Is Anthony Edwards the next Steph Curry? Plus, the NBA Cup starts tomorrow!

The Bounce newsletterR | That is The Athletics daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce straight to your inbox.

Programming Note: In honor of Veterans Day, there will be no bounce tomorrow – we’re taking some time off from writing and editing today. We’ll be back on Wednesday. I want to thank my father and all the veterans who have served our country.

The next curry

Ant shoots like Steph…seriously

During the first week of the regular season, everyone seemed to notice that Anthony Edwards was shooting a lot of three-pointers – an absurd amount. The Timberwolves superstar made 40 three-pointers in the first three games. I admit that I dismissed the people who defended this decision by saying, “Well, he’s making 37.5 percent of it,” which is above the league average of 35 to 36 percent most seasons. Sure, that’s good, but we had to wait for a larger sample to see if he made good decisions. About it …

It turns out: he actually shoots threes better after 10 games. Edwards has made 118 3-pointers in the first 10 games – 118! For the non-math majors out there: that’s 11.8 attempts per night. That’s really high. Only Steph Curry and James Harden have shot as many per game in a season (both did it twice). After 10 games, we can truly say that Edwards shoots 3-pointers like Steph. That’s not an exaggeration. This is mathematics.

In a loss to the Miami Heat yesterday, the 23-year-old Edwards hit 4 of 14 shots from deep. As a result, his season accuracy dropped to 45.7 percent. That’s absurdly efficient and a lot of 3-point makes and attempts for a 10-game sample size. I was concerned that Edwards wasn’t determined enough – he didn’t put enough pressure on the defense with his strength and athleticism. Instead, he turns his 3-ball into a strength. Edwards said he imitated Damian Lillard to improve his footwork on shots. It clearly works.

Another view:

• Curry holds the record for most 3-pointers in a season with 402 (2015-16). Harden is second with 378 (2018-19). Curry also has the next four spots on this list and Klay Thompson has 302 makes in a season.
• These are the only seasons in NBA history in which a player made at least 300 3s.
• Ant has played at least 72 games in every season of his career. If he keeps up this pace and plays 72 games, he will make 388 3-pointers this season. That would nearly double his career-high of 215.

That would be the second highest of all time. If he keeps up this pace and plays 75 games, Edwards will break Curry’s record of 405 3-pointers. We still have a long way to go, of course, but it’s crazy that we can even consider this as a remote possibility.

The last 24

There are too many injuries

🩼 Chet Holmgren broke his pelvis. The Thunder big man fell hard to the ground last night after blocking a shot and did is expected to be canceled for at least two months.

🩼 Zion Williamson is out with a hamstring strain. He’s out indefinitely, which is either a little or a lot. The Pelicans (3-7) adjust.

🩼 Kevin Durant is out with a calf strain. The 8-2 Suns will miss him for at least two weeks. How to replace KD?

🩼 Yes Morant is out with a hip injury. The Grizzlies star is Week after week after a strange fall.

🏀 Norm Powell is on the ball! There can’t be just one violation message. The Clippers guard is doing well as LA enjoys a 6-4 start.

🏀 Bronny made his G League debut. He didn’t have a particularly good game, but enjoyed a few moments. Jovan Buha explains.

📚 The Basketball 100 is coming soon. Let’s whet your appetite for this upcoming literary masterpiece with an excerpt about Jayson Tatum. He comes in at number 91.

📺 Will the streak continue? The Cavaliers (11-0) face the Bulls (4-6) tonight as they look to become the seventh team in NBA history to start 12-0. The game takes place at 8:00 p.m. ET on League Pass. More Cavs talks coming next!

Stock report

The Cavs are unstoppable

We’re in Week 3 of our NBA Stock Report, letting you know who’s going in the right direction and who’s going in the wrong direction. The aforementioned Cavs still haven’t lost a game, the Nuggets are on fire, and we’re currently seeing a number of teams suffering from injuries. Let’s take the temperature of the NBA market:

📈 Cleveland Cavaliers (11-0). The Cavs were 9-0 and faced a big test on Friday night when the hot Golden State Warriors came to town. Cleveland’s win meant people could stand up and pay attention… and the Cavs were down 41 at halftime. People are paying attention now.

