Amid rush to anoint Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic makes it clear that this is his time

The Dallas Mavericks pulverized the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday to advance to the NBA Finals, and it seems like in an attempt to rush to hand the league’s keys to Anthony Edwards, we forgot that Luka Doncic exists. 

It’s understandable. This is how it happens. Doncic has been around long enough for skepticism to set in. Edwards is in the honeymoon period. We haven’t started to focus on any of Edwards’ flaws yet, or if he doesn’t turn out to have any real flaws, we haven’t started the process of creating a few to talk about. 

We did that with Doncic, questioning his heliocentric style when his production was beyond reproach. Edwards not being quite ready to be the No. 1 guy on a championship team — let alone an offensively challenged one — shouldn’t be a controversial “take.” The guy is 22 years old. He’s played four years. 

This, of course, is where I’d be remiss not to acknowledge that Edwards is probably already good enough to lead a championship team if he wasn’t playing with an inadequate offensive support staff. Karl-Anthony Towns was miserable in this series, and simply cannot be trusted at this stage of the playoffs. Minnesota’s top-ranked defense could only take it so far when Doncic and Kyrie Irving showed up. Great offense will beat great defense most of the time. 

And that’s sort of the point. Doncic is still levels above Edwards in terms of being able to carry an offense under any and all conditions against any and all opponents. Having Irving as a creative co-pilot is a luxury Edwards has yet to know, but independent of that fact, Doncic is truly scheme proof. He always has been. The Wolves tried everything against him. Drops. Doubles. Hedge and recover. Blitzes. At the level. Whatever. None of it mattered. He’s seen these defenses so much that he doesn’t even see them anymore. 

The extra attention Edwards drew in these playoffs, on the other hand, noticeably wore on him. He wasn’t consistently sure when and where to attack. He hesitated at times. He was exhausted at times. This is all part of an ongoing…

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Author : Brad Botkin

Publish date : 2024-05-31 06:41:42

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