Ranking the Most Underrated NBA Players Right Now

Even in an age when no NBA take is too spicy, player valuations have never been clearer.

Or they're for anyone who at least throws on some games and crunches a few numbers.

Between the data available and the unprecedented exposure, fans have enough information to give appropriate spotlight time to stars but also their less heralded counterparts. There is a clear (and deserved) appreciation for lockdown defenders, sharpshooters, spark-plug scorers and Swiss Army knives—the roles that almost always must be filled for franchises to have a championship pulse.

And yet, even amid all of this information and attention, there are still players who don't get enough credit for their contributions. Some aren't talked about enough. Some aren't compensated enough. Some even have the unfortunate distinction of being slighted on both fronts.

Some might try to quantify this lack of attention using whatever handpicked metrics they choose, but that feels too mechanical for something so subjective. While this list wasn't compiled and ranked entirely off of gut feel, there is inherently a feeling that these players aren't properly respected for reasons that will be explained along the way.

So, let's deliver that respect with overdue flowers in the form of most-underrated NBA player rankings.

10. Cam Spencer, Memphis Grizzlies

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It isn't remotely surprising that there have been little more than cricket chirps surrounding Cam Spencer. He was a late second-round pick in 2024 who logged fewer than 300 minutes as a rookie on a two-way contract.

His sophomore emergence, meanwhile, occurred beneath the rubble of the Grizzlies' top-to-bottom teardown. A lot of players posted numbers in Memphis this past season—Dariq Whitehead and Rayan Rupert averaged a dozen-plus points—so it isn't easy deciphering which ones are worth trusting.

That said, a lot of what Spencer provided felt real. And maybe sustainable. How, exactly, would one fake his way to a 47.3/44.9/94 slash line across 1,714 minutes? Where is the inflation found in the canyon separating his 400 assists from his 93 turnovers? Spencer averaged 133.4 points per 100 shots attempts, a 96th percentile mark, per CleaningTheGlass.

Let's say he's half as good as these numbers suggest. Guess what? He would still have a strong argument for being one of basketball's best bargains (three years, $7.9 million left on his deal) and one of the Association's must underranked players.

9. Cason Wallace, Oklahoma City Thunder

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This pick may not have a lot of staying power. With OKC's financially motivated sacrifices of Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and, most recently, Lu Dort, the runway might be fully cleared for a Cason Wallace take-off. And it just so happens to be a perfectly timed showcase, considering this will be the last season on his rookie deal.

In some ways, the word is already out on Wallace. After all, there's only so far outside the spotlight a player can stray while regularly logging significant minutes on a heavyweight contender. Plus, Wallace just snagged an All-Defensive second team spot as a third-year pro this past season while leading the league in total deflections.

It still seems like the collective has undersold his total package. While he can only show so much offense in a support role on such a stacked team, he did just blitz the Thunder's playoff opponents to the tune of 48.4 percent three-point shooting. And in the 21 regular-season games where he logged 30-plus minutes, he tallied 78 assists against 34 turnovers.

Wallace might be too highly ranked to slot him any higher here, but he still deserved a top-10 spot. Folks know about his defense, but his offense is quietly creeping toward a full-fledged breakout.

8. Toumani Camara, Portland Trail Blazers

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The case for Toumani Camara here isn't too dissimilar from that of Wallace. Except the latter is a former lottery pick on a perennial contender, while the former was a second-round selection of an organization that last won a playoff series in 2019.

Like Wallace, Camara is already a celebrated defender (All-Defensive second team in 2024-25), but the praise probably hasn't gone far enough. Portland stretched him incredibly thin to help cover for injuries this past season (fourth in overall minutes), and he still landed 91st percentile in defensive estimated plus/minus.

In a nod to both his instincts and relentlessness, Camara even set the NBA's single‑season record for offensive fouls drawn since the league began tracking the stat.

Again, though, there is some documented appreciation of Camara's defense. What isn't being talked about enough is his offensive growth.

