Compared Anthony Edwards To J.R. Smith And Dion Waiters During His Rookie Season

Anthony Edwards is now regarded as one of the best players in the NBA, but not everyone was so high on him during his rookie season. Edwards had been selected with the first pick of the 2020 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves and toward the end of the 2020-21 campaign, The Ringer's Zach Kram shared his top five player comparisons for him.

"(1) Coby White, (2) J.R. Smith, (3) Collin Sexton, (4) Dion Waiters, (5) Jordan Crawford."

The issue with Edwards as a rookie was that he was the classic case of high usage but low efficiency. He averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game but shot 41.7% from the field and 32.9% from beyond the arc.

Kram stated that Edwards had to up that efficiency and be better at creating for his teammates to improve his standing and well, he has done just that. In the 2023-24 season, the 22-year-old averaged 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game while shooting 46.1% from the field and 35.7% from three.

Edwards then took things up another notch in these playoffs. The two-time All-Star is putting up 33.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game while shooting 53.2% from the field and 43.6% from beyond the arc. Safe to say, that none of the five players he was compared to, would be able to play this well.

Smith was a fine role player in the NBA while Waiters was basically a journeyman. Coby White, who finished runner-up for Most Improved Player this season, is probably the only one of the five who might end up making an All-Star team, which shows how off-base the comparisons were.

While I understand Kram's logic to an extent, I think it shows that you can't always accurately predict how good a player will be based on their rookie season. It can be seen when you consider some of the other player comparisons he did.

The players LaMelo Ball was compared to, were Steve Francis, Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Jordan Clarkson, and Ja Morant. With the exception of Clarkson, all four are multi-time All-Stars, which is what Ball is expected to be as well.

While that was on point, player comparisons for another All-Star from that 2020 NBA Draft weren't. Tyrese Haliburton's top five comparisons were Milos Teodosic, Malcolm Brogdon, Leandro Barbosa, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Steve Blake. None of them were ever close to being All-Stars while Haliburton is one of the best point guards in the league now.

Anthony Edwards Claimed He Would Be The Best Player In The League In 2-3 Years

The thing that stands out the most about Edwards off the court is his unwavering confidence in his own abilities. He believes he can get the better of anybody and right before these playoffs started, Edwards claimed he would be the best player in the NBA in two to three years.

I didn't think that was all that realistic, as the likes of Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, are still a couple of levels ahead of him and would still be in their prime then. At least for one playoff game against Jokic, though, Edwards was the best player on the court. He recorded 43 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks against the Denver Nuggets in Game 1 to lead the Timberwolves to a 106-99 win on the road.

Suppose Edwards and the Timberwolves knock out Jokic and the Nuggets. In that case, I think conversations will have to start about whether he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the Serb and Antetokounmpo.