The Most Criminally Underrated NBA Players Of The 2017-18 Season
Who are the most underrated NBA players of the 2017-18 season?
The NBA has evolved so quickly over the past decade. And it feels like every season or two, we’re finding out crucial skill sets we never knew teams need. With an increasing emphasis on spacing and ball movement, players with diverse abilities — big men who can shoot, pass, and handle, and guards who can switch defensively onto bigger players — are in high demand. But that doesn’t mean every player built to thrive in basketball’s new age is getting the shine they deserve. So here are the 20 most underrated NBA players of the 2017-18 season, in no particular order.Darren Collison
While Victor Oladipo deserves most of the credit for the Pacers’ stunning turnaround in 2017-18, Collison can’t be overlooked. In addition to providing solid defense at the point of attack, Collison led all qualified players in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 4.
28, and three-point percentage, at 46.8 percent.
Gary Harris
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Another two-way efficiency maven, Harris finished sixth in the NBA in steals per game (1.8) in 2017-18. He also upped his scoring to 17.5 points per game in his fourth season, doing so with, according to Basketball Reference, a 59.
7 true shooting percentage, a stat that weighs the efficiency of a player’s shots from two-point range, three-point range, and the free-throw line (the league average is roughly 55 percent, and even lower for guards).
Joe Harris
Harris transformed his game under the tutelage of head coach and development guru Kenny Atkinson to become one of the most efficient offensive guards in the NBA. He finally reached his potential as one of the league’s most lethal outside shooters, shooting a scorching 41.9 percent on 4.
6 three-point attempts per game, and started selectively taking the ball to the rack. Among guards, he posted the second-highest effective field-goal percentage (which weighs two-point and three-point attempts) at 61.2 percent, behind some guy named Stephen Curry.
Nikola Mirotic
After trading for Mirotic ahead of the trade deadline, the Pelicans went 20-10 with the Montenegrin-Spanish stretch-4 in the lineup. They went 28-24 without Mirotic, featuring star big man DeMarcus Cousins in 48 of those contests.
The high-volume outside shooter provided just enough defense at the power forward spot to form a daunting frontcourt pairing with Anthony Davis.