ANT is a great player but I don’t see what he’s necessarily “elite” at offensive besides finishing, which this is his first year of really taking a jump in that aspect. Statistically, he’s a sub 40% shooter from the midrange and a decent 3 point shooter when compared to league average. Playmaking is not his strength either.
He has a lot of potential but the way media talks about him, you would think he’s the best player ITL. I feel the only reason he gets this much chatter is because his face looks like Jordan. Am I wrong? Just a discussion.
I think you’re correct. A lot of people struggle with the concept that a player being overhyped isn’t the same thing as them being bad.
Edwards doesn’t (yet) have the efficiency of a top 10 player. He had a .575 true shooting in the regular season, and even in his widely acknowledged as great playoff run that went up to .598. I want to be clear that’s good efficiency for a guy at that volume, but it’s not elite. Devin Booker was at .611 true shooting, Mitchell was at .595. Tyrese Maxey had the same ppg and essentially the same efficiency at .573.
I think Edwards will get there with the efficiency and consistently put up seasons at .600 true shooting or better in his prime but I think people are jumping the gun a bit with him based on team performance, even though offensively they were bang average.
Being the leading scorer on a primarily defensive team has always been a formula for getting a bit overrated though, it’s not surprising people focus a lot more on offense than defense.