Anthony Edwards is only 23 years old, but he still has a long way to go to get to the mountaintop.
Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves saw their season come to an end on Wednesday with an ugly loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of their Western Conference Finals series. Minnesota got completely flattened during the game at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, O.K., losing in a 124-94 laugher (after going down by as many as 39 at one point).
The three-time NBA All-Star Edwards also had another relative dud, scoring a quiet 19 points on 7/18 shooting. That came on the heels of a forgettable performance by Edwards in Game 4 with 16 points on 5/13 shooting.
In the midst of the blowout, which began from the very first quarter, fans on X all said the same thing about Edwards — that he was a clear tier below Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Anthony edwards is about to get slandered after this series because YALL overrated him,really tried to put him in convos with SGA… pic.twitter.com/6IeVUKCE8d
— BlankBoy (@BlankBoy39) May 29, 2025
The gap between Shai and Ant has shown all series
— gαяу σαк (@JustStayMe7o) May 29, 2025
Shai is just on a whole other level compared to Ant
I’m glad everyone is finally seeing the REAL Anthony Edwards. He’s not CLOSE to SGA pic.twitter.com/tagfMyqYQQ
— (@BesttComments) May 29, 2025
Aw yeah don’t mention Anthony Edwards in the same sentence as SGA no more
— Big Boss (@GG_Peanut) May 29, 2025
Gilgeous-Alexander, who was just named the 2024-25 NBA MVP, scored 30 points or more in four of the five games against the Timberwolves. At 26 years old, he is a much more complete player than Edwards, particularly when it comes to efficiency, midrange prowess, and getting to the free throw line.
Edwards certainly deserves credit for how much he has ascended to this point of his NBA career and for leading the Timberwolves to back-to-back conference finals berths (including this season as the No. 6 seed). But Minnesota lost in five games during both conference finals appearances as it is clear that Edwards still can’t truly be considered a face of the NBA (as many big-name pundits have recently pointed out).
