[Atlantic] Who’s NBA’s most overrated player? Underrated? Best coach? According to the players.
Source : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7253518/2026/05/06/anonymous-nba-player-poll-2026-overrated-underrated/?source=targetedemail&source=athletic_targeted_email&campaign=17601715&userId=5267694&redirected=1
ATHLETIC NOT ATLANTIC. I’M A DOPE, BUT IT WON’T LET ME CHANGE THE TITLE NOW.
Underrated:
Overrated:
Best coach:
Must’ve been a lot of Boston players voting in this
Nice circlejerk they got going on over there. Simultaneously all underrated but not supposed to be good this year while somehow STILL being the favorites to come out of the East to start the playoffs and yet choking in the first round to a 7 seed after being up 3-1. But Mazzulla deserves COTY and Brown was in the MVP conversation for a while.
And also the 3-1 loss doesn’t matter because it was a gap year anyways.. never seen a more wretched hive of hopium and cope
I mean, don’t expectations change throughout the season based on performance?
Like everyone saying “it was always only meant to be a gap year” ignore that was preseason projections where everyone thought the Celtics were going to miss the playoffs. People were wrong and the Celtics played really well, then Tatum came back, and they became favorites again heading into these playoffs.
No matter what situation, if you are a 2nd seed, favored to win the conference heading into the playoffs, and lose in a first round, blowing a 3-1 lead, that is always a disappointing year. Using preseason projections to justify that is coping, not the other way around lol. Literally everyone was talking like the Celtics would at least get their rematch with the Knicks and not even that happened.
That’s like saying the Pistons would’ve been fine with losing in the first round to the Magic because they weren’t even expected to be the 1 seed. You’re telling me Piston fans wouldn’t have felt disappointed at all if they didn’t win a series despite being “ahead of schedule” in the regular season?
Pistons can also just say “this is a gap year, we weren’t expected to be this good and our GM said he wouldn’t make any moves until the off-season after seeing how we perform in the playoffs”. Both teams overperformed by similar amounts according to pre-season projections.
I’m so glad to see these comments because before the last round I was seeing way too many neutral fans be cool with Boston. As always, fuck the Celts
Fuck you
Good man
I know this is a F the Celtics thread - but they literally got under the tax before the all star break. Idk how you’re arguing that it wasn’t a gap year
I’m with you, they could have went for it and for some reason (money) didn’t. Bill Simmons was saying how his father wanted to congratulate their cheap owner on getting under the tax after they were eliminated.
It was a gap year, but everyone likes to root against the most talented team. Detroit were frauds 1 series ago, and now we’re a top 2 team in the East lol.
I don’t think they’re the most talented, maybe the most talented this decade.
Our fanbase talks a ton of shit, so I understand the hate. I just don’t understand the people saying that the Celtics were actually contending with the roster they have right now.
It’s because the Celtics looked like the best team in the East at the end of the season and for the first 4 games of the 1st round
That’s because the Boston media Mafia talked them up as the favorites to come out of the East despite them being worse then their team that went out in the second round.
Or maybe because the Sixers have the best scoring C in the league and we had no Center to guard him
Don’t worry - Knicks are gonna close out eastern conference with ease against Pistons.
Honest question, why do people think this? We’ve blown the Knicks out nearly every time we’ve played them at full health the last two years and they barely escaped us down key players last year
You guys made a great comeback being down at the start of playoffs and that cost a lot of energy and lept right into a new series against the cavaliers. The Knicks slightly struggled against the hawks for 2 games then demolished them, got a few days off and got pitted against a very tired/worn out 76ers. So consider this next stretch for them is against a tired/worn out opponent - somewhat of a break for the Knicks before they go against the Pistons. They’re on their 3rd game in a row of 29+ point variance at the end of the game. Pistons are a 2nd home to me being that I lived in Michigan for 20+ years - I would love to see them get a ring but the way the Knicks are playing.. They’re in a solid stride and if it’s not a skill difference - it will most definitely be a ref intervention in favor of the Knicks.
None of that really implies “with ease” though, is my only argument. I’m definitely concerned about fatigue, and I’m not convinced we’ll win the series, but I do expect that it will be a difficult series for both teams. We’ll have to see how this round plays out, but this Pistons teams doesn’t go down easily and we do have home court advantage. I think too many people are counting us out
That does make me worry, i hate the Knicks
As do I but let’s be honest - with how we played the Magic…how were we going to do against the Knicks 2 days later?
