20 Most Underrated NBA Players of All Time

Every basketball fan can name the top 10 greatest players ever. But ask about the players who anchored championship defenses, put up Hall of Fame numbers on bad teams, or quietly bent games without winning a season-end award, and the list dries up fast. The recognition never matched the production. Some are in the Hall of Fame and still don't get mentioned. Some never made an All-Star team despite leading the league in assists. Some won championships and gave the public credit to a more famous teammate. These are the 20 most underrated players in NBA history, with the receipts to prove it.

What Does "Underrated" Actually Mean?

The honest definition has three parts. Production vs. recognition gap — how good a player actually was in box scores, advanced metrics, and impact on winning, measured against the votes they got at the time. Era penalty — when a player toiled in a small market, on a non-televised team, or in a stat category that didn't yet have an award. Sidney Moncrief played in Milwaukee. Alex English played in Denver. Rod Strickland played in Washington when no one was watching. The advanced-stats retroactive correction — BPM, VORP, Win Shares, and on-off splits have re-litigated careers built before any of those numbers existed. A player who looked like a glue guy in 1985 sometimes looks like the second-best player on a contender through a 2025 lens. Every name below scores high on at least two of those three.

The Defensive Anchors

Ben Wallace — An undrafted center who turned himself into a four-time Defensive Player of the Year (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006) and the heart of the 2004 Pistons team that broke the Lakers' three-peat dream in five games. Wallace's career averages of 5.7 points and 9.6 rebounds per game read like a backup big, but the impact numbers tell the truth — he led the NBA in rebounding twice, in blocks once, and was a four-time All-NBA Defensive First Team selection. He shares the four-DPOY record with Dikembe Mutombo and Rudy Gobert, and remains the only undrafted DPOY winner in league history. Wallace proved you could be the single most impactful player on a championship floor without averaging double figures — a heresy in the box-score era that the analytics era eventually validated.

Sidney Moncrief — The NBA's first Defensive Player of the Year, winning the inaugural award in 1983 and repeating in 1984. He was also a five-time All-Star and four-time All-Defensive First Team selection who averaged 20 points a night from 1982 through 1986 in Milwaukee. Moncrief did everything a modern wing is supposed to do — guard the perimeter, score efficiently, defend without fouling — three decades before "two-way" was a label. The Hall of Fame waited until 2019, more than 25 years after he retired.

Bobby Jones — The defensive backbone of the 1983 champion Sixers. Jones earned eight consecutive All-Defensive First Team selections from 1977 through 1984, was a nine-time All-Defensive member, and won the NBA's first-ever Sixth Man of the Year award in 1983 — the same season Philly swept the Lakers in the Finals. Nicknamed "the Secretary of Defense," Jones took the toughest matchup every night and never demanded a touch. The Hall of Fame inducted him alongside Moncrief in 2019 — a class that effectively apologized for two decades of underrating defensive forwards.

The Playmakers

Mark Price — The Steph Curry prototype, two decades early. Price made four All-Star teams with Cleveland, was First Team All-NBA in 1992–93, finished his career with a 90.4% free-throw percentage, and led the league in free-throw shooting three times. He shot 40.2% from three for his career — elite for any era, surreal for a point guard who debuted in 1986. Career averages of 15.2 points and 6.7 assists understate him; he played hurt for most of his prime and his Cavs never got past Jordan's Bulls. In the modern game he's a perennial All-Star. In the late '80s, he was a regional curiosity.

Tim Hardaway — The UTEP Two-Step crossover is the iconic image, but it sells the rest of his game short. Hardaway was a five-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection, including First Team in 1997 with the Heat. With the Run TMC Warriors he averaged 19.8 points and 9.3 assists across six seasons before a knee injury cost him the entire 1993–94 year. Hall of Fame in 2022.

Rod Strickland — The most accomplished guard never to make an All-Star team. Strickland led the NBA in assists at 10.5 per game in 1997–98, was named Second Team All-NBA that year, and finished his career averaging 7.3 assists per game. He cracked the top 10 in assists seven different seasons. The 1998 All-Star snub is one of the great hosing jobs of the modern era — Eastern Conference coaches passed over the league's assists leader for guys on better-publicized teams.

The Scorers

Adrian Dantley — A two-time scoring champion (30.7 PPG in 1981, 30.6 PPG in 1984) and one of the most efficient volume scorers in NBA history. He averaged over 30 PPG in multiple seasons and finished his career at 24.3 points across 955 games. Six-time All-Star, 23,177 career points (21st all-time), and still left out of every "greatest scorers" conversation. Hall of Fame in 2008.

World B. Free — Yes, that was his legal name. Free averaged 20.3 points per game across 13 NBA seasons and was an All-Star in 1980 with San Diego after finishing second in the MVP vote. A 6'3" combo guard with a deep release in an era where coaches still thought the three-point shot was a gimmick. He never made a second All-Star team. He should have made three.

