The Top 10 Most Overrated Players/Disappointments in the NBA

Whether it be big contracts, previous success, a high draft selection, or anything else; many players in today's NBA are overrated and overvalued. Here are some of the most notable examples in the entire league:

10. SF/PF: Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs - This one kind-of hurts because I love Kawhi, but it's just been more of the same for him. He hasn't taken that leap that we all expected him to take this year. In fact, his season stats are almost identical to his career stats [.517 to .500 shooting pct., 6.1 rebounds to 5.7, 28 to 27 minutes per game]. Perhaps Popovich hasn't given him a bigger role, or perhaps he's just leveled out.

9. C: Tyson Chandler, New York Knicks - Tyson has taken a huge step back this season. After two productive and efficient seasons for NYK, Chandler hasn't been the same player. While injuries have always been a concern for him, Tyson has played just 28 games this year. His stats have dipped this season, too. If his 8.6 ppg. average stays intact, it would be his lowest since he played for Charlotte in 2009-10, his 9.1 rpg. would be his lowest since that same season, and his FG% would be his lowest since 2008-09 when he played for Charlotte. He needs to stay healthy so that he can get back to being the player he should be, or more importantly, the player that New York needs him to be.

8. SG: Joe Johnson, Brooklyn Nets - Although not as overrated as he once was, the fact that Joe Johnson made the All-Star time despite having a below-league-average PER and even averaging 15-2-3 while playing bad defense is weird. The fact that it wasn't a a fan-vote and the coaches selected him was straight-up insane. He's an example of a player who at this point; is being carried by his reputation as a dynamic scoring threat. While he's still clutch, he's just a shell of his old self at age 32.

7. C: Jonas Valanciunas, Toronto Raptors - This was supposed to be the year of Jonas Valanciunas. He had a full year of experience under his belt, boatloads of potential, and he had no competition for the starting C spot. He started off slowly but then Rudy Gay was traded. Now he HAS to explode. The offense is going to be run through him. Except it wasn't. Valenciunas failed to capitalize on the opportunity and now DeMar DeRozen is the one who leads the team.

6. SF: Jimmy Butler, Chicago Bulls - Much like with Valenciunas, this was supposed to be Butler's turn to step up as the wing opposite Deng that the Bulls so desperately needed. He came alive late last season and in the post-season, but it just didn't continue this season. Butler was hampered by injuries early-on and still hasn't fully recovered. He's been held to less than 40 games this season and when he has played, the results have been quite awful. He has been averaging 12 and 5, although his PER is below-league-average and his shooting percentages are just atrocious: .372 from the floor, .274 from behind-the-arc. While he remains a solid defender, those numbers just don't cut it.

5. SG: Victor Oladipo, Orlando Magic - I do think that Oladipo is going to develop into a really great player. He has a great motor and hustles his brains out. He's just not there yet. The Magic are throwing him into the fire too quickly and it's hurting his development. He's averaging 14 points on a horrid .414 mark. He has a below-league-average PER [player efficiency rating] and he turns the ball over nearly 3.5 times per game. He's playing too many minutes and it's killing him.

4. PG: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers - Is Kyrie Irving a great volume scorer? Yes Does he deserve credit for mustering up nearly 7 assists per game on a team filled with talent-deprived D-Leaguers and benchwarmers on a normal team? Absolutely. But should he be a starting All-Star? Hell no. Irving is a nice player, and should be a fringe all-star, but he's not a guy I want to build my team around as its best player. Sure he's a nice scorer but he's shooting at a ridiculously low percentage [.428]. He's an atrocious defender, and he's not an adequate leader. Most PG's are poor defenders because they gamble too often on steal attempts, but Irving only averages 1.3 a game. Making him an inexcusably poor defender.

3. PG: Ricky Rubio, Minnesota Timberwolves - This is where we separate the overrated from the insanely overrated. Rubio does two things well: Passing and stealing the ball. Do you know what else he does really well? Nothing. He can't shoot [.361 shooting this season]. He can't score [8.9 PPG this season. He's not a good defender because he gambles on those steals. He's not athletic enough to compensate for his fundamental shortcomings. Terribly overrated.

2. SF/PF: Josh Smith, Detroit Pistons - Ah, Josh Smith; the man who always finds himself on this list, as long as it's not a fan of his team who's writing it, you can expect J-Smoove to make the cut. Do you want to screw up your team chemistry? [Which has always been Joe Dumars's, favorite thing to do since he became the Pistons' GM] Call Josh Smith. The annoyingly inconsistent Smith is starting to get difficult to watch. He has such great physical tools and his drives to the basket seem so natural, except somebody needs to explain to him that he can't shoot. If he stopped shooting three-pointers, he'd be a perennial All-Star, but he won't. His awful 3 point percentage [.229] is historically bad and speaks for itself. That's not so bad, it's not like he shoots a ton of threes right? WRONG. Smith chucks up 3.5 ill-advised 3s per game. He makes less than 1 per game. If only he stopped shooting..

1. SF: Evan Turner, Philadelphia 76ers - Step aside Josh Smith, there's a new overrated sheriff in town, and his name is Evan Turner. What really kills me about Turner is that people think he's in the midst of a breakout season. Breakout season? No, just more of the same but with more playing time. Where do I begin? His below-league-average PER? How about his .287 3-point shooting clip. The 1.1 combined steals and blocks per game? What makes this all-the-more worse and perplexing to me is that [since he's on Philly's trade block, obviously] the 76ers are actually demanding a high 1st round pick in return for him! That's just flat out ridiculous! People really need to dig deeper than the highlight reels and box scores, or else they'll mistake him for a solid player who deserves to be a building-block.