wolves_89 wrote:I think the expectations for Edwards are a bit too high for this season. In a normal off-season, rookies are drafted and then have 3-4 months to work with coaches, establish a routine, learn the system, and play in summer league. This year none of that happened. I find it unlikely that a 19 year old is going to come in and start with no knowledge of the system or time to adjust to a completely new way of life. My guess for Edwards is he comes off the bench for 15-20 minutes a night to start the year and gradually gets more minutes as he demonstrates that he deserves them.
Another factor is that the Wolves are actually trying to win this year, which is a different situation than the majority of high draft picks are in. Typically the top draftees can come in and get big minutes even though their on-court production is awful and they are damaging their teams ability to compete. The Wolves have enough talent to be competitive and a clear incentive to prioritize winning sooner rather than later, so I'm expecting Edwards to be integrated much slower than a lot of people hope.
That should be the story. But it should have been last year also with Culver as he began the season with 4 games up to 16 minutes and that was a good number to stick with. Then by game 7 he's already starting at one of the hardest positions for a rookie to excel at. About the only limit they seemed to put on Culver was keeping him under 30 minutes.
I think Edwards will have much the same limits, none except for being kept under 30 minutes. The excuse might be the very first 19 sickness or injury. Might not even wait for that. They showcase him as much as they can is my guess for better or worse. We' will see, but he's available in trade if they can get a bigtime player back. If their history is any indication they won't sloroll him.