Alex English — The most prolific scorer of the 1980s. English scored more points across that decade than Larry Bird, Magic, Jordan, or anyone else, and is still the only player ever to score 2,000 points in eight consecutive seasons. He won the 1983 scoring title at 28.4 PPG and made eight straight All-Star teams. Career averages: 21.5 points and 5.5 rebounds. He gets left out of "best of the '80s" lists for one reason — Denver's 9:30 PM Mountain tip-offs weren't on most people's televisions in 1985.

Bernard King — A different kind of scoring genius. King finished third in MVP voting in 1984 with 26.3 PPG on 57.2% shooting, then led the league in scoring at 32.9 PPG in 1984–85 before tearing his ACL, meniscus, and fracturing his femur on a single play. He missed all of 1985–86, then returned to make another All-Star team in 1991 at age 34. The comeback alone is Hall of Fame material.

The All-Around Stars

Chris Webber — A five-time All-Star and the engine of the most fun non-champion of the 2000s. With Sacramento he averaged 23.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 4.8 assists across 377 games. His 2000–01 season (27.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, fourth in MVP voting) gets buried because the Kings ran into the Shaq-Kobe Lakers in the West. His vision at 6'10" was a decade ahead of the league. Hall of Fame in 2021.

Pau Gasol — Kobe Bryant's championship partner and one of the most skilled big men in NBA history. Gasol was the 2002 Rookie of the Year, a six-time All-Star, four-time All-NBA selection, and won back-to-back rings with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010. Career averages of 17.0 points and 9.2 rebounds across 1,226 games. Hall of Fame in 2023, and the public still treats him like a sidekick rather than a top-five center of his era.

Rasheed Wallace — The proto-modern power forward. Wallace was a four-time All-Star (2000, 2001, 2006, 2008) and the missing piece on the 2004 Pistons. A 6'11" big who shot threes, posted up, and switched defensively at an elite level — career line of 14.4 points and 6.7 rebounds. In Game 4 of the 2004 Finals against the Lakers, he dropped 26 and 13 in the win that essentially sealed the championship.

Editorial illustration: 20 Most Underrated NBA Players of All Time

The Unsung Champions

Dennis Johnson — A three-time NBA champion and one of the great two-way guards in league history. Johnson won Finals MVP with Seattle in 1979 and two more rings with Bird's Celtics in 1984 and 1986. Five-time All-Star, nine-time All-Defensive Team selection (six First Team). Larry Bird famously called him "the best player I ever played with." The Hall of Fame waited until 2010, three years after DJ died — one of the worst voter looks in basketball history.

Michael Cooper — The defensive stopper on the Showtime Lakers and a five-time NBA champion (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988). Cooper won DPOY in 1987 and was an eight-time All-Defensive Team member, including five First Team selections. He drew the opposing team's best perimeter scorer every night for 12 seasons and did it well enough that Larry Bird publicly called him the toughest defender he ever faced. Hall of Fame in 2024.

Horace Grant — The third star of the first Bulls three-peat (1991, 1992, 1993) and a fourth-time champion with the 2001 Lakers. One-time All-Star (1994), four-time All-Defensive Second Team, career averages of 11.2 points and 8.1 rebounds across 17 seasons. The Bulls don't get past Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, or Kevin Johnson without his defense and rebounding. Jordan and Pippen absorbed the attention; Grant became "complementary" — a polite way to say we forgot how good he actually was.

Joe Dumars — The 1989 Finals MVP and a two-time champion on the Bad Boy Pistons (1989, 1990). Dumars made six All-Star teams and four All-Defensive First Teams across 14 seasons in Detroit and was the primary defender on Jordan during the Pistons' "Jordan Rules" era. Career averages of 16.1 points and 4.5 assists are quiet; his 27.3 PPG on 57.6% shooting during the 1989 Finals sweep of the Lakers is loud. Hall of Fame in 2006.

Manu Ginóbili — A four-time NBA champion, the 2008 Sixth Man of the Year (123 of 124 first-place votes), and a two-time All-Star who should have made six. Ginóbili averaged 13.3 points and 3.8 assists across 1,057 regular-season games, with per-36 numbers that compare favorably to the All-NBA wings of his era. He chose to come off the bench so San Antonio could keep its starting unit intact — a willingness to sacrifice individual numbers that no advanced stat ever fully credited. Hall of Fame in 2022.

The Two-Way Underrated

Andre Iguodala — One All-Star nod (2012, with Philadelphia), one Finals MVP (2015, with Golden State), four championships, and 19 NBA seasons. Iguodala averaged 11.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.2 assists across 1,231 games — the rare role player whose advanced numbers consistently outran his counting stats. The 2015 Finals MVP, won as a sixth man tasked with slowing LeBron James, should have permanently re-classified him. Instead the public still files him as "Warriors role player" rather than the wing whose defensive playmaking enabled the dynasty.

