Players you feel are underrated in the mass

[tsherkin]

Maurice Lucas is underrated by the masses. Heck, even on this board where basketball history is examined and appreciated, Lucas gets underrated. Guy was a 20-10 PF with all-league defense,

15/9, really. He hit 20/10 twice in his career, so repping him as if he did that often/regularly isn't quite right. Mo Lucas was quite good, but there are reasons he isn't heard of very often. The list of guys who have ever posted 20/10 in their careers once or twice is quite long.

[billy bremner]

Dennis Johnson
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf
Toni Kukoc
Bobby Jones
Bob McAdoo

[jojo4341]

Mitch Richmond

He could do it all as a SG and was really strong. MJ said he was one of his toughest matchups overall on both ends of the floor. He was on bad teams most of his career and unfairly gets labeled as one of the worst HOF inductions.

[TT8198]

Nate Thurmond (most underrated player of all time)
Moses Malone
Jerry West
Elgin Baylor
Dennis Johnson
Wes Unseld
Artis Gilmore
*Julius Erving(I don't think ppl realize how good Dr.J actually was. I'd take him over Kawhi and Kevin Durant career wise)

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[trex_8063]

Mainstream?......

Kevin Garnett
Chris Paul
Bill Russell
Tim Duncan
Zelmo Beaty
Horace Grant
Bill Laimbeer
Jeff Hornacek
Larry Nance (Sr.)
Rasheed Wallace
Reggie Miller
EDIT: Vlade Divac [edited in after reading someone else mention; very underrated]; also Terry Porter
.....and generally any REALLY good 3&D role player (Shane Battier and Danny Green, most notably come to mind).


Others that come to mind (maybe slightly below the above names listed):
Robert Parish
Pau Gasol
Shawn Marion
idk about Steve Nash; he might get slept on a little for underwhelming indvidual numbers, but then gets a big boost in mainstream for having 2 MVP's.
Dan Issel
Artis Gilmore

[eminence]

Dolph Schayes is my guy who people actually know (I'd probably have him above Pettit All-time), Bob Davies for the ones people really have no idea who he is (contention for the back of the top 100 for me).

Current guys - I'm a big Tatum believer, and obviously a Rudy fan.

Plenty of others in between.

[prolific passer]

Watched that Sweetwater film the other day and it was decent. Forgot about those early Knicks teams of the 50s that made a few finals but lost to Mikan and his Lakers. If only Harry Gallatin was a few inches taller. He had the strength but not the height. I have an autographed basketball from him because he went into my sisters work. He didn't know he was on those early 2000s nba live games when they had the legends teams.

[ShaqAttac]

I think any pre-1980 player is underrated (or forgotten) maybe outside of Wilt and Russell.

i hear ppl calling oscar goat all the time

[70sFan]

I think any pre-1980 player is underrated (or forgotten) maybe outside of Wilt and Russell.

i hear ppl calling oscar goat all the time

You mean people who lived during that era? Yeah, but they are a huge minority now.

[MrLurker]

I think Reddick deserves more respect

Aldridge is also underappreciated

[trex_8063]

I think Reddick deserves more respect

Aldridge is also underappreciated

Good call on Aldridge. Not entirely sure about the mainstream, but around here he's dinged excessively [imo] for taking so many mid-range shots, which puts a hard-cap on his shooting efficiency (which generallly hovered right around league average most years).

However, this fails to recognize the other benefits of that play-style:
1) Spacing. Having a PF/C who takes the bulk of his shots outside of 13-14' [including a considerable number outside 18'] opens up the floor for teammates, as well as draws opposing big men out of rebounding position.
2) The oft-forgotten aspect of offensive efficiency: Turnover Economy. LMA "settling" for outside shots also means he's not putting the ball on the floor in a congested paint area or subject to as many double-teams, etc, which means there fewer opportunities to turn the ball over. And indeed, those who choose to look will note the Aldridge is in the GOAT-tier of turnover economies among big men.
While a mid-range shot may not be the highest % shot in basketball, it is almost infinitely better than a turnover.


Additionally, I think he was a more capable [perhaps even far more???] team defender than he is generally given credit for through most of his prime.
Which I think is a big part of why RAPM from '09-'16 and '18 [that's NINE seasons] fairly consistently posits him as a [usually fringe] top-15 player in the league (except for 2-3 years where he's still somewhere in the 18-25 range).

Combine that with the relative durability and length of usefulness of his career.......

[Heej]

Mike Conley was the posterboy of this the last decade imo. Then he had a stint where everyone was saying he needed more love. But overall his career's underrated

[JimmyFromNz]

Chauncey Billups, Pau Gasol, Lamarcus Aldridge for this century.

I do think generally players from the 70s (in between the romantic lens we apply the 1960s and then 80s expansion) get overlooked. Bill Walton pre-injury doesn't get a heap of attention, Dave Cowens, Elvin Hayes are others that crop to mind.

There is probably a separate 'role players' deep dive to be done across the decades also.

[penbeast0]

Donyell Marshall. Good 3 and D combo forward who never got any credit.

DIsagree about Reddick. One dimensional 3 point shooter who didn't play particularly good defense. Basically Corey Kispert. Solid for what he did but still very limited.

[trex_8063]

Good call on Chauncey.

Mike Conley has probably been underrated in his career, too.

[Jaivl]

Chauncey Billups, Pau Gasol, Lamarcus Aldridge for this century.

I do think generally players from the 70s (in between the romantic lens we apply the 1960s and then 80s expansion) get overlooked. Bill Walton pre-injury doesn't get a heap of attention, Dave Cowens, Elvin Hayes are others that crop to mind.

There is probably a separate 'role players' deep dive to be done across the decades also.

Don't think Billups or Gasol are close to being underrated tbh. If anything Chauncey gets pretty overrated here.

Aldridge is a fantastic shout.

[penbeast0]

We aways used to say Larry Nance but it got to the point (like Conley) where he started getting accurately or even overrated by virtue of everyone saying how underrated he was. Shawn Marion, Horace Grant are others like that. Hot Rod Williams?

[cpower]

Draymond Green is the most underrated NBA player ever.

[penbeast0]

Another good 3 and D player that gets underrated was Marvin Williams. Not a star, mind you, but a useful player everyone could use.

[The Master]

Don't think Billups or Gasol are close to being underrated tbh. If anything Chauncey gets pretty overrated here.

Both Pau and Manu are, all these viral tweets about "Duncan/Kobe won multiple titles without top75 player alongside", because they weren't included in this famous list of top75 players ever (even though in reality they're easily there), or this graphic from the NBA finals about Lakers' legendary duos without Kobe&Pau, are good examples of that.

But I'd say - alongside age disparity (obviously the older are players the more underrated they will be on average), all those high impact-mediocre boxscore players like Bobby Jones, Mo Cheeks, Sheed etc. are probably the most underrated by the masses considering their actual impact. Sheed was spectacular impact-wise, yet I don't think in the mass he will be remembered as such, the same with Bobby Jones, even though he was instrumental role player for one of the best teams in the 80s (with even stronger resume in the late 70s).