Minnesota Timberwolves: Making the future All-Star case for Anthony Edwards

The impact of the Minnesota Timberwolves on Edwards’ All-Star candidacy

At this stage, it’s fair to say that the nail in the coffin of Edwards’ future All-Star campaigns is the team he plays for. Selecting All-Stars is about picking the best players in the league, but team success is also a huge factor.

Among Western Conference All-Star guards over the last five seasons, the average playoff seed for their teams was fourth. Of those 29 individual seasons, there were only five instances in which the player was on an eighth-seeded team or worse: Jimmy Butler in 2018 (No. 8), Lillard and Booker in 2020 (No. 8 and No. 10, respectively), and Doncic and Curry this season (No. 8 and No. 9, respectively).

That doesn’t bode well for Edwards, as the Wolves have made the playoffs once since 2004 and have finished in the bottom three in the West 10 times in that span, including finishing dead-last four times.

The Wolves have to win more games for him to have any chance of racking up All-Star appearances. The Timberwolves are broken right now, and their only realistic path to success is through Edwards. It’s hard to put the weight of the franchise on a teenager, but if Edwards can become an All-Star-level, two-way guard and pair his talents with Karl-Anthony Towns, the Timberwolves have a ceiling of a lower-level playoff team.

Is that a likely scenario that both building blocks finally realize their full potential at the same time and miraculously raise an insanely flawed team back to relevance in the next few seasons? Probably not, so it will be extremely tough for Edwards to break into the All-Star conversation on a losing team unless his offensive numbers are off the charts.

There is some good news for Wolves fans who are anxious to see Edwards become just the eighth All-Star in franchise history. The fans could come to the rescue and help vote Edwards into a future All-Star game. Edwards is quickly becoming one of the most likable players in the NBA.

In his first half-season, Anthony Edwards has already treated NBA fans to a near-nightly highlight reel of high-flying dunks and is one of the most purely exciting young players in the game.

He is also gaining fans because of his fun-loving demeanor off the court. Ant’s antics in press conferences from bringing Popeye’s to his interview to joking with an Irish reporter about not paying attention to his question because he thought his accent was cool, Edwards is quickly endearing himself to NBA fans and media in his first season.

The fan vote accounts for 50 percent of the total vote for All-Star starters, while the media vote is another 25 percent. If Edwards becomes a fan favorite and continues to ingratiate himself with the media, they could potentially vote for him ahead of other NBA stars and get him into the game. Who wouldn’t want to see Edwards at All-Star Weekend giving some funny interviews, possibly participating in a dunk contest, and throwing down alley-oop after alley-oop in the All-Star game?