Why Anthony Edwards is the PERFECT NBA superstar with Timberwolves playoff run | Draymond Green Show

Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. Aye, like I don't view that and was like, oh, that was a fluke though. Nah, that wasn't no fluke. Minnesota is real. Minnesota real. It's funny because I was just talking to my wife earlier during the game. And I was telling her, you know, she had mentioned like, "Oh man, I had turned it on and you know, I wasn't, I didn't really watch, but I saw something come across that," she called him Anthony. Like Anthony had 43 points or 40-something points. She said, she's like, "He had 40-something points." And she starts going on this kind of mini rant about how like, how it's hard to deny somebody that's hungry and he just looks hungry. And so I go, I start to go down this Ant-Man rabbit hole, which is like, he hungry as hell and he believe that he's the best and he wants to be the best. He knows how to play the game and mean to play the game. This dude going up in the, this dude going up in these press conferences during this, during this series like, and you know, Joker's the best player in the world. I ain't think he the best player in the world. I ain't hearing none of that. He thinks, he 100% believes that he's the best player in the world. And if you don't believe he 100% believes that he's the best player in the world, all you gotta do is watch him play. He's playing like he believes he's the number one best player in the world. While all along, all this year, he's told y'all what he think of himself. Since he came into, he's been telling you, So it is very evident that he believes that. Nonetheless, see, a lot of people fail at this, and I don't just mean him going to give Joker credit. A lot of teams fail, and I've watched over the years, even like in playoff series that I'm playing, a lot of teams fail the media game. Because when you're in the playoff series, you can bet your bottom dollar That's a part of the game. And Ant-Man is passing that part with flying colors. As I said, every press conference this dude goes into, like they ask him a question and he like, "Ah, I was okay, but did you see my teammates?" He like, "Did you see my team? Like my team did blah, blah, blah this." and Cat did that, and Nas did this, and Rudy was great. Like, so he's going into confidence. He's going into these press conferences giving his guys confidence, giving his guys praise through these press conferences. He's winning the media game as well. And I always tell y'all, I play— I love nothing more than the game within the game. And Ant-Man is playing the game within the game as good as any 22-year-old that since I've understood the game within the game that I've seen. Ant-Man is playing the game within the game better than some 30-year-olds I've seen, superstars. He's playing the game, the media game, even better than, than, than some superstars I've seen. Like, it's absolutely incredible. And so I go down this whole rabbit hole with my wife on like, Hayes, this dude has, like when you start talking about a superstar player, Anthony Edwards actually has everything that you would want in a superstar. Number one, he believes he's great. He wants to be great. So he has a work ethic because he wants to be great. He has, he's boisterous enough to let you know that he believes that and ain't gonna shy away from it at all. He's the furthest thing from soft, which a lot of stars you can bully. He's the furthest thing from soft. Like he is the alpha male on the team. Like the alpha is him. He's the leader of the team. It's very evident. If you can't see that he's the leader, you're— yeah, hey, Ray Charles can see better than you. If you can't see that Anthony Edwards is a leader, I don't know what you're looking at. If you can't see that he's the leader of that team, he has that. He's fast as hell. He's strong as hell. He can shoot the basketball. He can get to the hole. He can finish over anybody. He can dunk on anyone. He has a mid-range game. He's a beast. He has a floater. He can play defense. He's charismatic, has a great personality, wants to win, instills belief in other guy. He has everything that you would want in a superstar. Like if you could build a superstar, he has everything you want. He's strong, like— Draymond Green. So he giving KCP hell because he's just too big. Like every time he see KCP on him, he get, and he just start backing him down. Like, I'm not sure what it is that he don't have that you will want in a superstar. Actually, I'm sure, it's nothing. There's nothing that he doesn't have. And so I go down this whole like rabbit hole with him and tonight, 27, 7 assists, 11 for 17 from the field. Like what he's doing has Minnesota poised to compete for their first championship. And I think, you know, I think that is absolutely amazing because A, this isn't an organization that no one ever took serious. B, when the Rudy Gobert trade happened, all of us thought, all of our first reaction was, dang, they are putting Rudy Gobert in the paint. They gonna clog it up for Ant-Man. And then even in year 1, when it didn't work, and everybody's like, oh man, they gonna have to trade Cat, they gonna have to do this, and they stunt Ant-Man's growth. Ant-Man just went back to the lab, believed in his guys, continued to get those guys ready, and now they are where they are today. And it's an absolutely incredible thing to see. For KAT to come back from an injury that kept him out for most of this, the latter part after the All-Star break, or after post-All-Star break, for most of the time post-All-Star break.— And playing the way he's playing, 27 points, 12 rebounds, very efficient, very efficient night on 10 for 15 shooting, 3 for 5 from the field. All that's great. But what I'm seeing and I'm watching, and I just mentioned it before, is how Cat's competing on the defensive end. And I'm no longer talking about Rudy Gobert. I mean, excuse me, Imgar and Joker. I'm talking about when he's on the perimeter a couple times and Michael Porter catching the ball and bigs don't know how to close out to wings on the perimeter and he close out to the body and Michael Porter sidestepping. Most bigs will be absolutely lost and stuck in mud and get that shot off and he close right back to the body and take the shot away and Michael Porter gotta get rid of the ball. The way Cat is defending, coming off a— Draymond Green. Meniscus injury if I'm not mistaken. Man, them boys hungry. Like you can see the hunger through the TV screen, I can. Like you can feel it. Them boys hungry. And so they sit here with a, headed back home up 2-0. Has Nikola Jokic completely bottled up? Finished with 16, 16, and 8, 4 turnovers. Looked very outta sync, very outta rhythm, very uncharacteristic for Joker. Had Jamal Murray completely in the bottle, 8 points, 3 for 18 from the field, losing his composure. What more can you ask for?

