NBA Draft: Minnesota Timberwolves should not draft Anthony Edwards

Defense

To put things lightly, the Wolves need help on defense.

While Edwards has shown outstanding athletic ability, his defensive game is not anywhere near a level that would help the Wolves. Scouts cite Edwards’ lack of focus when defending off-ball, leading to easy backdoor layups.

Though he is capable of highlight defensive plays, Edwards is not a consistent defender in terms of team defense, which is an area the Wolves desperately need to address. Additionally, Edwards struggles defending the pick-and-roll.

This critique of Edwards is not to suggest that LaMelo Ball would be a vast defensive improvement from Edwards, as Ball has received similar scouting reports on his defense: he shows flashes but is inconsistent as a team defender, particularly in off-ball situations.

Both players would undoubtedly leave the Wolves with defensive question marks.

Overall Style

Edwards was a ball-dominant player at Georgia, and rightfully so given the talent surrounding him.

However, the ball-dominant nature of Edwards’ game led to a lot of difficult, contested shots, much of what Wolves fans saw from Jarrett Culver at Texas Tech. Culver’s offensive game has struggled to translate at the NBA level, and it’s easy to see how the same could happen for Anthony Edwards.

For Edwards to be most effective, he needs to be drafted into a situation where he can be more ball-dominant, such as Charlotte or Cleveland, for example.

Another reason Edwards would struggle to integrate into the Wolves’ offensive: his assist-to-turnover ratio. Edwards had just four more assists than turnovers last year — 91 assists and 87 turnovers.

Plain and simple, Edwards would not be the primary ball-handler in the Wolves’ offense. He would need to be an effective off-ball player with the ability to pass and shoot. Similar to Andrew Wiggins, Edwards hasn’t shown the ability to do any of those things with any type of consistency.