The Lone Wolf in the Playoffs? Edwards’ bottleneck period?

In the past two seasons, the Timberwolves have gradually taken the stage from a small city team. In addition to being a young power rising to the West, the star Edwards' extraordinary performance in the playoffs is definitely worthy of fans' attention.

In the first three seasons of his career, Edwards' average score per game in the playoffs has been increasing, but for Edwards at this stage, he seems to have encountered an unprecedented bottleneck moment.

From the perspective of personal data, as a ball-holding wing player, especially using three-pointers with a ball-holding jump shot as the main offensive method, the use rate of the playoffs has increased significantly compared to the regular season. Edwards' important indicators for measuring absolute core points, shooting numbers, usage rates, etc., have shown a trend worse than before this season. The reason for this change can be discussed from several aspects:

Dilemma 1: Excellent pass and control ability + low-quality pass environment

As the offensive core of a defensive team, Edwards' pass and control ability must make steady progress in order to break through the siege in the playoffs where defense is increasingly targeted. From this stage, the young wolf king has indeed responded to expectations.

Under the high pressure of double-teaming rounds of the playoffs, Edwards began to use multiple strategies to crack in the pick-and-roll round, whether it was to crack the characteristics of difficult defensemen on both sides at the top of the arc, use the cover to pull up a three-pointer to make a move, or face the double-team that was forced to the bottom line on both wings, use the advantage of explosive power to quickly break through to the weak side, and decide whether to conduct or directly attack the box after causing chaos.

If you do not use cover, you can pass the ball after the opponent's defense line is pressed, causing more and less chances to play. Although he was still confused in the playoffs, he still made significant progress in stabilizing control and transfer ball awareness compared to last season when facing the embarrassment of the Mavericks' Wall Strategy.

But it is undeniable that Edwards's ability to control fortunes has its own flaws. Inadequate passing accuracy leads to the inability to directly send the ball to the teammate's dessert position through transfers, which gives the opponent a chance to return, and cannot effectively guide the teammate's position through passes, etc. Therefore, compared to the passing choice to send opportunities to the penalty area, direct pass before breakthrough is preferred.

Although these simple pass options facing defensive strategies are slightly less perfect, they are relatively good for a player who is not born with organizational attributes.

However, these seemingly ordinary pass options rely quite on the entire team's space and the ball-holding attack of the players. In terms of the team environment, Randall and McDaniels are both players who can simply complete the ball-holding attack, while Gobert can find a gap in a flash but cannot end it stably. These hidden dangers have caused the Timberwolves' offensive space to be significantly more crowded than when Towns was in the team.

As for the part that responds to the offense, Randall and McDaniels are not the type that can be activated instantly when receiving the ball, and the secondary transmission after the face frame breaks is not stable. Other players such as Walker, Divinchenzo, Conley, etc. completely lack the ability to break through the defense line. This part can easily play a strong second- and third-tier assisting defense for defensive teams, which limits Edwards' ability to break through straight lines, while also dragging down the Timberwolves' offensive space.

In short, Towns' departure made the Timberwolves' space problem worse, resulting in that even if Edwards' passing ability improved, on the playoff stage with clear defensive strategies, Edwards' current progress alone may not be able to maximize his ball-holding offensive firepower.

Dilemma 2: Types of defensive people who are not good at facing

Compared with the large-scale defenders who only met when facing the Mavericks last year, Edwards this season encountered excellent defensive opponents at the beginning of the playoffs, such as Finney Smith in the first round, Payton Jr. and Kumingga in the second round, Caruso, Jewe, Dort in the third round, etc., can all encircle Edwards with a highly aggressive defensive posture.

, and facing the more radical defender, his shortcomings in stable control of transportation in a small space are amplified. Although we can still squeeze out opportunities by relying on the advantage of confrontation that is better than the same position, if we cannot make a stable breakthrough, coupled with the oppression of the second and third defense lines, Edwards' offensive decisions will be seriously affected, which will worsen his shooting choices, and then make mistakes or choose a difficult three-pointer to take.

Judging from personal data, Edwards' shooting percentage was not ideal when facing Jewish, Kumingga or Caruso. It can be seen from the game that when facing these players, his offensive rhythm was obviously much chaotic, and his willingness to end was significantly reduced. The overall pick-and-roll ball-holding offensive round dropped rapidly from 8.2 times in the regular season to 5.6 times in the playoffs, which is enough to show the degree of limitations of high-quality defense on Edwards' offensive end.

Dilemma 3: The cooling stage of the rhythmic offensive player

The last thing that affected Edwards was his most outstanding three-pointer this season. When he brought this weapon to the high-intensity playoff stage, his overall offensive efficiency was obviously limited.

If we look at the details, Edwards' outside shooting percentage has actually shown signs of decline in the second half of the season, and only handed out a sluggish hit percentage of 32.6% at a high frequency of about 7 shots. When it comes to the playoffs, even if you put aside the outside and miss the fifth game against the Lakers, Edwards' average three-point shooting percentage in 14 games was only 31.6%.

The reason is that the opponent is gradually getting familiar with Edwards' shooting rhythm after dribbling, resulting in smaller and smaller shooting space, and he is beginning to grasp the timing of his withdrawal. Although he has a hot shooting feel from time to time, Edwards, who is generally rhythmic, has always been difficult to find his sight..

The second point is that the opponent's targeted Edwards' low shooting percentage on the left side of the periphery, forcing him to choose to take action on the left side of the periphery. The high-pressure defense caused the chaos in the shooting, which often made him make some three-no shots.

Judging from personal data, most stars' number of ball-holding shots in the playoffs will increase compared to the regular season, because the ball-holding jumper is relatively less likely to be affected by defense, and can better show the star's offensive influence. But this season Edwards has taken the ball with as many as 11.2 times in the regular season, but in the playoffs, it has a cliff-like decline to 8.8 times. Compared with ordinary stars, this gap is still far beyond expectations.

Summary, for a young star who just turned 24, he has reached the Western Conference Final twice at different stages. This is definitely a rare experience and a rare glorious moment for the Timberwolves. But beyond this, Edwards is already well aware of his flaws, and only when he successfully hone his weapons can he find the key to break through the West.

And then, it will be the young wolf king we most want to see!