Anthony Edwards reached the sort of milestone in the Wolves’ win over the Cavaliers that makes you take notice more for the company he is keeping than the number itself.
At age 24 years, 156 days, Edwards became the third-youngest player in NBA history to reach 10,000 points.
The only two players who were younger, and the one who is just below Edwards on the list now: Three of the best players of all time in LeBron James (1), Kevin Durant (2) and Kobe Bryant (4).
Whether Edwards will eventually be considered in that same class by the end of his career is a notion that still consists of several unwritten chapters in his story.
But that is undeniably great company to keep, and it made me wonder: Just how did Edwards make it to 10,000 so fast?
I talked about that on Friday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
Here are some of the main takeaways at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
- First off, any “youngest to reach X milestone” stat has to start with relative age. LeBron and Kobe, of course, went straight from high school to the NBA. LeBron didn’t turn 19 until a couple of months into his rookie season. Kobe was 18 his entire rookie year. The NBA mandated starting in 2006 that players be at least 19 and one year removed from high school before entering the league. Durant played one year at Texas and had a late (September) birthday, meaning he was barely 19 when he debuted in the NBA. Edwards (August) has a similar late birthday and debuted in the NBA at age 19 after one year at Georgia.
- All of those players still had to produce. Edwards’ ascent is a testament to the Wolves not only getting the No. 1 pick right in a draft without a clear consensus (James Wiseman went No. 2, if you’ll recall) but also a player and organization continuing to grow together. Like LeBron, Durant and Kobe, Ant became a face of the franchise at a young age. That leads to more opportunities and more points.
- Edwards has one edge over the rest of those players: coming of age in the era of three-pointers. Ant has made 1,214 threes so far in five full seasons and part of this year, accounting for 3,642 (a little over 36%) of his career points. That’s more threes than LeBron (500) and Durant (562) made combined in their first five seasons, and it’s more than four times as many as Kobe (293) had in his first six seasons.
- Edwards has also been relatively durable, never playing fewer than 72 games in any of his five full seasons and reaching 79 (out of 82) each of the past three years. Staying on the court matters a lot with counting stats.
- But more than anything, Edwards has continued to grow his game. Rather than chasing milestones like the one he hit Thursday — “To be honest, it’s cool, but I know I got a lot more to go, so it’s really nothing,” Edwards said afterward — he’s worked on becoming even better by being a more efficient three-point shooter and adding a better mid-range shot to his game. His milestone, in fact, came on a mid-range baseline jumper that echoed shades of Kobe and Michael Jordan.
- One number that is larger than 10,000 but smaller than what the Wolves probably want it to be: Average attendance at Target Center this season. The Wolves announced a crowd of 17,274 for Thursday’s win over Cleveland, which is almost exactly their season average (17,265) per Basketball Reference. Last year the Wolves averaged 18,835 per game, more than 1,500 above the average so far this year.
- The decrease could be caused by a number of reasons, but it’s not their recent play. Minnesota has the best record in the NBA since Thanksgiving and is 8-2 in its past 10 games against teams with winning records.
- Also on Friday’s podcast, Star Tribune Twins writer Bobby Nightengale joined me for a further analysis of his top 10 organizational prospects and the biggest questions they face in 2026.
- You should definitely read and subscribe to Bobby’s weekly Twins newsletter. This Friday’s edition has an interesting introduction about the ball-strike challenge system coming to MLB this year.
- You can dislike a lot of things about the college sports transfer portal era, which I wrote about Thursday, but it was hard to find much to dislike from Thursday’s College Football Playoff thriller in which Miami prevailed 31-27 over Ole Miss.
