Anthony Edwards appears to back random Suns role player in sweep

The Phoenix Suns were the first team eliminated from the playoffs this season, and are now facing into a long offseason full of speculation about their future. There is plenty of blame for the failures of this group to go around, although one scapegoat is quickly emerging for the organization to pin them blame on.

In sweeping the Suns in ruthless fashion - the Minnesota Timberwolves have not only announced their arrival as a serious outfit who could go far in the playoffs - they also possess a potential future face of the league in Anthony Edwards. The 22-year-old brilliantly towing the line between flat out disrespecting the Suns, while also showing love for his hero Kevin Durant.

What nobody could have predicted however, is that Edwards would also be a fan of a backup role player from the Suns that plenty of fans never want to see again.

But that seemed to be the case when Edwards and his teammate Karl-Anthony Towns took to the podium to speak to the media in the aftermath of their Game 4 win in Phoenix. Microphones appearing to catch the following exchange between the two as they checked out the box score ahead of fielding questions.

The fact Edwards name-checked center Drew Eubanks of all players is... quite random. Eubanks didn't have a particularly memorable season, nor was he invaluable to the Suns throughout an up-and-down campaign either. In fact we think he's the most likely player on the roster to not return for the 2024-25 season.

Edwards knows ball though - certainly more than our writer who predicted Eubanks won't be back in The Valley - and when you watch Eubanks in small bursts, you can kind of see where he is coming from. For all of the shortcomings of Eubanks, what has been forgotten is that his arrival to the Suns was seen as a nice get last summer.

That's because he plays with a high motor and the kind of energy and intensity that was both needed off the bench, and which was sorely lacking throughout the regular season for the Suns. Eubanks is neither a better offensive player than starting big man Jusuf Nurkic, and he's not as dominant inside the paint either.

He's a kind of "jack of all trades, master of none" individual - but also one who is not afraid to stand up for himself off the court - as Isaiah Stewart of the Detroit Pistons can vouch for. That kind of fight on the court might not have been appreciated by Suns fans, and it was tough to watch at times, but it is a quality Edwards is clearly a fan of.

Towns backing up that sentiment also shows us that head coach Frank Vogel may have missed a trick in playing Eubanks a total of 27 minutes across three of the four contests. Eubanks isn't physical enough to trouble the towering Rudy Gobert, and he's not quick or athletic enough to contest the shots of Towns properly outside of the paint.

But he's just imposing enough to make Gobert work on some possessions, while he's got enough in the tank to get out on Towns some as well. Playing Eubanks more wouldn't have swung the series - although it is fair to point out that Nurkic was hardly incredible himself - but as Edwards has highlighted here, he did enough in his limited run to make his opponents remember him.