NBA Free Agency 2012: Power Ranking Top 3 Overhyped Free Agents at Each Position

Free agency in the NBA is great. Nobody ever knows what's really going on and all we have to rely on is speculation, Chris Broussard's sources and tweets, mountains and mountains of tweets.

Even with all that, we have no idea what's going on. Nobody knew that Steve Nash was going to the Lakers until they basically came out and told everyone.

Plus, it gives us the perfect opportunity to watch general managers admit their past mistakes without openly dishing out a mea culpa. 

Think about it: Brandon Roy, Jeremy Lin and Goran Dragic have all signed offers with former teams after those teams realized the mistake they made in either trading or releasing them.

However, something that happens endlessly during free agency is players get talked up and offered deals to the point that it seems like they'd done nothing bad throughout their careers, leading to crazy amounts of hype that needs to be cut down to size.

#3 Overhyped Point Guard: Jeremy Lin

Jeremy Lin was a great point guard last season, which means he made an impact on the NBA in roughly 30 games out of 64 in his career.

Honestly, when is the last time that a guy got paid based solely on a body of work so small that Eddy Curry could eat it as an appetizer?

That's not to say that Jeremy Lin couldn't go out and continue to play great, or that he's not worth the money coming to him in terms of advertising, ticket and jersey sales, but he's not worth the contract coming his way in terms of earned basketball prowess.

#2 Overhyped Point Guard: Raymond Felton

Raymond Felton was looked at by the Knicks at one point (and I suppose it's still not out of the question) as a possible sign-and-trade option to pair with Jason Kidd as a kind of point guard by committee abomination of a plan.

Since when is a player who only had success on a team not named the Bobcats one time, in which he was running an offense that would lead to big numbers from any point guard, worthy of leading any team looking to have an outside shot at an NBA Championship?

Here's the only thing I can see when I think about Raymond Felton these days.

#1 Overhyped Point Guard: Jason Kidd

I swear to you I'm not targeting guys the Knicks are going after, it's just that this year's point guard class is incredibly shallow and the Knicks have gone after 90 percent of the guys on the market.

It seems silly that there was a big deal made out of Jason Kidd leaving the Mavericks for the Knicks at this point. What was he really going to add to the team at this point?

Honestly, Kidd is best served as a back-up point guard on a halfway decent team, and on the Mavericks, he would be a part of a questionable team at best, possibly asked to start.

#3 Overhyped Shooting Guard: Ray Allen

Ray Allen is the greatest shooter of all-time, there's no doubt about that, but have we all forgotten about injuries that hampered him at the end of last season.

It's entirely possible that Ray Allen could come out of the gate, play 70 games with a night of rest here and there and completely torch the league on wide-open threes, but he's got to get his body back in line first, which is harder to do with age.

Until we hear that Allen's ankle is going to be no problem, the guarantees that Allen will mean a repeat title to the Heat need to cease. 

#2 Overhyped Shooting Guard: Jamal Crawford

Gosh, Jamal Crawford made out like a bandit, did he not? How could the Clippers look at this guy and honestly think he's worth the money that they threw at him?

Hey, I guess any time you have a chance to sign a guard who shot 38 percent last year for four years and over $20 million to give him a chance to ignore Vinny Del Negro while missing shot after shot, I guess you've got to do it, right?

#1 Overhyped Shooting Guard: O.J. Mayo

O.J. Mayo is a fine player, but a game-changer he is not.

Would he have relegated himself to what his worth is more near, which is the mid-level exception, he could have helped the Boston Celtics get back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Instead, Mayo decided he was worth more than the mid-level exception, which mean's he'll probably end up on a middling team with a shot at the playoffs, but no real shot at the Conference Finals.

#3 Overhyped Small Forward: Nicolas Batum

Man, guys are getting overpaid up in here, are they not?

Nicolas Batum is a fine player and he's a pretty good defender, but worth $45 million he is not.

What's crazy with the deal that Batum signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves is the fact that it's a good sign for the T-Wolves, as they finally get a winger who can cut to the rim, but if the Blazers match their offer then it's a bad deal for them, as it doesn't really advance them in any way.

