The 10 Most Overrated NBA Players This Season
The 2025-26 NBA campaign is nearly wrapped. As it comes to a close, you're going to hear and read loads of praise and adulation for some of the game's biggest stars.
That's not what you're going to find here.
A handful of the league's biggest (or at least bigger) names have not performed up to the level of their reputations. We're going to shine a spotlight on them.
Now, if you have much experience with my lists, you're used to seeing a ton of numbers or some whacky formula driving the rankings. This exercise requires almost pure subjectivity.
Obviously, numbers are part of the analysis, but there's really no way to objectively measure how a player is "rated" by fans and the media. That makes determining whether a player is overrated—or how overrated—reliant on opinion. And the opinion has to be formed on a case-by-case basis.
Explanations for all of the names on this list can be found below.
The 'Too Much Attention' Tier
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10. Jaylen Brown
We're starting with some real heat. Jaylen Brown is likely to make First Team All-NBA, and his Boston Celtics have annihilated expectations. But media members (with votes!) have campaigned for him to be the MVP, which is frankly, bonkers. Brown is 29th in estimated wins (the cumulative version of Dunks and Threes' estimated plus-minus), has been one of the very least efficient shooters in the NBA and has a negative net rating swing (meaning Boston's point differential is actually better when he's out of the game).
9. Kyle Kuzma
The obvious counter here is that most people are probably out on Kyle Kuzma already. It's hard to be "overrated" when you're generally rated as "bad." And there are actually some good indicators on this Kuzma campaign (like an above-average effective field-goal percentage). But he still provides too little value outside the scoring column. His rebound, steal and block rates are low. And his assists are too high for a player with an underwhelming assist rate.
8. Ja Morant
Another one who's lost plenty of support already, Ja Morant's 2025-26 was worse than you realize. He's still seen by many as a "star," despite a ridiculous lack of availability (79 games over the last three years), hilariously bad scoring efficiency and a near-non-existent jumper.
7. Jonathan Kuminga
Kristaps Porziņģis came with his own issues (mostly health-related), but it's starting to get harder and harder to call that trade a win for the Atlanta Hawks. Jonathan Kuminga desperately wanted a new situation, but he's averaging fewer minutes there than he did as a Golden State Warrior. And his rebound and assist rates are still too low to garner any of the star-level consideration Kuminga is after.
6. Draymond Green
There is a segment of the basketball-viewing public (up to, and possibly including Draymond Green) who still see Draymond Green as a playmaking, offense-wrecking forward he was a few years ago, but the evidence suggests otherwise. With woeful efficiency and sinking defensive numbers, Green's minus-1.3 box plus/minus is well shy of the plus-1.5 he posted over the four previous years.
5. Domantas Sabonis
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The Sacramento Kings are a disaster, and an injury eventually ended Sabonis' campaign early, but Sabonis was a big part of why the team got off to the awful start it did.
After leading the league in rebounding in each of the previous three seasons and making All-NBA in two of those campaigns, Sabonis' numbers plummeted across the board in 2025-26.
And perhaps most importantly, his struggles as both a perimeter defender and rim protector caught up to him in a big way.
For the year, the already-bad Kings defense surrendered five more points per 100 possessions when Sabonis was on the floor.
4. Dillon Brooks
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Dillon Brooks has gotten a lot of credit for the Phoenix Suns' culture reset, but that probably has more to do with the absence of a couple stars and arrival of first-year coach Jordan Ott.
Brooks could very well be a good team leader and vibe shifter, but the Suns' point differential is a lot better when he's off the floor. He's still one of the least efficient scorers in the league. And he does very little in the other categories to make up for that.
Brooks is average, at best, as a rebounder and barely averages more assists (1.8) than turnovers (1.7).
Being a 20-point-per-game scorer is cool, but not when it comes at the expense of the team.
3. Paolo Banchero
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The masses are starting to pay a little closer attention to Paolo Banchero's lackluster performance, but he's still generally seen as a star, despite having the profile of a low-(positive)-impact shot chucker.
For the fourth straight season, the Orlando Magic are worse when Banchero is on the floor. For the fourth straight season, Banchero is below average in both effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage. For the fourth straight season, he's averaging over three turnovers per 75 possessions.
In case you're unaware, Banchero has only been in the NBA for four seasons.
He's still 6'10" and has shown flashes of intriguing playmaking and interior scoring talent, but the flaws are vastly outweighing the potential (even if a lot of fans can't see that).
2. Norman Powell
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Like Brown, Norman Powell is having an objectively good season. He's averaging 21.9 points and shooting 38.3 percent from three. For a 90s shooting guard, those would be great numbers.
But it's 2026, and All-Stars typically bring more well-rounded production to the table.
Powell made his first appearance in that mid-season exhibition in February, but he's doing little to impact the game as a rebounder (3.6 per game) and playmaker (2.5 assists).
And as a shoot-first guard who leads the team in points per game, you'd at least expect a positive impact on the attack. Powell isn't providing that. Somehow, the Heat score (slightly) fewer points per 100 possessions when he plays.
1. Brandon Ingram
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This is a dubious honor that Brandon Ingram is under no obligation to worry about, but his All-Star nod and the general perception of 20-point-per-game scorers contributed to him being this season's most overrated player.
Impact metrics suggest Ingram played nowhere near All-Star level this season. He was well below the league's averages for both effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage. And the Toronto Raptors were way better when he was off the floor.
The team is likely headed to the playoffs. And Ingram being its leading scorer is not nothin'. But Toronto's success has a lot more to do with Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and Sandro Mamukelashvili than Ingram's reputation suggests.
