Aaliyah Edwards may play for the worst team in Unrivaled right now, but she is using the opportunity to showcase her scoring talent. Edwards averaged 21.4 points over her first seven games—the second-most on the Lunar Owls roster and fifth-most in the league—and scored a season-high 38 points against the Laces.
Edwards didn’t get the reps she really needed to develop in the WNBA this past season. First, she was stuck behind Shakira Austin and Kiki Iriafen in the Mystics’ rotation, and then she was traded to a Connecticut team that already had a set rotation for the season. Playing for the Lunar Owls allows her plenty of reps and opportunities to work on new skills and to expand her game.
WNBA Lisa Legend, who regularly calls Unrivaled games, thinks the next step for Edwards is to expand her range outside the paint. After Edwards hit a long two behind the free-throw line at the 4:43 mark of the Lunar Owls’ third quarter against the Hive, Leslie said, “I think Edwards needs to take more shots—that mid-range, and she can shoot the three also—just to keep the defense honest.”
Aaliya Edwards was a strong inside scorer in her first two WNBA seasons
Edwards only took seven threes as a rookie with the Washington Mystics. She didn’t make any of them. She was more successful in the mid-range, making 14 of her 40 attempts, but most of her scoring still came on the inside. Edwards took 115 shots in the restricted area and 48 in the paint. She made 72 of her shots in the restricted area and 17 of her attempts in the paint. At 62.6%, she was most efficient close to the basket.
While she got fewer shots in her second WNBA season, Edwards’s shot profile looked very similar. Almost half of her shot attempts came in the restricted area, and she made 60.6% of them. She was more efficient in the paint, converting 19 of her 44 shots. However, Edwards still struggled in the mid-range, shooting 7-30, and from three. She took nine threes and didn’t make any.
Edwards has also thrived around the rim in Unrivaled, playing well off Marina Mabrey and Skylar Diggins in pick-and-roll situations and outplaying other bigs in one-on-one situations. But Unrivaled is also the perfect opportunity for Edwards to experiment a little and take shots she hasn’t felt very comfortable taking in the W. The spacing in Unrivaled creates plenty of open shots further away from the basket, and Edwards has the green light to get plenty of shots up.
If Edwards can become a reliable mid-range threat—or even a threat from three—it changes the way defenses have to guard her.