Will Anthony Edwards be a top 5 player this year?

 Anthony Edwards has been a fan and analyst favorite for a while now. But is it time for him to take the next step?

The answer is Yes. And I think the 2022/2023 season was the first season we saw this as a very real and imminent possibility. Previously we had seen flashes of ant men shooting and defending he had previously utilized the fact that he was a 6'4 225 pound athlete as his main means of scoring. 

This season however the reigns of the Timberwolves franchise were taken from KAT, who had long since been the only hope in Minnesota, as he averaged 24.6, 4.5 assists, and 5.8 rebounds with almost a block a night and 1.5 steals (which will be talked more about later)

In terms of just offensive output, Ant-Man has shown consistent growth all throughout his career coming off a World Cup that brought him under the spotlight and where he was one of the only players who made America proud. There is no reason this won't happen again this year.

Furthermore, the stats don't say everything. Anyone who watched significant minutes from Ant last year would tell you how much his overall offensive game has come along. He can score perfectly on all 3 levels, hand in his face no hand in his face. As well as this his assist numbers have been increasing and it's easy to see how much better he's getting at hitting his teammates when they are open (this should go up even more as preseason games have displayed that chemistry among the Wolves has increased. 

His leadership and attitude are also not something to discount. At only the age of 22, he has proven his attitude by expressing that "after this year" (last year) "I'm going to be in the best player conversation" and that self-belief is important, as Ben Simmons's deterioration proves. As well as this his presence and effect on his teammates, although intangible, can be felt through the screen. He is a born leader.

There are two more important points to make. Firstly is how the kid's defense has come along, Ant was never a traffic cone defender, however this last year he has proved he is a legitimate two-way player, which bodes well for the Wolves who pair him with a 3x DPOY big man and a 22-year-old Jaden Mcdaniels who has made his case for being the best perimeter defender in the league by a number of metrics and needs his complete own article. Anthony Edwards put up the 6th most steals in total last year as well as averaging 1.6 a game. Combining this with his athleticism and size he is a match-up nightmare, especially for smaller guards. Again contributing to Edwards's case for becoming a top 5 payer this year.

Finally, his playoff performances are astounding. The only shooting guard putting up post-season stats is Devin Booker and Anthony Edwards is many years younger. He averages 31.9 points in his career. including half the games played against the soon to be champions the denver nuggets when KCP was quoted saying "the wolves were the hardest match up we faced" 

In conclusion, bar injury Anthony Edwards seems bound to have yet another career year, and importantly, dont sleep on the ceiling of this wolves team..