The 2020-21 NBA regular season is over, and three former Bulldogs did very well on the court. Two of them have a chance to win it all, and another has a chance to pick up some individual hardware. Check out all the big stats, milestones, and record-breaking accomplishments in this edition of Stats Crunch.
Anthony Edwards put up some pretty impressive numbers in his first season as a pro. The No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. That despite coming off the bench in his first 17 contests. The Timberwolves really turned it on after the all-star break. In the first half of the season, Edwards averaged 14.9 points per game. In the second half, he had 23.8. Edwards even had three double-doubles (he also had three in his one season with the Dawgs).
His 1,392 total points were the third-most ever by a former Georgia player during his rookie season. Only Willie Anderson (1,508) and Dominique Wilkins (1,434) had more.
Edwards' 19.3 points per game were also the most by a rookie in Timberwolves history. That number eclipses his current teammate Karl-Anthony Towns’ average of 18.3. Edwards was more productive in his first season than other Timberwolves rookies Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury, Christian Laettner, Kevin Love, Zach LaVine, and Andrew Wiggins.
Edwards had four games in which he scored 30 or more points. In two of them he, had 42. No other rookie this season reached the 40-point plateau. No other rookies reached 40 last season, for that matter. He and LaMelo Ball are the two favorites to win the Rookie of the Year Award. Here is how the Atlanta native did against all rookies this season.
The 3-pt FG-made statistic was impressive because his 171 was the fourth most ever by a rookie in NBA history. Check out the impressive names in the top-7 all-time.
Three was also a magic number for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. On Sunday’s game against the Pelicans, KCP became the 129th player in NBA history to reach 1,000 career 3-pt FGs. He now has 1,001 in his career. Speaking of the number 1,000. The eight-year pro also reached 1,000 career assists in that same game after his six on Sunday gave him 1,005.
For the season, Caldwell-Pope averaged 9.7 points per game as well as 2.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists. Five times this season he scored 20-plus points, with a season-high of 29 against the Mavericks on April 22 (it's tough to score a lot of points when you have LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the team). As for his career totals, KCP has the third most NBA career points by former Bulldogs. Here are the top ten.
Last season, KCP became the second Georgia player to win an NBA title, after Shandon Anderson did it in 2006 with the Heat. This season KCP can do it again, but so can Nicolas Claxton. Claxton did not play his first game this season until February 23, but the Brooklyn Net put up some pretty impressive numbers.
Like Caldwell-Pope, Claxton is surrounded by superstars (Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving), so point totals will be low. But he still averaged 6.6 points per game and added 5.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks. He did all this averaging just 18.6 minutes per game. On April 13th, against Minnesota, Claxton had his first and only career start. The most impressive stat by the two-year pro is that he made over 62 percent of his shots (90-of-145). Last season, he made 56.3 percent. His field goal percentage is the highest ever by a former Georgia player in the NBA in seasons when the minimum is 100 field goal attempts. Check out the top five.
While Caldwell-Pope and Claxton will move on to the postseason, Edwards will not, but he still had one of the most impressive dunks of the season (courtesy of House of Highlights and FOX Sports).