Basketball works in weird ways.

#2 Overhyped Small Forward: Michael Beasley

It's funny how quickly a player can go from being a team cancer and worthless to a good franchise to desirable to some of the best teams in the league.

At one point, the Los Angeles Lakers were interested in turning Michael Beasley into their new Lamar Odom, but he ended up signing an $18 million deal with the Suns.

Beasley is by no means a terrible player, but the swing of public opinion is more interesting than anything else here.

#1 Overhyped Small Forward: Jeff Green

Jeff Green coming back to the Celtics was huge news, but what wasn't huge news was the fact that they seem to be on the verge of giving him enough money that he could fill a pool with gold coins and dive in Scrooge McDuck-style.

Wait a second, isn't this the dude that was lambasted as a part of the trade that ruined the Celtics chance at a title after flipping him and Kendrick Perkins? Isn't this the dude that missed the season because he needed heart surgery?

Yeah, pay that guy more than you paid him before he had heart surgery; that makes sense.

#3 Overhyped Power Forward: Ersan Ilyasova

For a guy who shoots 45 percent from downtown, rebounds well and averages around 13 points per game, a five-year, $40 million deal isn't insane, but I would want a bit more confidence in his performance than one year's worth of numbers.

What's concerning me is the fact that he shot a full 12 percent worse from downtown in his first three seasons, averaged three fewer rebounds and four fewer points per game.

One breakout year does not make a career.

#2 Overhyped Power Forward: Reggie Evans

Did you hear, the Nets stole Reggie Evans in a sign-and-trade with the Clippers, he's going to be killer for them!

What does Reggie Evans bring to the Nets? Rebounding, toughness and some defense. Wait, isn't that exactly what Kris Humphries did for the Nets last year, only while scoring 14 points a game as well?

How important can Evans be if they've got a guy who does what he does already, save a bit of toughness.

#1 Overhyped Power Forward: Ryan Anderson

The Orlando Magic seem to be attached to Ryan Anderson as if he's the future of this team, but really he's just Rashard Lewis 2.0.

Think about it, as a stretch-four who plays well alongside Dwight Howard, Anderson is the perfect player for this Magic team, but as soon as Howard leaves, teams are going to be able to cover him more tightly on the three-point line and he's going to regress.

There's no way Anderson is worth a huge contract; they've gone down that road before.

#3 Overhyped Center: Roy Hibbert

Roy Hibbert is a great young center. Hell, after Andrew Bynum he's easily the best center in the game under 25.

However, to think that it's a necessity for Indiana to kill their cap space to resign the guy at a maximum deal is a little bit over the top.

After all, this is the dude that scored 12 points or fewer four times in the playoffs against the Heat, who had no real post presence to speak of beside LeBron James, a guy a full four inches shorter than him.

Heck, I'd feel more comfortable gambling with the potential of JaVale McGee, who is quicker and has longer arms to aid on defense over Hibbert at this point, as blasphemous as it sounds.

#2 Overhyped Center: Omer Asik

If one general manager decides to take a look at Omer Asik and decide he's worth $25 million to his team, then that's fine.

However, once it came out that Gar Foreman and the Bulls are likely to match the deal, my jaw hit the floor.

It makes sense for another team to overpay to take a chance on a guy who doesn't get enough minutes in the first place, but to stick a guy back on the bench for the price of a starting center seems ridiculous. 

#1 Overhyped Center: Brook Lopez

The Nets are trying to build a deal around Brook Lopez to bring Dwight Howard to Brooklyn, but there's a huge problem with that. Brook Lopez is going to get a maximum contract (or in that ballpark), only he is in no way capable of doing what Dwight Howard can do.

Lopez is a great center on the offensive end of the floor, but that's the only time you'll hear him referred to as a great center.

Elsewhere, the big man is a horrendous rebounder, he can't defend well and he just doesn't play with the desire that a maximum-salary guy should. I'm tired of hearing that he's the best young center in the NBA.

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