The NBA’s underrated list

Most Underrated Team & Coach

Atlanta Hawks & Mike Budenholzer

This current iteration of Atlanta Hawks is often referred to as the Spurs of the East for their stellar ball movement and totally unselfish team play. Another striking similarity with the Spurs is that the individual Hawks players are vastly underrated compared to both their individual output and team success.

After a shakey 1-3 start to the season the Atlanta Hawks have won 16 of their last 18 and sit second in the Eastern Conference at 23-8, yet they remain relatively anonymous. 90 percent of NBA fans outside of Atlanta would have trouble naming more than three Hawks players and good luck with people guessing the coach’s name.

When I put together a first draft short list of underrated NBA players it had four Hawks players on it!
Al Horford, Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver and that’s before mentioning the most underrated coach in the league in Mike Budenholzer. Rather than be forced into a Sophie’s Choice type conundrum I decided to name them all as a tribute to how the Hawks share the basketball.

With only four games on national TV and no Hawks players featuring in the All-Star voting the vast majority of NBA fans without League Pass won’t get to appreciate these guys until playoff time when they will be seeing a LOT of them.

In the meantime these guys, who might be leading the Eastern Conference in a few days will remain under the radar and definitely under-appreciated, if that’s not underrated then I don’t know what is.

Jeff Teague

16.6 PPG, 2.0 RPG, 6.9 APG, 1.6 SPG, FG% 47.4, 3P% 34.7%
ORating 113, DRating 104, TS% 58.9, WS/48 .180, VORP 2.3, RPM 1.32, PER 21.19

Kyle Korver

13.0 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 3.0 APG, 0.6 SPG, FG% 49.8%, 3P% 52.0%
ORating 127, DRating 106, TS% 71.9% (not a misprint), WS/48 .170, VORP 3.7, RPM 2.62, PER 15.89

Paul Milsap

16.5 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 3.2 APG, 2.0 SPG, FG% 47.7%, 3P 34.9%
ORating 106, DRating 99, TS% 55.1%, WS/48 .151, VORP 4.0, RPM 4.80, PER 19.39

Al Horford

14.6 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.8 APG, 1.5 BPG, FG% 53.4%, 3P% 33.3%
ORating 112, DRating 102, TS% 55.9%, WS/48 .158, VORP 2.5, RPM 1.00, PER 19.93

Next: Most Underrated Eastern Conference Player