Michael Jordan told Anthony Edwards his secret to scoring in the post

Anthony Edwards entered the NBA as an athletic freak who still needed major skill development when the Minnesota Timberwolves selected him No. 1 overall in the 2020 NBA Draft. It feels like he’s added something to his game every summer as he prepares to enter his sixth season. Last year’s big improvement was obvious: almost out of nowhere, Edwards became one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA. He led the league in three-pointers made (320) during the season, and was especially deadly off the dribble on more difficult pull-up threes, canning 38.5 percent of his 7.6 attempts per game on that play type.

After the Wolves were eliminated in the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year, Edwards has a new point of emphasis this season: improving his post game. ESPN insider Shams Charania reported that Edwards is working on his mid-post and low-post fadeaway, and that he’s been studying Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant along the way.

Edwards spoke about his post-up training as the Wolves took part in NBA Media Day on Monday, and shared that he got some advice on it from Jordan himself. Here’s what MJ told Ant-Man about how to attack in the post:

Jordan told Edwards to lean on his defender with the top of his back, not his ass. Basketball is a leverage game, and to Jordan, this gave him more leverage to attack out of the post.

Jordan practiced what he preached. Here’s MJ posting up Dan Majerle in the 1993 NBA Finals.

And here’s Kobe Bryant using a similar technique in the post himself:

Edwards certainly needs to improve his mid-range game, and posting up is part of that. Last season, Edwards shot just 37.8 percent on mid-range shots, according to Dunks and Threes, which ranked in the 25th percentile of the league. When his pull-up three suddenly stopping falling in the playoffs — he made 28.7 percent of his pull-up threes in the postseason after making 38.5 percent in the regular season — Edwards didn’t have a mid-range or post-game to lean on.

Edwards is the exact type of player who needs a great mid-range game. The mid-range has become the domain of superstars while the role players around them space the floor from three or cut to get easy baskets. Edwards is going to have the ball in his hands all year for the Wolves, and he needs to find a way to manufacture baskets on a team that doesn’t have great spacing with one non-shooter and one shaky shooter in the front court in Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle.

Edwards has always felt cut from the same cloth athletically as MJ and Kobe. It’s heartening to see him put in the work over the summer and add something new to his game, just like Jordan used to do during his playing career. It will be so much fun to watch Edwards’ post-up game this year, and if it improves, feel free to give MJ a little credit.