During the first five years of his NBA career, people have compared Anthony Edwards to dozens of current and former basketball players. The comparisons range from the borderline blasphemous (Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant) to the downright disrespectful (Dion Waiters, Jordan Crawford).
However, one comparison has made the most sense. It’s a comparison that has worked since the Minnesota Timberwolves selected him first overall in the 2020 draft, through Wednesday’s Game 5 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, which propelled the Wolves into the second round of the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history.
Dwyane Wade has always been the one true comp for Anthony Edwards.
More specifically, this version of Edwards mimics D-Wade’s romp through the 2006 NBA playoffs, in which Wade and the Miami Heat shocked most of the NBA world by hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy at season’s end.
Let me take you back to the formative year that was 2006. High School Musical took over the lives of 15-year-olds like me everywhere. Dick Cheney shot that guy in the face in a “hunting accident.” Your current president was feuding with Rosie O’Donnell. And the Timberwolves had yet to understand the depths of pain on the horizon for the next 15 years.
While all that was happening, a young crop of new NBA stars took over George Bush’s America. LeBron James, the Chosen One and most hyped NBA prospect ever, was living up to the expectations and more in his first few years in Cleveland. Carmelo Anthony gained attention for taking Syracuse to a National Championship and was a scoring machine on an underappreciated Denver Nuggets team. Dwyane Wade emerged as an exciting two-way guard and was the biggest winner of the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal feud.
Wade had a hell of a year during the 2005-06 regular season, his third in the NBA. The 24-year-old averaged 27.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game. He was named to his second consecutive All-Star team and second-team All-NBA, and he finished sixth in MVP voting. Does that sound like anyone we know?
Ant just completed his fifth season in the association, averaging 27.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game. He has a spot reserved in pen on the second-team All-NBA for the second consecutive season and will likely finish top-10 in MVP voting after finishing seventh last year.
Wade’s Heat team stumbled out of the gate, starting the season 11-10 after a 59-win season and trip to the Eastern Conference Finals the year prior. That was good enough to get Stan Van Gundy fired. Pat Riley took over and led the Heat to a 41-20 record for the remainder of the regular season.
Conversely, the Wolves were 8-10 to start this season after 56 wins and an appearance in the 2024 Western Conference Finals 2024. Chris Finch kept his job, and the Wolves managed to turn things around and finish with 49 wins and the sixth seed in the 2025 playoffs.
D-Wade turned up the Heat in the playoffs. Miami dispatched the Chicago Bulls in six games, Vince Carter‘s Brooklyn Nets in five games, and the top-seeded, 64-win Detroit Pistons in six games in the East Finals.
The Wolves have a similar path. They are a lower seed but proved their worth by beating the heavily favored Lakers in five games. Next up in the second round will be the upstart Houston Rockets or championship-tested Golden State Warriors.
In all likelihood, if the Wolves make the conference finals, they’ll play the 68-win Oklahoma Thunder juggernaut. Ant’s first-round performance of 26.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game generally mirrored Wade’s production through the first three rounds in 2006. Wade averaged 26.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 6.4 assists across 17 games in the first three rounds of the playoffs.
The true legend of Dwyane Wade was born during the 2006 NBA Finals against the 60-win Dallas Mavericks. The Heat quickly fell down 0-2 against the Mavs and perennial MVP candidate Dirk Nowitzki. Then, in Game 3, Wade willed the Heat to victory with a friendly whistle. He scored 42 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and made 13 of his 18 free throw attempts to get the Heat back into the series.
Wade scored a game-high 36 points in a 24-point win in Game 4 to even the series. He made 12 of 25 free throw attempts and scored 43 points in a one-point victory in Game 5, in which the Heat shot 49 free throws as a team. Wade capped the series with another free-throw heavy (16-21) 36-point performance to seal the series in Game 6 and give the Heat the first championship in franchise history.
Edwards has a long way to go before he etches his name next to Dwyane Wade’s in the history books. He ran out of gas in the conference finals last season. The Thunder are also one of the best regular-season teams of all time. Eliminating them from the playoffs will take a herculean effort from Edwards and everyone up and down the Wolves roster. Wade didn’t win the championship alone, and neither will Edwards.
Now comes my favorite part of this comparison.
Wade’s running mate in 2006 was an aging but still effective Shaquille O’Neal, who averaged 13.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in the finals. Ant’s running mate (one of five or six running mates) is 32-year-old Rudy Gobert, who just scored 27 points and grabbed 24 rebounds to send the Lakers on an early vacation. He also happens to be the player Shaq hates the most in NBA history.
Ant also has a cadre of talented players. Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, and even Donte DiVincenzo can take on the No. 2 role for a game or two. The rest of Wade’s supporting cast included post-Celtics Antoine Walker, White Chocolate, young Udonis Haslem, and Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning at the end of their careers.
Anthony Edwards may become the face of the league and ascend to heights we’ve only seen a half dozen times in the 77 years of the NBA. But for now, at 23, he’s on the track many of us foresaw when the Timberwolves took a risk on a freshman from Georgia during the weird COVID Draft. He’s on the Dwyane Wade timeline and is a surprise finals run away from conquering the league like Flash did almost two decades ago.
