Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards will be making his third consecutive NBA All-Star Game appearance on Sunday night, an impressive distinction for a guy who hasn't yet celebrated his 24th birthday. But at this point in his career, an All-Star Game nod should be a formality for Edwards. We're talking about a 23-year-old who is already one of the league's most magnetic stars, having been compared favorably to the likes of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant over the last couple of years.

Anthony Edwards' sights should be set on awards and recognitions earned in May and June, on both the individual and team level. Ant was the catalyst of Minnesota's second appearance in the Western Conference Finals last spring, but this remains a franchise that has never played a game in the month of June, and Kevin Garnett, who led the Wolves to the West Finals in 2004, remains the only player in franchise history to win a regular season MVP Award.

Edwards hopes to change that soon enough, but he knows he still has steps to take before he's taken seriously as one of the league's best players who is leading one of the league's best teams.

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Frankly, if the Minnesota Timberwolves were winning this year at the rate they won last year, Edwards would likely be among the league's top four or five MVP candidates. He certainly has the numbers — 27.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.2 steals, 44/41/84 shooting splits — to be right there in the mix if the Wolves were once again projecting to finish the season as a 56-win team, but at the All-Star Break, Minnesota is on pace to win only 45 games and finish as the 7-seed in the Western Conference.

As far as the Step 2 goes, Anthony Edwards has already proven that he's a player who puts the work in during the offseason to improve his game from one year to the next. We saw Edwards increase his free throw attempts and percentage last year. This year, as he noted, he's shooting the three-ball at 41 percent on over 10 attempts per game. In time, he'll develop the post-up game, improve as a facilitator and make all of the necessary improvements to his game to get exactly where Timberwolves fans hope he will.