The Shaq Effect: Anthony Edwards Faces Backlash
Shaquille O’Neal knows Anthony Edwards is a star and has recently been called an MVP candidate. Still, today Shaq was very critical of Ant’s effort in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 118-115 loss to the former Champs Boston Celtics. Edwards only had nine points at halftime and only six points in the second half simply deferring to Julius Randle on offense.
Here’s what Shaq had to say about it. “A player of his caliber should never have nine points in a half. That tells me that he’s settling,” O’Neal said, via the official ClutchPoints account on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Listen, you can shoot, but you’re not a shooter. You’re too good to be settling. When you’re a great player, you can not settle. You always have to be in attack mode. … Great players don’t settle to become great.”
Edwards: A Shadow of His Former Self?
Anthony Edwards is an All-Star and All-NBA player, which is pretty crazy considering he’s only 23 years old. The Timberwolves have been very disappointing this year playing at a .500 pace after getting to the Western Conference finals last season. The Wolves look like they are still trying to figure out how to get back to their championship play without Karl Anthony Towns. Edwards had a brutal month of December after dominating the months of October and November.
Edwards has seen a drop off mainly in his scoring and shooting percentage. Over four games he averaged 30 PPG in October and shot 45.6% from the floor and 41.5% from three-point range. In November he averaged 27.1 PPG shooting 45.2% from the floor and 43.2% from three in 15 games. As the weather got colder here in Minneapolis so has Edwards shooting. In December his scoring dropped to 20.5 PPG shooting 42.7% from the floor and 38.8% from three.
He has relied a lot on the three-point shot this year taking almost half of his shots from the three-point line, it was Edwards’s aggressiveness and quickness that got him easy buckets earlier in the year. Now teams have doubled team him which has taken away his ability to get to the hoop. Thursday’s game against the Celtics was another subpar game for Edwards only scoring 15 points on 5-16 shooting, giving the Wolves another loss at home. Minnesota was 30-11 in home games last season, and are already 9-7 in just 33 games this season.
Time for Randle to step up for the Wolves
Julius Randle has been inconsistent since coming over from the New York Knicks. It could be the change of scenery, or it could just be his fit with this Timberwolves team. Randle has been relied on to be the team’s second scoring option and lately with Anthony Edwards struggling to score, he has been their first option. His shooting and scoring numbers aren’t all that different from his career numbers he’s shooting better from the floor and the free-throw line in his first year with the Timberwolves. So what’s the problem?
Randle has been forced to have the ball in his hands more, creating more turnovers and less ball movement resulting in bad passes and easy buckets for the opposing team. One of the reasons mentioned about Edwards not driving as much is because of the lack of pace that Randle brings. At times Randle holds the ball too long and puts up bad shots. The team needs to find a role that they can maximize with Randle. Randle has proven he can take games over but I don’t know if that’s in Minnesota’s plans.
The Timberwolves are currently in 8th place in the Western Conference stands and need Randle and others to desperately step up their game if they want to do any damage in the playoffs.
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