Warriors’ apparent lack of NBA Draft interest in Edwards 2020 resurfaces originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
As Anthony Edwards blossoms into a true star on the league’s biggest stage, his playoff prowess has some fans remembering how teams viewed the Minnesota Timberwolves guard before the the 2020 NBA Draft.
And unfortunately for Dub Nation, the supposed pre-draft opinion of the Warriors hasn’t aged well.
A 2020 report by Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman resurfaced onlinewhere the source, citing sources, reported that the Warriors were not a likely landing site for Edwards if he fell to Golden State’s second pick due to concerns about his “drive and enthusiasm to win.”
Edwards, of course, didn’t opt out of the draft despite these reported concerns, and ended up in Minnesota as the No. 1 overall pick after averaging 19.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals. ball during his freshman year at the University of Georgia. .
And Golden State took second center James Wiseman, whose Warriors career was derailed by injuries before he was traded to the Detroit Pistons at the 2023 NBA trade deadline. But despite the Warriors’ apparent concerns about Edwards is It’s important to note that the Timberwolves weren’t very confident either allegedly trying to negotiate out of the No. 1 position before the draft.
Now, as Wiseman tries to find his way in The Motor City, Edwards is averaging 33.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists for the Wolves in five 2024 playoff games. Minnesota, led by Edwards, defeated the Phoenix Suns in the opening round and currently hold a one-game-to-none lead over the defending champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.
And, ironically, Edwards admitted he might not He would be where he is today if it weren’t for some criticism from Warriors coach Steve Kerr. After a pre-draft workout with Golden State, Kerr told Edwards he “wasn’t working hard enough.”
“[Kerr’s] like, ‘Man, you need to see Steph [Curry], [Kevin Durant] and Klay [Thompson] work out,'” Edwards said. “They still continually told me, ‘You didn’t work hard enough. If we had the number 1 choice, we wouldn’t take you. And I thought, ‘Damn, this is crazy.’ …
“Me and my coach [were] coming home after dinner and we’re just talking like we need to catch him. I don’t know how, I don’t know what we have to do, but we have to solve this. After that, I went crazy in the gym.”
That crazy mentality certainly paid off for Edwards, and he has Kerr to thank in part — and yet the Warriors were feeling pre-draft.
“I just went down and said, ‘Can you go a little harder?’ ” Kerr remembered last November from the moment. “[Edwards] kind of looked at me like, ‘Yeah, OK’ and they started going a little harder. We ended up going back there a few weeks later and we went to dinner and he said to me, ‘Hey, thanks for saying that. I didn’t realize how much I needed to work or what I needed to show.’ “
Now, Edwards and Kerr will try to recreate some of those learning lessons as the Team USA coach and Timberwolves star team up at the Paris Olympics. But first, Edwards certainly hopes to bring home his first NBA title and prove any other skeptics wrong about his victories.
