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Team: Charlotte Hornets

Position: PG

Age: 27

2017-18 Per-Game Stats: 23.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.3 blocks

What more does Kemba Walker have to do before he's recognized as a legitimate superstar?

The 27-year-old floor general should be widely hailed as one of the uber-elite point guards in today's NBA, not a lower-level All-Star who only graces the midseason classic because he plays in the league's weaker half. Just consider that he ranked ninth in fan voting last year while finishing seventh in the player poll and tied for sixth with Dwyane Wade among media members. This year will probably yield a similar result, because Walker typically toils away in relative obscurity, viewed as good but not quite great.

Throughout his career, he's still consistently shored up every weakness that emerges.

He couldn't shoot from distance when he first left Connecticut. Now he's knocking down 38.8 percent of his triples while taking 5.4 per game (numbers that are down from last year), and ducking under a screen is a guaranteed death sentence carried out with a pull-up bomb. He's struggled to finish around the basket, but now he's making more touch shots than ever and keeping rim-protectors off balance with a deadly floater.

Even on defense, Walker has asserted himself as a consistent presence who rarely gambles for steals but instead makes a point of staying between his man and the basket. Against all odds, the 6'1" floor general has become a two-way player who's indispensable to the Charlotte Hornets, as their net rating plummets from 11.2 to minus-22.9 when he leaves the floor.

Walker only has last year's All-Star appearance on his resume. He's never made an All-NBA team. He rarely gets mentioned in conversations about the league's five best point guards.

And that needs to change.

Adam Fromal covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter:@fromal09.

Unless otherwise indicated, all stats from Basketball Reference, NBA.com, NBA Math or ESPN.com and current heading into games on Nov. 5.