SUMMARY
- Carmelo Anthony couldn't handle the disrespect Anthony Edwards had over Kevin Durant during the playoffs.
- The former NBA veteran claims the Suns failed at piecing together a well-rounded team.
It is the new age taking over the NBA and Anthony Edwards leads the pack of hungry wolves, no pun intended. The Minnesota Timberwolves completely obliterated the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Phoenix’s Big 3 certainly wasn’t expecting this year to be hard, especially since they’re the best offensive trio on paper. But the 22-year-old made it seem like the Suns were an amateur league team.
During the series, Edwards averaged 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game along with 2 steals against Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. The Wolves’ defenses held the All-Star duo under 25 points in various games, thus restricting the Suns from winning a game. Edwards also pulled off impressive third-quarter blowouts while talking severe trash to Durant. One NBA legend didn’t like how things were handled on Durant’s end.
Carmelo Anthony claims he wouldn’t have let Anthony Edwards off the hook
Anthony Edwards was seen calling his shots and playing extremely physical defense on Booker and the other guards. Carmelo Anthony, a former player of the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks addressed the disrespect shown throughout the series. Edwards grew up admiring Durant over the years and for him to watch a veteran like him taking a beating didn’t set well with Melo.
During an appearance on The Point Forward Podcast, Melo said, “It was a n–ga saying, ‘I’m coming for n–gas hearts, I’m coming to get it.’ If somebody was willing to step in front and stop me, let’s do it. Lets dance… I would have been like, ‘This n–ga is a bucket.’ But see I wouldn’t want to kill this little n–ga. I’d have been out for blood. In a competitive way, I’d have been out for blood.”
Unfortunately, Edwards came into the league during the tail end of Anthony’s career. They’ve only met six times in the regular season winning three each. Melo averaged 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists per game while Edwards put up 22.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.5 assists during those matchups. They never got to play against each other in the post-season.
The Knicks legend points out a major flaw that led to the Suns’ downfall
Anthony Edwards and the Wolves unraveled the holes on the Suns’ roster during the first-round series. It is evident that the Suns do not have a point guard despite coach Frank Vogel’s requests to acquire a player in that position. Carmelo empathized with Phoenix’s decisions but pointed out that they needed to know how to fix a roster together.
“It just that it goes back to say, you got to know how to put these pieces together. You got to know how to put these teams together. And I get what Phoenix did. They said f**k it, we’re going all in. We got to go out, the time is now. we got to put all the chips on the table, we got to go… None of these young boys in the league is trying to hear that sh-t,” said Melo.
12 hours later and I’m still watching this Anthony Edwards dunk pic.twitter.com/3EZWfy2Obo
— J.P. Hovey (@jhovey34) April 29, 2024
This is the first time in many years that Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and Steph Curry aren’t in the playoffs anymore at this point in time. Usually, these three legends would make deep playoff runs with their respective teams. The Suns made a bunch of wrong choices last summer and they did not have many assets to use in off-season trades.