Over the past couple of days, there has been a significant discussion surrounding Charles Barkley’s criticism towards Anthony Edwards.
The retired legend and current NBA on TNT analyst recently claimed that it looked like Edwards’s game has “regressed,” noting that the Minnesota Timberwolves superstar hasn’t been aggressive enough this season like what he used to be last year.
Current NBA star Draymond Green begged to disagree with Barkley’s notion that Edwards’ performances have declined.
In the recent episode of his Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis, the Golden State Warriors star even argued that Edwards made a leap and improved as a player overall this 2024-25 season.
“I don’t think Anthony Edwards has regressed,” Green said. “I don’t think Anthony Edwards has played the way everybody expected him to come back playing from going to a Western Conference Finals, with the hunger, with the tenacious attitude that he has anyway, I don’t think he’s done that, but regress?
“He’s gotten better actually, as a player, his jump shot is way better. So I wouldn’t say regressed. I don’t think that’s the right word.
“Removing a player like KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns] is a big deal, and it takes some time to figure out a move like that. It can take some time to figure that out.”
By looking at the statistical table, Edwards currently has identical output compared to what he tallied last 2023-24 season. In 37 games thus far, he is averaging 25.7 points, 5.7 boards, and 4.1 assists while shooting 44.1 percent from the field across 36.4 minutes.
If there’s an intriguing spike in Edwards’s numbers, that has to be his three-point shooting. The Timberwolves sensation is having a career-best rate beyond the arc (42.7%) while attempting the most attempts in his career at 10.0 — a massive jump to the 6.7 attempts he just registered last year.
From this, the criticism might be deeply rooted towards Edwards’s increased reliance on three pointers. In other ways, we can simply acknowledge that the 23-year-old has improved as a shooter.
Nevertheless, it won’t change the fact that Edwards remains a big-time player which Green indicated can only get plenty of coverage at the defensive side of the ball. And upon facing him three times already this regular season, the Warriors veteran can attest that Edwards looked sharper.
“He is going to get double teamed, you can’t stop him one on one. So that’s going to happen, and he should expect to see more of that,” Green said of Edwards. “His coach has to figure out how to negate those double teams.
“I’ve played against Anthony Edwards this year, I can tell you, he ain’t regressed one bit.”
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