Shawn Marion — The forgotten engine of the Seven Seconds or Less Suns. Marion made four All-Star teams and two All-NBA Third Teams, averaged 21.8 points and 11.8 rebounds in 2005–06, and guarded all five positions before "positionless basketball" was a coaching cliché. He was a top-7 DPOY finisher in four straight years under Mike D'Antoni, then went to Dallas and drew the LeBron assignment in the 2011 Finals. Career line: 15.2 points and 8.7 rebounds across 1,163 games.

Andrei Kirilenko — Maybe the strangest box score in NBA history. In his 2003–04 All-Star season, "AK-47" averaged 16.5 points, 8 rebounds, and nearly 3 blocks a night — a 5x5 threat any time he stepped on the floor. He led the league in total blocks in 2004–05 despite playing just 41 games. One-time All-Star, three-time All-Defensive selection, and one of the most efficient impact players of the 2000s by any advanced metric.

Larry Nance Sr. — A three-time All-Star (1985, 1989, 1993), a three-time All-Defensive selection, and winner of the very first NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1984. Nance averaged 17.1 points and 8.0 rebounds across 14 seasons for the Suns and Cavaliers, with top-10 block totals in an era stacked with shot-blockers. The dunk contest gets remembered. The rest gets filed under "good Cavs role player" instead of "borderline Hall of Famer."

How Voter Bias Creates Underratedness

Read the list end-to-end and the patterns are unmistakable. Market size matters more than it should. Mark Price in Cleveland, Alex English in Denver, Sidney Moncrief in Milwaukee, Andrei Kirilenko in Salt Lake — these players spent their primes in cities the national press wasn't covering nightly, and the awards distribution reflects it.

Team success warps individual recognition. Bobby Jones won a Sixth Man trophy and a stack of All-Defensive First Teams; he's remembered as a "glue guy" because the 76ers didn't repeat. Manu Ginóbili picked up four rings and two All-Star nods; in a top-five media market he's a six-time All-Star.

Defense gets reported in adjectives instead of numbers. Michael Cooper had to win five rings before the voters gave him a single DPOY. Joe Dumars was the only guard built to slow Jordan in a seven-game series, and his defensive identity is now a Wikipedia footnote.

MVP narratives gobble up the oxygen. Voters bunch their attention around two or three players a year. Rod Strickland leading the league in assists and missing the All-Star team is the canonical example; Shawn Marion missing nods in his peak Suns seasons is the runner-up.

The Advanced-Stats Correction

The reason "underrated" feels load-bearing in 2026 is that we now have tools the 1985 voter didn't. Box Plus/Minus, VORP, Win Shares, RAPM, on-off splits — every one of those metrics has retroactively elevated certain careers. Andre Iguodala's career VORP is comparable to Hall of Famers who scored ten points more per game than he did. Manu Ginóbili's per-36 numbers and on-off splits read like a perennial All-NBA selection rather than a sixth man with two All-Star nods. Shawn Marion's BPM peak (2002 through 2007) ranks alongside the most valuable wings of his entire era. The players above weren't just under-recognized by the conventional standards of their era. They look even better through the lens of ours.

The Modern Era's Underrated Stars

Mike Conley — For more than a decade, Conley was the canonical answer to "best player in the NBA never to make an All-Star team." He finally broke the streak in 2021 as an injury replacement for Devin Booker — a 14-year wait that's still the longest in All-Star history. The Grizzlies' grit-and-grind era doesn't exist without him.

Kyle Lowry — A six-time All-Star, one-time champion (2019 with Toronto), and the emotional engine of the only Raptors team to ever win a title. In Game 6 of the 2019 Finals, Lowry put up 26 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds in the clinching win over Golden State. The toughness and on-ball defense never quite showed up in MVP voting.

Jrue Holiday — Two championships on two different teams (Milwaukee 2021, Boston 2024), six All-Defensive selections (three First Team), and two All-Star nods. Holiday became the second star on contender after contender by defending point guards into the ground while running a high-end half-court offense. The recognition still trails the production.

Khris Middleton — A three-time All-Star and the second star of the 2021 Bucks champions. Middleton averaged 23.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 5.1 assists during the Finals against Phoenix, dropping the dagger jumpers that secured Milwaukee's first title in 50 years. His midrange-heavy game has aged better than the three-point era predicted.

Tyson Chandler — The 2012 Defensive Player of the Year and the anchor of the 2011 Mavericks championship defense. Chandler averaged 8.2 points per game for his career, but he led the NBA in shooting at 67.9% in 2011–12 — the third-highest single-season mark in league history at the time. The Mavs don't beat LeBron's Heat without his rim protection.

Closing illustration for 20 Most Underrated NBA Players of All Time