Top 10 Most Underrated
1. MIA SG, Victor Oladipo: The regression for former border-line All-Star level players really seems to be inconsistent when their careers get derailed due to injury. TJ Warren has played 4 games in the past 2 years, and his rating hasn't really dropped. Victor Oladipo was a key starter for a team that almost made the Finals. He may not be what he used to be but Oladipo is still solidly a top 100 player that many teams would want as a starter.
2. LAL PG, Russell Westbrook: Overreaction to a bad season. Westbrook's 2K rating here (78) indicates he is an average NBA player. Not many players ever in their careers could put up 18.5/7/7 on 44% FG shooting, let alone an average player. The fit was horrendous and the Lakers may want out, but prior to his stint in LA, Westbrook was averaging an efficient 20-point triple-double at the end of the 2020-2021 season to lead the Wizards to an improbable playoff berth.
3. DEN SF, Michael Porter Jr: Injuries are one thing - and his value as an asset has plummeted over the last year after he has missed another year of his career due to lingering back issues. When he's been on the floor he has been much better than this rating.
4. LAC PG, Reggie Jackson: The current 6-point gap between Clippers PGs John Wall (83) and Reggie Jackson (77) indicates some of the biases natural to a rating system for an entertainment product like this built on selling its stars. Looking at EPM (Dunks & Three's "Estimated Plus Minus) Reggie Jackson has been a league-average PG throughout his career. I would add that last year Jackson improved in his decision-making and clutch output. On the other hand, if we look at EPM, John Wall hasn't played above-league-average ball since 2018. I think it's a leap that after 4-years removed from his former all-star status that Wall is even as good as Jackson, let alone 6-points better. But we don't have to argue, we'll see seen though: I will be surprised if the Clippers don't start Jackson and bring Wall off the bench for Game 1.
5. POR PG, Damian Lillard: How much do we downgrade Lillard for missing almost all of last year, and shooting poorly in the 29 games he did play? Not that much in my opinion. It was a transition year in Portland - we've seen a similar story play out with Steph Curry in Golden State.
6. TOR PG, Fred Vanvleet: The best undrafted player currently in the NBA, Vanvleet's rating here still seems negatively affected by his lack of pedigree. Vanvleet probably should have been rated higher than Kyle Lowry in 2019. The fact that he is only 1-point better today indicates he is rated too low or Lowry is still rated far too high - or probably both.
7. BOS, SG Jayson Tatum: Tatum is clearly a top-10 player in the NBA in my opinion. Averaging 27 per game and leading a team to the Finals is no common occurrence. No way Tatum can be rated lower than guys like Devin Booker or Kyrie Irving - neither of whom ever had a similar playoff run as Tatum just had. Finals shooting stats were ugly - but his stats overall were much better than those of Kobe Bryant or LeBron James when they made their first Finals appereance. I don't give him a pass for the Finals, but those 6 games did not knock him out of my top 10.
8.GSW C, Kevon Looney: As valuable a Warrior as any not named Andrew Wiggins or Steph Curry in this year's Finals and Western Conference Finals.
9. BOS PG, Marcus Smart: Some thought it was crazy the Celtics wouldn't include Marcus Smart in a potential Durant trade. How advanced those talks actually were - I'm skeptical. Regardless, I would understand some resistance to including Smart in a trade. Smart in many ways a perfect PG compliment to a Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown lead the scoring attack, or for that matter any matter to any modern NBA offense that gets most of its creation from the wing position.
10. MIN SG, Anthony Edwards - He'll be rated where I have him by the end of the year - or likely by the December update.