{"id":695785,"date":"2026-04-03T12:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695785\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:27:06","slug":"anthony-edwards-award-ineligibility-is-clearly-a-blessing-in-disguise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695785\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Edwards’ award ineligibility is clearly a blessing in disguise"},"content":{"rendered":"

After missing Thursday’s game against the Detroit Pistons due to knee soreness (and an illness), Anthony Edwards became ineligible for regular season awards<\/a>. At the surface level, this is unfortunate as Ant can’t add another accomplishment to his already impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edwards is having a career-best season, averaging 29.3 points, and he would certainly earn a spot on an All-NBA team, perhaps even All-NBA first team (an honor he has yet to earn). Plus, he could have won Clutch Player of the Year. In reality, though, this is small potatoes for Ant-Man and the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n

All season long, Edwards has made it clear that his\u00a0goal\u00a0for this season has nothing to do with\u00a0individual honors\u00a0and everything to do with\u00a0bringing home an NBA championship. <\/a>You might think this goal is far-fetched and that’s fine. Nevertheless, for the Wolves to have any chance to make a deep playoff run and win a championship, they obviously need Ant to be 100 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ant has been banged up all year, most recently,\u00a0missing six games\u00a0with\u00a0a knee injury.\u00a0There’s simply no reason to risk further injury, especially during a back-to-back. What’s the reward? A meaningless honor and\u00a0a chance to earn a slightly higher seed. Yeah, the Wolves have bigger fish to fry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edwards being healthy in the playoffs is the only thing that matters<\/p>\n

We all know what Anthony Edwards is capable of in the playoffs.<\/a> He has been the driving force for a team that’s made back-to-back conference finals and is averaging 26.9 points for his playoff career. If Ant enters the playoffs in tip-top shape, you can’t put a limit on his and the Wolves’ ceiling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conversely, if Ant enters the playoffs banged up and fatigued from a grueling regular season, he might not play up to his elite standards, and in turn, the Wolves could be sent packing early.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edwards has been remarkably durable throughout his career, missing nine games in the previous three seasons\u00a0before\u00a0this year.\u00a0Frankly, this level of durability isn’t realistic to expect from any player, and Ant was bound to have a season where he missed some time. <\/p>\n

Luckily, Edwards’ injury isn’t overly serious, and all signs\u00a0point to him being ready to go\u00a0for the playoffs.\u00a0If he needs to sit out another game or two down the stretch to feel comfortable, that’s fine. <\/p>\n

All in all, the priority is clear for Ant and the Wolves: Make another deep playoff run. And to accomplish this goal, Edwards being 100 percent is vital. If this costs Ant an individual honor, so be it; he doesn’t care, and neither should you.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After missing Thursday’s game against the Detroit Pistons due to knee soreness (and an illness), Anthony Edwards became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3782],"tags":[7,307,152,3954,6,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-695785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","11":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116340776576071220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}