And it will end in a 4 game sweep in the finals with the Knicks not winning shit again
Yeah lol the level of cope is unbelievable. They got the best coach, best GM, they got Derrick White who is apparently the 5th best player in the world and actually super underrated best role player in the league kind of guy, they got league MVP Jaylen, they got healthy JT who is even better, Pritchard the big unicorn, elite player, ranked 71 in Ringer 100, top 100 player Queta, guys like Hugo, Walsh, Garza, Baylor, all top tier elite role players, big favorites in round 1, the odds were like insane after 3-1, East favorites, could even battle it out with Spurs and Thunder, these were the stuff that were discussed all year.
They proceed to lose to Embiid coming back from his surgery and blow a 3-1 in the first round with all these factors, now they were always supposed to be shit and its just OK. Fucking hilarious
The timeline on your comment is all over the place. They started out the season rated very poorly and then played their way into earning respect and a high seed and then did not live up to the seed and expectations that came with it.
None of that was simultaneous, you just failed to understand that the opinion of them was not static over the course of the season.
It’s still damn impressive what they were able to do in the regular season with their “best player” out. COTY doesn’t include playoff results as voting criteria, so Joe for COTY makes sense, even if it leaves a bitter taste given their early playoff exit.
I know. What a terrible decision to start scrubs in pivotal Game 7! Mazulla got out coached the last 3 games for sure. Playoffs are all about adjustments. But good ones!
All of these underrated players couldn’t make it out of the first round. I can understand calling a guy like Derrik White underrated, but … Jaylen Brown? The guy campaigning for an MVP vote is underrated?
If that doesn’t sum up the season, idk what does. Bravo
I called them a underachieving superteam and broke infinite Celtics fans hearts and then they lost to our sorry ass 3 weeks later 🤣
These lists are kinda funny given how the playoffs have gone so far.
The entire Celtics roster is apparently underrated lmao
You win 56 games without Tatum and Jaylen Brown as your first option and Derrick White shooting 30% from the field all season people tend to say that
the guy shooting 30% from the field is tied for most underrated tho
Doesn’t matter he’s a perimeter defensive stopper, ppl love those
Derrick White is now in Jrue Holiday convos, people love those types of players even when they shoot 25% in a series with a straight face
I think that you’re illustrating exactly why with your comment. I don’t even like Boston and I know how valuable White’s contributions are outside of scoring.
People looking only at stats like shooting percentage and discounting a player is a textbook way to ensure they are underrated.
Derrick White is phenomenal, it’s more that the person I replied to said “part of why Boston’s roster was underrated is because Derrick White did poorly” yet White’s poor shooting performance was also part of the reason they did not advance and was an issue with him all season long.
But every team wants to find a Derrick White-esque player.
I mean are a reigning 6moy, a two time all defensive player, and a player who was top 5 in mvp voting for most of the year really underrated?
Except they put Derrick White at #1 most underrated player…
I’d argue Joe Mazzulla also underrates Pritchard lol
Tatum/Pritchard pick and roll was killing the Sixers and we just… went away from it entirely.
Underrated: White/lightskin Americans
Overrated: Europeans
Jalen Johnson may have been top on this list before the series, definitely shouldn’t be #1 now. Big believer in him long term but the lights were too bright for his first Playoff.
It says something that I think many fans were more worried about CJ McCollum than Jalen Johnson that series
CJ is a dog and was the clear alpha in that series. Maybe Jalen didn’t feel ready and took a secondary role but he never looked comfortable. Still, playoff reps are important and although we were NEVER going to win that series (once Knicks realized KAT was unblockable) it was great experience for a young team.
Yes, totally looked like a good second or third option. Did not even try to put team on his shoulders. A little problem with the efficiency stats
Still convinced current players would rate Jamal Crawford as goated. Players seem to absolutely love when a guy CAN lose his guy off the dribble and hit a mid range jumper. Regardless of if he isn’t actually good at doing that
NBA players love a “bag”, if you have a bag doesn’t matter that you shoot 30% as long as you have multiple moves that get you a bucket 3 times out of 10
Scottie on both underrated and overrated
That’s my Florida man, never in between, always at the extremes
This make sense to me. I’ve always thought he was pretty overrated and now after a 7 game series against him I can confidently say he’s very underrated lol
Scottie really stepped up in the series, full display of everything he is capable of doing. Lots of talk about growth/emergence of CMB, Shead and JK - but maybe Scottie most of all in realizing just how dominant he can be, expect him to exert that more in regular season
Officially rated
Kind of makes sense though. Overrated in terms of people having overvalued his potential and underrated in terms of people undervaluing his current production.
