Anthony Edwards’ first run in NBA Playoffs could be his launch pad to superstardom

Anthony Edwards was breathtaking in the course of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ first-round sequence, as in 5 video games, he averaged a slash line of 31.6 factors, 5.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 2.0 blocks, and 1.8 steals per recreation on 60.2 % true capturing (3.6 proportion factors higher than the league common within the playoffs).

And whereas his group’s adversary in that matchup, the Denver Nuggets, has lengthy since moved on to greener pastures (at present holding a 2-0 lead over the Phoenix Suns), analyzing the totality of Edwards’ efficiency is essential as a result of it could possibly be the start of his rise to superstardom.

At simply 21 years previous, Edwards put up numbers that few gamers his age or youthful have ever seen earlier than. That begs the query: did Edwards simply have the perfect age-21 or youthful playoffs ever?

Whereas it’s tough to correctly rank all of the age-21 and underneath playoff seasons in historical past with out rigorously watching each single considered one of them (an endeavor that may show to be fairly time-consuming), we do have some statistical indicators we are able to lean on to assist in giving us a really feel of the place Edwards’ 2023 Playoffs ranks all-time.

One such metric is Basketball Reference’s one-number catch-all metric field plus-minus (BPM). For these questioning what precisely BPM is, here’s a transient description from that measure’s creator, Daniel Myers:

“Field Plus/Minus, Model 2.0 (BPM) is a basketball field score-based metric that estimates a basketball participant’s contribution to the group when that participant is on the courtroom. It’s primarily based solely on the knowledge within the conventional basketball field rating—no play-by-play knowledge or non-traditional field rating knowledge (like dunks or deflections) are included. BPM makes use of a participant’s field rating info, place, and the group’s general efficiency to estimate the participant’s contribution in factors above league common per 100 possessions performed. BPM doesn’t have in mind enjoying time — it’s purely a price stat!”

With this now understood, right here’s what we did with BPM (by “we,” I imply Daniel Bratulic). We took the playoff BPMs of each age-21 or youthful participant (in line with Basketball Reference) that performed a minimum of 5 video games and 100 whole minutes throughout their particular playoff run. And here’s what the top-10 in BPM (primarily based on that standards) appears like:

Basketball Reference

So not the perfect efficiency, however second all-time in BPM amongst gamers throughout their age-21 playoffs or youthful shouldn’t be too shabby in any respect (additionally, Luka Doncic is a monster!). Cap tip to you, Edwards.

[Sidebar: We also ran the numbers for highest Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and highest Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) during one’s age-21 season or younger (with the same games/minutes minimum), and Edwards finished 2nd and 17th in those categories, respectively.]

Now, there are a few caveats that this knowledge comes with. First, Edwards’ statistics could possibly be inflated on account of his astronomically low pattern dimension. He performed the bottom variety of playoff video games out of any of the gamers within the top-10. And second, BPM is a bit biased towards new-age gamers because the uptick in effectivity has made it simpler to place up extra gaudy per-100 statistics (100 possessions at the moment is far more environment friendly than 100 possessions throughout Marques Johnson’s time).

However nonetheless, everybody outdoors of Vlade Divac that’s on this listing has been nominated to a minimum of one All-NBA group all through the course of their profession. And that’s a reasonably good signal that Edwards is effectively on his approach to turning into a bonafide famous person.