In just three NBA seasons, he has nearly doubled his scoring output (7.5 to 13.4 points per game) while going from a spacing liability (33.7 percent on low volume) to a quantity-plus-quality shooter (2.7 triples per contest with a 37 percent splash rate).

No wonder the Blazers have been, on average, 4.7 points better per 100 possessions with him than without over the course of his career.

7. Paul Reed, Detroit Pistons

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Paul Reed is a per-minute machine. Now, he probably doesn't have the size, shooting touch or discipline to actually handle a huge role, but he just might have the most intriguing per-minute tallies in the entire league.

His per-36-minutes averages from this past season included—clears throat—20.1 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.4 blocks and 2.3 steals. That is statistical absurdity. Want the entire list of players to ever post a per-36-minute line of 20/11/3/2/2? You're looking at it; it's him, and no one else.

Wild stuff, right? What's wilder is that outside of the scoring and field-goal shooting (career-high 61.7 percent), nothing was really out of the norm for Reed. He just knows what is required to be an across-the-board energizer and has the across-the-board talent to serve as one.

"Basketball is what he eats, sleeps, bleeds. Every time he gets an opportunity, it's quick twitch and ready to go," Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters. "I've never seen a guy who prepares himself every day like he's going to start and play 48 minutes."

Coaches seem convinced that there is a point of diminishing returns with Reed, as he has never averaged even 20 minutes a night. And maybe they're right; he couldn't give this type of frenetic energy in a super-sized role. Still, he can be a momentum-shifter in short doses, and people don't recognize the totality of his contributions in those bursts.

6. Naji Marshall, Dallas Mavericks

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Naji Marshall probably shouldn't be allowed to lead an anonymous NBA existence. He is a 6'9", 220-pound forward who can shape-shift on defense and then handle, create and finish on offense.

That sounds like a star, right? Or at least the kind of all-purpose big wing every win-now team is hoping to add?

Well, that's sort of who Marshall is, which is why potential poachers were met with "a future first-round pick" asking price from Dallas ahead of the deadline, per NBA insider Marc Stein. That's not an insignificant cost, especially for a 30 percent career three-point shooter.

That's the huge hole in Marshall's game, and maybe the only reason he can still qualify for this kind of exercise. Spacing concerns are so difficult for modern wings to overcome, and yet Marshall has been entrusted with better than 1,700 minutes in three of the past four seasons. And that's a testament to all of the many non-shooting ways in which he can impact a game.

If Cooper Flagg and a healthy Kyrie Irving can help the Mavericks make noise next season, don't be surprised to see a lot of overdue praise come Marshall's way.

5. Miles McBride, New York Knicks

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Can a rotation regular on New York's first championship team in 53 years actually fly under the radar? That's just one of several ways in which Miles McBride defies the odds.

For starters, he's a former second-round pick who's about to suit up for his sixth NBA season, so he is already exceeding expectations there. He's also a 6'2", sub-200-pounder who isn't a primary playmaker, which might be the trickiest archetype to make work at this level, and yet he is a valued member of this team.

And, honestly, maybe that's underselling it. As one opposing scout said of McBride in January, "He's become key for everything they do," per SNY's Ian Begley.

That's the kind of claim that highlights how McBride, while appreciated, isn't ranked highly enough. There's also this: In four of his five seasons, he's had better than a plus-two net differential. Over the past two seasons, the 'Bockers have been 5.4 points better per 100 possessions with him than without. That's an enormous number considering he is typically backing up one of the best quintets in basketball.

So, if your scouting report on McBride still sees him as a scrappy defender, he is that, but he is so much more. As of this past season, he's also a double-digit scorer with a 41.3 three-point percentage and better than a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

4. Ty Jerome, Memphis Grizzlies

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The argument for keeping Ty Jerome out of the top five has nothing to do with his ability. Based on what he has shown the past two seasons, he is more than covered in that department.

It's just that availability issues have kept him from proving the sustainability of his 2024-25 breakout, when he nearly gained entry to the famed 50/40/90 club while snagging bronze in the Sixth Man of the Year race. Between a calf strain and an ankle injury, he was limited to just 15 outings for the Grizzlies in 2025-26.

