NBA Free Agents 2013: Underrated Players Who Will Make Big Differences Next Year

Dwight Howard (potentially) is the biggest name on the market in 2013, but this year's free-agent class is deep with impact players.

Free agents come in all shapes and sizes; when you put a previously discarded peg in the properly adjacent hole, you can breathe new life into its career. Danny Green was a castoff before getting a shot in San Antonio and starring in this year's NBA Finals. Chris "Birdman" Anderson wasn't even signed until midseason.

Less-heralded free-agent signings happen all the time, slipping under the radar because SportsCenter doesn't have the time to talk about them. But year after history-repeating year, we see a player of that sort come back to make major impacts come playoff time.

Here are three unheralded players that could be next year's Birdman.

PF DeJuan Blair, San Antonio Spurs

You're probably surprised that Blair is still on the Spurs, since you just watched the NBA FInals, and save a few garbage-time minutes, you never heard his name.

But alas, DeJuan Blair, the former Pittsburgh standout with no ACLs in his knees, is a soon-to-be ex-San Antonio Spur. And even though he fell out of Gregg Popovich's rotation the past couple of years, he's a guy who might make a real impact next season.

First let's be honest: Losing your spot in a normal NBA rotation is one thing, and losing your spot in the Spurs rotation is another thing entirely. That is one of the deepest, most well-rounded depth charts in the sport. Falling out of favor hardly inspires confidence, but on that particular team, it's also hardly indicting.

Blair can still rebound at an elite rate (despite his non-existant athleticism) and score in surprisingly effective doses (despite his non-existant shooting ability). He looked a shell of himself when he played this season, but that's because a guy that good isn't used to riding the bench. Give him regular minutes, much like the Chicago Bulls did with Nate Robinson, and he will respond with newfound energy.

He might not have the Paul Millsap-sized impact many thought he'd have coming out of school, but Blair can still be a Paul Millsap-type role player on a very good team. 

SF Kyle Korver, Atlanta Hawks

Korver averaged 10.9 points per game on 46-percent three-point shooting last year, which was remarkable on a Hawks team tailored against his strengths.

The Hawks let him shoot, sure, but only because their offense was so stagnant everywhere else. Once Lou Williams went down with a season-ending injury, there was nobody on the team who could penetrate. The Hawks began running things through their bigs, and not through their guards in the lane.

If we learned anything from the 2013 NBA Finals, it's how deadly three-point shooting can be in the right system.

San Antonio has Tony Parker getting in the lane and a host of unselfish passers on the perimeter. That allows for Danny Green and Gary Neal to get wide-open looks. Miami has LeBron James, the best driver and passer on Earth, getting to the paint, commanding double triple-teams and kicking the ball out. That allows Mike Miller and Shane Battier to dominate games on the biggest stage.

If Kyle Korver heads to a team like, say, Oklahoma City, where Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are always looking for new guys to shoot threes, he could have a genuine impact on next year's champion.

Because this is one guy you do not want to leave alone in the corner.

PF/C Jermaine O'Neal, Phoenix Suns

Without Steve Nash in the fold, Phoenix became, arguably, the least-watchable team in basketball. Seriously—did you see a single Suns game on TV last year?

Because they were as anonymous as Toronto or Detroit, it was easy to miss Jermaine O'Neal's "rise-from-the-dead" act, but that didn't make it any less real. What once was discarded as the corpse of a one-time All-Star has rebuilt himself as a serviceable veteran big.

Check out O'Neal's PER from the past four seasons:

Year	PER
09-10	17.92
10-11	9.22
11-12	9.46
12-13	16.76

That near-perfect parabola says everything you need to know about O'Neal's comeback: It's very real, and the numbers are there to back it up.

Leaving Phoenix might be a risky move. The Suns training staff is notoriously magical, so it's no coincidence that (a) O'Neal had his healthiest season in a while once he arrived and (b) Steve Nash's age finally caught up to him once he left. There's both correlation and causation in effect.

Still, the chance to improve his nearly sub-$1 million salary should be too great for O'Neal to pass up. And if a contender can keep this former All-Star upright and on the court, it might be getting a steal of a backup center.