📉 The East. Anyone not in Cleveland or Boston (9-2) is off to a rough start early this season. The Indiana Pacers (5-5) are the only other East team without a losing record. They are third in the conference. In the West they would be 11th.

📈 Denver Nuggets (7-3). Remember the panic there was about the Nuggets in the first week? (Definitely not from you and me. It was just other people panicking. You shouldn’t be looking for evidence that we panicked.) Well, the Nuggets have won five games in a row and Nikola Jokić destroys everyone. Just beat OKC and Dallas too.

📉 New York Knicks (4-5). The Knicks are just 1-3 in the last week, and while their offense was good, their defense was poor. Tom Thibodeau has almost no bench to fall back on right now. They avoided a winless week by beating the Bucks, but also lost to the Hawks.

📈 NBA beef. The Bucks (2-7) led by 17 in the second quarter against Boston last night and ultimately lost 113-107 despite 43 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo. There was one play in the second quarter where Giannis caught Jaylen Brown with an elbow and that was ruled an offensive foul. Giannis held out his hand as a gesture to show “no hard feelings,” and then this happened.

Brown called Antetokounmpo “a kid” when asked about that moment after the game. This could also be symbolic of the support Antetokounmpo has shown his last three coaches. Do you side with Brown or Antetokounmpo here? Let us know.

📈 Jalen Green Revenge. Speaking of beef, Green was the second pick behind Cade Cunningham in the 2021 NBA Draft. Since then, Green has talked about not wanting to be in Detroit, and he seems pretty happy in Houston. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t drama between him and the Pistons’ big guard. After Amen Thompson cleaned up Cade yesterday, Green pounced on him.

My goodness! I wonder if Cunningham tapping Green in the face after a dunk in high school bothered him at all? 👀

The NBA Cup is coming

Let’s get you ready for Tuesday!

The NBA’s second annual in-season tournament begins tomorrow evening. The name has been changed to NBA Cup, but it’s the same madness we saw a year ago when the league first added it to the schedule. The pitches are different than typical regular season games. And it encourages increasing the score during group play because the score difference is important. Here’s what you need to know:

When exactly does the NBA Cup take place? NBA Cup group games take place every Tuesday and Friday between November 12th and December 3rd. To break it down further: It’s the next four Tuesdays and the next three Fridays. Then the tournament part of the NBA Cup begins on December 10th and 11th. The tournament returns to Las Vegas on December 14th, with the championship taking place on December 17th. The NBA Cup champion receives a banner and trophy, and every player on the roster nabs $500,000 for the win.

How does it work? We have six groups of five teams each. Three groups in the east, three groups in the west. Each team plays four games within their group. The winner of each group advances, as does a wildcard team from each conference. Here are the six groups:

• East A: Knicks, Nets, Magic, 76ers, Hornets
• East B: Bucks, Pacers, Heat, Raptors, Pistons
• East C: Celtics, Bulls, Cavaliers, Hawks, Wizards
• West A: Wolves, Clippers, Kings, Rockets, Blazers
• West B: Thunder, Suns, Lakers, Jazz, Spurs
• West C: Nuggets, Mavericks, Pelicans, Warriors, Grizzlies

The tiebreaker will largely depend on the direct record in group play and the point difference. So. When you see the teams increasing their score at the end of these group games, that’s actually what they are allegedly to do. That’s eight teams advancing to the knockout tournament portion of the NBA Cup. And yes, all of those NBA Cup games still count toward the regular season standings.

What is your forecast for the whole thing? Give me the Knicks, Pacers and Celtics to win their brackets in the East while the Cavs nab the Wild Card. I’ll take the Kings, Lakers and Warriors winning their groups, with the Mavericks as the wild card in the West. In the semifinals, the Lakers will face the Kings and the Celtics will face the Pacers. Then give me the Lakers over the Celtics for the NBA Cup title. I only know the Lakers as NBA Cup champions, so I’ll pick them until someone else wins.

📫 Do you love The Bounce? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images )