Anthony Edwards, having his best scoring season yet, supplants Kobe for points milestone

In the middle of the fourth quarter on Thursday, Anthony Edwards posted up on the right side of the floor and called for the ball. After catching a high lob from Naz Reid, he pump faked, took one dribble to create space and drained a fadeaway jumper over multiple defenders. 

The bucket gave Edwards 23 points for the night and 10,000 for his career, making him the third-youngest player in NBA history to reach the milestone. Only LeBron James and Kevin Durant have done so quicker than Edwards, who is 24 years and 156 days old. 

After finishing with 25 points, seven rebounds and nine assists to help the Minnesota Timberwolves defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers for their fourth win in a row -- the Wolves are now 25-13, they're just 1½ games back of the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference --  Edwards joked that he wished he had been a bit slower to the accomplishment: "I'm kind of sick that I got it from Kobe. I wish I would have waited like 100 days or something. But it's all good,"

Thanks to Edwards, Bryant is now fourth on the all-time list. 

The Timberwolves certainly aren't complaining about the speed with which Edwards has established himself as one of the best scorers in the league. There were plenty of questions about Edwards after the Wolves selected him with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. He had 40.2/29.4/77.2 shooting splits during his lone collegiate season at Georgia, and gave an infamous quote in an interview with ESPN in which he said he was "still not really into" basketball. 

Six years later, there are no more doubts about Edwards' ability or his love of the game. 

His rookie campaign is the only time he's been under 20 points per game, and he's increased his scoring average every single season, up to a career-high 29.2 points per game this season. Edwards has also been more efficient than ever. He's above 50% from the field -- up from 44.7% last season -- and 40% from 3 for the first time. 

In NBA history, only four players have averaged at least 29 points while shooting at least 50% from the field and 40% from 3-point range for a season: Larry Bird, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokić. It's still fairly early, but Edwards has a real chance to join that list. 

After Edwards' historic effort in yet another Wolves win, let's take a closer look at how he's having his best scoring season yet. 

Changing his shot diet

Edwards made major waves last season when he suddenly became a high-volume 3-point shooter. He went from 6.7 3s per game in 2024 to 10.3 per game last season, which checked in at fourth in the league. In terms of total attempts, no one took more than Edwards' 811. He made 39.5% of them, so it was hard to argue with the approach, but it was still jarring to see him pulling up from any and everywhere. 

While Edwards is still happy to let it fly, he's dialed back the 3-point shooting a bit this season to 8.2 per game. He's taking a few more mid-range attempts these days, but he's primarily replaced the 3s with attempts in the paint. Notably, his average shot distance has dropped from a career-high 16.9 feet last season to 15.3 feet this season. 

Here's a look at Edwards' percent of field goal attempts by distance over the last two seasons (via Basketball-Reference):

Catch-and-shoot machine

The 3s Edwards has given up from last season have almost all been pull-up attempts. He's taking about the same amount of catch-and-shoot 3s as he has in the last three seasons. The difference is he rarely misses now. His catch-and-shoot 3-point percentage has jumped a staggering 11.4% from last season to a career-high 53.5%. 

Here are Edwards' catch-and-shoot numbers throughout his career. As you can see, he was consistently in the low 40s percentage wise until his massive jump this season. 

Of the 182 players in the NBA taking at least two catch-and-shoot 3s per game (min. 25 games played), none have made a higher percentage than Edwards. Phoenix Suns guard Collin Gillespie (51.5%) is the only other player above 50%. 

What Edwards is doing this season is historic. Shot tracking data on the NBA's stats website goes back to the 2013-14 season. There have only been seven previous instances of a player shooting 50% or better on at least two catch-and-shoot 3s per game (min. 58 games played, or 50 in the shortened 2021 and 2022 seasons). The list is a who's who of the best shooters from the last decade. 

Again, Edwards shot 29.4% from 3-point range in college and 32.9% as a rookie. Now, he's hitting no-dip 3s and is on lists with Kyle Korver and JJ Redick. 

Earlier this season, Edwards became the youngest player to reach 1,200 career 3s. No one in NBA history has reached that milestone before turning 25. 

Unstoppable at the rim

Edwards has always been able to get to the rim with ease, but he's never finished around the basket as well as he is this season. Earlier in his career he would often charge in without much of a plan. There's none of that these days. Edwards is in complete control, and has a vast array of finishes he can go to with either hand. 

After taking a career-low 17.6% of his shot attempts from 0-3 feet last season, Edwards has increased that mark to 20.4% this season, per Basketball-Reference. At the same time, he's raised his efficiency in that range by nearly 10% from 67.8% last season to 77.6% this season. 

The NBA's stats site breaks things down slightly differently, and has Edwards at 71.5% on 4.9 attempts per game in the restricted area per game. Of the 32 guards taking at least four attempts per game in the restricted area, only Amen Thompson (72.6%) is making a higher percentage than Edwards. 

Finally, we'll look at Synergy Sports, which charts "at rim" attempts. There, Edwards is at 68.5% on 6.5 attempts per game, and scoring 1.43 points per possession -- better than Victor Wembanyama, who is at 1.4 points per possession on "at rim" attempts. 

Here's a look at Edwards' "at rim" efficiency throughout his career, which shows just how much better he's been this season:

Edwards, who is regarded as one of the best in-game dunkers around, is also throwing down slams at his highest rate since his rookie season, when he had 70 dunks in 72 games (0.97 per game). Through 31 games this season -- he's missed seven due to injury -- he has 28 dunks (0.9 per game). That's well up from last season, when he had a career-low 54 dunks in 79 games (0.68 per game). 

More free throws

Another minor factor in Edwards' career season is his increased free throw rate. Trading some 3s for rim attempts hasn't just helped Edwards be more efficient, it's helped him get to the line more often than ever. His .372 free throw rate (number of free throw attempts per field goal attempt) and 7.4 free throw attempts per game are both career bests. 

Here are Edwards' free throw numbers over the last two seasons:

Edwards' free throw percentage has dropped slightly this season, so he's only making 0.6 more free throws per game compared to last season, but every little bit helps.