Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards Can Make Bold Claim With Game 7 Win

Sunday night’s Game 7 between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves is one of the most interesting and important games in recent memory. Not only has the basketball on display been enthralling between two evenly-matched teams with different styles, but there are huge legacy implications for several players.

Nikola Jokić can ascend into the next level of all-time greatness with back-to-back championships, Jamal Murray can stamp himself as a top-tier playoff performer of the generation, and the entire Denver team can go down as a legendary squad with another ring.

On Minnesota’s side, Rudy Gobert can validate his four Defensive Player of the Year Awards with a Conference Finals appearance, Karl-Anthony Towns can quiet the trade rumors and shift the perception of his career, and Mike Conley can get a happy ending to an underrated career.

However, there is one man who can accomplish something that is very rarely seen across NBA history.

Win in Game 7 Places Edwards in Rarified Air

Edwards could be one of few young stars to reach the Conference Finals

Anthony Edwards has an opportunity to do something that very few players his age have ever accomplished: be the undisputed best player on a Conference Finalist. If he can win Game 7 in Denver, he will join an exclusive group of NBA legends that have carried their teams to the Final Four or NBA Finals at age 22 or younger.

This list includes LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Shaquille O’Neal.

In 2007, James shockingly led an extremely short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals by beating the established core of the Detroit Pistons, who had been to five straight Conference Finals, two Finals, and won a championship in 2004. NBA fans who were watching at that time will never forget James’ epic 25-point run in the fourth quarter and overtime of Game 5 in Detroit to lift his Cavs to a 3-2 series lead.

This run becomes more impressive when considering the serious lack of talent that Cleveland’s roster had against the best defensive team of the 2000s. Edwards is doing something similar to James in 2007 by carrying his squad as the sole elite offensive option despite opposing teams focusing heavily on him defensively.

Fast-forward to 2012, and Kevin Durant vaulted himself into the best player in the world conversation when he led his Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA Finals against James’ Miami Heat. This run was impressive for two reasons: the youth across OKC’s core, and the titans they had to conquer on the way.

Durant’s Thunder beat Dirk Nowitzki’s defending champion Dallas Mavericks, Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers, and Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs despite being made up of an extremely young core of players. Russell Westbrook was 23, James Harden was 22, and Serge Ibaka was 22. Oklahoma City only lost three games in that Western run before losing in five to Miami.

The last player who led his team like this was Shaquille O’Neal in the 1995 postseason, who carried the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals at 22 years old. O’Neal was incredibly dominant all playoffs as the Magic took down the Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers, and famously Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. The Magic would get swept by Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets, but O’Neal stamped himself as the league’s most physically dominant player.

Beating Jokić in His Prime at Age 22 Would be Incredible

Edwards would join these players by slaying an all-time great player

The path to the top of the NBA pyramid runs through the league’s best players, and the aforementioned legends cemented their status early in their careers by beating the game’s best. James beat the winning core of Pistons that included Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups, Durant beat Nowitzki, Bryant, and Duncan, and O’Neal took down Jordan.

If Edwards is able to take down the defending champion Nuggets and the undisputed king of the league in Nikola Jokić, he will suddenly be considered one of the very best players alive. To do it with an extremely limited offensive supporting cast would be even more incomprehensible at his young age, in a situation where most young players struggle mightily.

Not only would Edwards have beaten Jokić and his awesome starting five, he’d have taken down Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal, and then Luka Dončić or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and presumably Jayson Tatum.

Edwards Would Have a Claim to Be the NBA’s Best Player

If he could finish the job and win the title, no one can deny him this honor

Edwards has already lifted himself into the league’s top-ten players with his postseason performance. He and Jalen Brunson have done more than anyone to raise their stock within the league as they’ve carried their squads to contention. If Minnesota’s young superstar wins this series without great offensive teammates, he will have an argument to be the best player in the world regardless of what happens in the next round.

However, if he was able to advance to the NBA Finals and win, he would be the unquestioned top player in the league. Everything is on the line in Game 7.

Related

Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards Makes Franchise History in Game 6 Win Over Nuggets

Anthony Edwards provided a spectacular performance for the Timberwolves to force Game 7 against the Nuggets, making franchise history in the process.