T’wolves’ pick at No. 1: Edwards
The Timberwolves selected Georgia freshman guard Anthony Edwards with the No. 1 pick in the delayed NBA draft Wednesday night.
Edwards became the 11th straight one-and-done player to be the No. 1pick, coming in a year where there was no clear obvious choice. He averaged 19.1 points for the Bulldogs, tops among all freshman.
Commissioner Adam Silver announced the pick from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. The draft was originally scheduled for June 25 before multiple delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic pushed it back out and out of its usual home at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
In a busy week for the NBA, the league announced Tuesday night that it’s 2020-21 72-game schedule will feature a play-in tournament and an NBA Finals that could run all the way until July 22 — keeping some players from competing in the Olympics.
The league’s 75th season, delayed and shortened because of the coronavirus pandemic, will begin Dec. 22.
Teams will play 42 intraconference games, with each club facing the others within its conference three times apiece. Teams will play the remaining 30 games against the opposite conference— one at home and one on the road in a return to cross-country travel and playing in arenas after completing last season in a “bubble” environment.
When that’s finished, the play-in tournament, approved by the board of governors on a one-year basis, follows involving the teams with the seventh through 10th-best records in each conference. They will play for the final two playoff spots in the East and the West.
The team with the seventhbest record in each conference will host No. 8 in one game. The winner secures the No. 7 seed, while the loser hosts the winner of a game between Nos. 9 and 10. The winner of that game gets the final spot.
The league plans to announce the first half of the schedule around the start of training camp in early December. The second half will be unveiled during the latter part of the first half.
If all goes according to plan, preseason games will be held Dec. 11-19. The first half of the season then runs Dec. 22 through March 4, followed by a break March 5-10.