There's more.

There's more. You gotta go close the deal. Now you going back home and What more can you ask for? I want to nitpick a little bit. And if I'm the Minnesota Timberwolves coach, I'm extremely, extremely heavy on the nitpicking in our film session when we get back home. Why? Because I felt like Minnesota let go of the rope a little bit in the second half. And although they end up winning by 26 points or something like that in the end, um, I thought in the second half they kind of let They kind of played around with the game a little bit and they let Minnesota, excuse me, they let Denver in some spots gain a little confidence. And when you're in a playoff series, and this is when talk about the know-how, right? Like we've spoke about the know-how. This is the know-how. When you're in a playoff series and you got a team down like that, especially defending champion, you step on they neck. And I will say, very happy with how Minnesota ended up closing the game out. They ultimately did, but you could have completely annihilated them, beat them by 40 points. And no, the 40 points don't matter whether you beat them by 26 or 40. It's the demeanor. It's Minnesota start turning the ball over there for a while. You know, start getting a little fancy, a little careless with the basketball, with their shot selection. And Denver's starting to make a run, mostly when Murray and those guys were on the bench and they had their bench in. Now, somebody gotta score. As I told you all before, the number one problem that I thought Denver will have is their bench. Big drop off from what it was last year. And in turn, I just don't think that they are the same team. Nonetheless, very good team still, but I don't think they're as dominant or as unbeatable. They are very beatable now, but as last year, and in large part due to their lack of depth. So you don't really have guys who, if you don't get it from those first 5, you could have had a Bruce Brown come off the bench and give you 20 and pick up that slack. Jeff Green come off the bench, give you dunk on somebody, couple hustle plays, hit a 3 from the corner, get to the free throw line. All of a sudden he come up with 13, 14 points. You can't get that. You can't really get that, like constant production from Denver's bench. And I thought that that would be an issue from the gate. Now I was just online and I see people are like, oh, Jamal Murray's probably gonna get suspended for throwing the heat pack. I mean, I didn't think he'd get suspended, although that was very dangerous. Somebody step on that, ayy, Elise, a West spot B. Can really jack somebody up. But I didn't see that and be like, my first thought wasn't, ah, he gets suspended. It's crazy how people just automatically start calling for suspensions these days. I just don't really understand that. But in saying that, man, Denver down bad right now. No, not because they down 2-0 or 0-2 in their case. 2-0. But because you can tell they confidence was snatched. Their belief was snatched. There's a lot of doubt. Not sure when they leave Denver, but whether they get on that plane to Minnesota tomorrow or the following day on Wednesday, they get on that plane doubting, uncertain if they can compete with the Minnesota Timberwolves. And I'll tell you what, I'm uncertain that they can. When you're the defending champions, you always got a chance. I see Denver getting a game, which is kind of what I thought from the very beginning. Minnesota in 5. I can see Denver still going to Minnesota and possibly pulling off a game, but they don't stand much of a chance in this one. This is Minnesota. This series has Minnesota's name all over it. The length, the defensive tenacity, I'm not sure what there is that Denver can do to change that. Speed of the game, Minnesota, Denver, Minnesota is bigger, they're faster, have far more length. Yeah. They're better defensively. And I'm not gonna say their offense is better, although it's proven to be right now. But overall, I'm not gonna say their offense is better than Minnesota's. Excuse me, Minnesota's offense is better than Denver, but.

But.

It's not a big difference if it is. And because of how good they are defensively, what's going to make it tough for teams to beat Minnesota right now is you can game plan for all the things that you want. The way that they are turning defense into offense is something that's very hard to game plan for. And like I said, it has far less to do with what It has far less to do with what Denver can do and what they can do to stop Minnesota and far less to do with it being a fluke. Like, no, this is real. What you see is what you get. And so, like I said, I think you can never count the champs out. Maybe they can go get one. But Denver is severely overmatched.

The NBA playoffs are heating up, man. They have been so good. I know it's over, but Lakers-Nuggets may have been a 5-game series. It was great. Knicks-Sixers, amazing. Why don't you sign up for the DraftKings Sportsbook app? Takes 90 seconds. The official sports betting partner of the NBA. If you're in DraftKings Once you sign up, you gotta check this out. New customers bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets instantly. Great proposition, right? $5, you get $150. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. The code's Colin, C-O-L-I-N. It's me, C-O-L-I-N. Really quick, really easy. If you've never bet sports before, check it out. Really makes the games fun. The code is Colin. New customers get $150 in bonus bets by betting $5. Only on DraftKings, the crown is yours.