Most Overrated Basketball Players \ stacker news ~Stacker

196 sats \ 15 comments \ @Undisciplined 29 Apr Stacker_Sports

When the season was kicking off, i remember saying that I was looking forward to betting against the Phoenix Suns. KD is an all-time talent, but I never believed in him as a franchise guy.

In honor of the abject failure of the latest "Super Team", I wanted to do an all-time most overrated players 1st team. I'll be curious to hear yours.

C: Joel Embiid F: Kevin Durant F: Charles Barkley G: James Harden G: Russell Westbrook

Whether it's being out of shape, mentally weak, low motor, or just making poor basketball decisions, those are five NBA MVP's who I just wouldn't trust to get a team over the finish line.

Honorable mention to Wilt Chamberlain: young Wilt would have been the captain of this team, but he did change his playstyle later and won a couple of titles because of it.

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73 sats \ 4 replies \ @Cje95 29 Apr

James Harden is the definition of someone who has uncanny athletic ability but towards the end of his Houston tenure just gave up. He got outta shape and just in general lost all of his focus instead starting to party it up. At first I hated the rockets trading him but watching what he has done to other teams I think just shows how much of a cancer he has become.

20 sats \ 3 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 29 Apr

I agree. He's one of the great regular season players ever. He probably should have won another MVP or two.

It's just really hard to go through the playoffs with a high-variance play style and relying heavily on foul-baiting antics.

73 sats \ 2 replies \ @Cje95 29 Apr

There was one postseason we had all the pieces together but that was back during the 2018 postseason where we led the Golden State Warriors 3-2 before Chris Paul got hurt and we lost the last two

20 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined OP 29 Apr

That was the 0/27 from three series, right?

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 29 Apr

Sadly yes it was 🙃

73 sats \ 1 reply \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 29 Apr

Sorry, but Barkley belongs nowhere on this list. Guy was an absolutely beast, and played with some awful supporting players. He still managed to get the Suns to the finish line, and one guy can't bring them over by himself.

Much as I hate to say it, Patrick Ewing's probably the player of this generation who fits the bill; he was supposed to be the savior, but even when he had solid talent around him, he was overshadowed by Shaq, Robinson, Hakeem.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 29 Apr

I mostly remember "old" Barkley, so I'll take your point into consideration. My reasoning with Barkley is that he didn't consistently give great defensive effort and he took lots of long inefficient jump shots, in addition to often being out of shape.

Westbrook is one of my favorite players to watch, so this isn't an "I don't like this guy" list. I just don't think it's easy to build a title contender around these guys, despite their tremendous talent.

I'm actually thinking that I'd like to replace Barkley with Doncic, but Doncic deserves a bit more time to prove me wrong.

73 sats \ 1 reply \ @Satosora 29 Apr

Jeremy Lin lol

3 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 29 Apr

Everyone remembers Linsanity.

53 sats \ 5 replies \ @grayruby 29 Apr

These are all incredible players. I don't know about most overrated. I am sure there have been much more overrated players than these guys. I think what you are trying to say is they aren't winners.

50 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 29 Apr

They all won MVP awards.

How can you do that and not be a winning player without being overrated?

I agree that they're all amazing players, but that doesn't mean they aren't overrated. I considered Allen Iverson for one of the guard positions, btw, and I loved watching AI.

53 sats \ 3 replies \ @grayruby 29 Apr

How can you win an MVP and be most overrated? Maybe you could be the most overrated MVP there ever was but not most overrated player in general.

MVP means you were the most valuable player that season. You can't be rated more than most valuable. So, if they reached the pinnacle of potential expectations (MVP caliber player) I find it hard to argue they are most overrated.

Possibly they are overrated now. All of them other than Embiid are past the prime of their careers.

I understand what you are getting at. I dislike players who disappear in the playoffs as much as anyone. It pains me that my favourite pitcher in MLB in the past decade, Clayton Kershaw, has been an abomination in the playoffs. I don't consider him overrated though. He is one of the top 3 pitchers of the past decade plus and is a lock for the hall of fame. For whatever reason he just can't get it done in the playoffs.

That being said. As you may know, I like to rag on the Leafs for being great in the regular season, scoring insane amount of goals and then being awful when playoffs come around. I chalk it up to the fact that their core players aren't winners, they are stats stackers, so maybe we are actually arguing the same thing but in a different way.

50 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 29 Apr

What I think is going on is that the MVP voters get swept up in the narratives of the moment or wild stats and they lose sight on what these teams are trying to accomplish.

I don't think most people honestly thought those guys were more valuable than Jordan, Lebron, or Jokic, even for those specific seasons. Harden's probably an exception to that, because of how thoroughly dependent Houston was on him and how many games they won.

Conceptually, MVP shouldn't be a "Who had the best regular season?" award. It should be something like "Who increased their teams title chances the most?".

53 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 29 Apr

MVP is a regular season award though so shouldn't it be "who increased their teams place in the standings the most".

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 29 Apr

I don't think so, although that's going to be a big factor, because it increases title chances.

Lebron carried several otherwise non-playoff teams all the way to the finals. To me, getting into the playoffs with and because of Lebron is more value added than getting the top seed because of Durant.

It's still a regular season honor, but it's recognizing improving title chances over winning regular season games (or just doing awesome stuff in the regular season).

That's why I think the Harden case is the most interesting. The only way to a title was beating Golden State and the only way to beat Golden State was with something like those Rockets teams and Harden was the only guy who could carry a team like that.

So, while Harden generally doesn't meet my perception of what winning basketball looks like, I do think he was the MVP for a couple of years there. No one else, other than Lebron and Kawhi, was giving his team any real chance of beating Golden State. And, of those three guys, Harden's supporting cast was by far the least impressive.

It's an interesting discussion and I'm still crystalizing my views on it, but I don't think guys should be winning MVP unless they're thought to be the reason their team has a shot at a title.