For him to still rank fourth on this list after all of the absences says a lot. His numbers still probably say more. Since the start of 2024-25, he has managed to cram 13.8 points (on 50.5/43.3/87.3 shooting), 3.8 assists, 1.8 three-pointers and 1.1 steals into only 20.4 minutes a night. For context, that translates to per-36-minutes outputs of 24.4 points, 6.7 assists, 3.2 threes and 2.0 thefts.

He looks like, at the very least, a skilled and efficient offensive player who can lean on his instincts and awareness to help combat his physical limitations on defense. Yet, he may not be held in even that high of a regard after missing so many games on a bad Memphis team.

3. Ryan Rollins, Milwaukee Bucks

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Ryan Rollins might have had the loudest 2025-26 numbers of any player on this list. So, how is it possible for him to still rank as the third-most underranked?

Well, while he was hitting those marks, Milwaukee was stumbling its way through the end of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era. The Bucks were a bad team (32-50), but worse for Rollins, they seemed a dysfunctional one, meaning the time spent talking about them was monopolized by the prolonged split from Antetokounmpo.

So, Rollins' emergence (17.3 points, 5.6 assists) may have fallen through the cracks for some. For others, they may have doubted its authenticity, since his way-outside-the-norm numbers came for a bottom-feeder.

Either way, it doesn't seem like he is regarded as the budding star his numbers say he could be. Even Milwaukee's own commitment to him is tough to gauge after adding so many guards (Tyler Herro, Brayden Burries, Kasparas Jakučionis) and ball-handlers (Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nate Ament) this offseason.

Taken at face value, though, Rollins sure seems like he's just sitting on the launch pad and waiting for the count down. He is a 24-year-old who can initiate offense, score from every level and hold his own defensively. That sounds an awful lot like a potentially elite talent.

2. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta Hawks

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Around the Association, there was obvious recognition for the breakout campaign Nickeil Alexander-Walker authored during his first season in Atlanta. By the time it was finished, he had fended off first-time All-Stars Jalen Duren and Deni Avdija to capture the coveted Most Improved Player award.

But why stop the recognition there? Because maybe that campaign wasn't the culmination, but rather the start of something really special.

Alexander-Walker made his presence felt at both ends. His offensive output predictably featured a bunch of career-highs, but his defense remained as disruptive as ever. He cracked the 78th percentile in estimated defensive plus/minus while swiping a career-best 1.3 steals per contest.

Widening the lens from individual accomplishments, though, he just keeps having a star-like impact on his team's success. During his two full seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, they were 3.9 points better per 100 possessions with him than without. In his first season with the Hawks, that number jumped to plus-5.2 points per 100 possessions.

Is anybody talking about him as a two-way star or something close to it? Because it kinda seems like we all should.

1. Neemias Queta, Boston Celtics

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When the Celtics took a hacksaw to their bloated budget last summer, they did so knowing that the bottom might fall out for its interior rotation. Neemias Queta is the biggest (only?) reason why Boston's bigs were able to hold it together.

The springy 7-footer aced each and every one of his rim-running assignments. And these weren't all of the typical be-big, play-big stuff you'll see. Sure, he had to set hard screens, compete on the glass, roll with force and protect the paint. But he also had to catch difficult passes, make passing reads of his own and sometimes finish with finesse.

His stat line exploded in every direction—10.2 points on 65.3 percent shooting, 8.4 rebounds and 2.1 stocks in 25.3 minutes—but his impact went even farther. Advanced metrics were enormous fans. Estimated plus/minus had him 95th percentile in the entire league. He fared even better in win shares per 48 minutes, where his 0.224 trailed only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Jalen Duren and Victor Wembanyama.

Expectations obviously sold super short on Queta last summer, but could the same be happening again? He is much more of a known commodity now, obviously, but do folks really know the full range of his impact?

Queta is now a first-paragraph part of the story of the Celtics' success going forward. This past season wasn't simply his first as a full-time starter; it was his first crack at being a rotation regular. His arrow is pointing all the way up; this will just hopefully point more people toward noticing that.