And yet I’d argue there ain’t no way that shit was overrated y’all just didn’t see it before then.
scottie barnes is underrated in the united states and overrated in canada.
That makes him the most polarizing player in the league.
I’m tired of the Rudy slander
Idk how’s he even remotely close to being overrated, especially at this point in his career
This is a player poll and most players don’t like him. That’s definitely influencing the results.
probably the same for trae young don’t think anyone has rated trae young highly in like 4 years now but him being tied for #2 would probably skew to him not being liked
The voting was probably before he dragged his french nuts across Rocky the Mascot’s face in Rd1
For sure but that wolves team has done nothing but go to the WCF since he’s been there
I know we’re a horrible matchup for him and tend to play him off the floor, but he’s a big reason they got back their last season
I feel like it has to be a meme to the players at this point. They get asked who is overrated and they just laugh and say Rudy.
I think he’s genuinely disliked by a lot of guys around the league as well
he’s a crystals/spiritualism/MAHA kind of guy
could definitely see that rubbing people the wrong way
It might rub redditors the wrong way, but the players don’t care about that shit. They do care that a guy with zero offensive ‘bag’ got a few big contracts.
I mean for sure. and the guy has four dpoys
I do think part of why people don’t like him is that they find him annoying though
No they think he is overpaid and he also beats the hell out of people.
Will be interesting to see how people take to Wemby considering their personalities are so similar
I dont know enough about Rudy. But my perception isnt that they are similar in personality. So curious what you’re seeing to say that?
You think the average NBA player doesn’t believe in even more stupid shit than that?
Players view each other in ability to score 1 on 1 a lot. Rudy is probably awful at it and all he does is make their job frustrating. Also kinda blows as a dude. Easy to hate
Oh I know it’s why they all have Kobe as their number 3 all time
It’s all about the bag
Also makes sense why Trae is so high and why Hali lead last year. Players rate each other based on who’d win in a 1v1 tournament. Neither help defense or passing would matter in that case.
which sorta explains why so few teams ever actually have a title shot year to year, because it’s apparent lots of players focus more on that stuff, which doesn’t equate to winning basketball
For real, I get his offense is rough on basically all accounts and he has butter fingers but the dude consistently shuts down the best players in the league.
Right?
Like if this was pre-Covid I would agree him being overrated but at this point he has so many haters I think he’s almost underrated
It’s because players don’t like him, it has nothing to do with his talent or skills
He has a certain ‘Je ne sais quois’ about him
I just remember when Tyrese Haliburton got nominated most overrated player, he went on a generational run. These lists don’t mean anything.
He really annihilated any remaining respect this poll got.
Well if you look at his stats this season he really underperformed.
Completely disappeared all season.
These lists mostly just show that basketball players are prone to skewed and bias perspectives and aren’t the best objective judge of talent.
Exactly. Think about all the dumb comments people on here make, then realize NBA players are just humans too. Think about all the “experts” who are wrong all the time. Haliburton was overrated, because players seem to favor having a bag and scoring the ball, which Tyrese isn’t known as some huge scorer like other stars. That’s why Rudy is overrated every year.
Basically if you can’t envision a player checking the ball up at the the 3 point line and beating a guy 1 on 1 with finesse, players probably don’t think super highly of them. Sengun and KAT are like a bull in a china shop who are just strong, and Rudy isn’t some great ball handler.
I think players value footwork a lot, and pretty much all the underrated guys have great footwork. Basically you have to look cool playing ball, not just be efficient.
And somehow people voted him again this year smh.
Gobert doing his best Hali impression so far
Yep a lot of people around the NBA are actually idiots
It’s was also a small sample size iirc, it’s was 13 players who voted for him.
lmao did the Athletic poll exclusively Bill Simmons for this?
Clearly not, Jokic would have topped the “underrated” category
I’d have to assume Rudy falls of this list if the voting happens today.
Pretty interesting that he is always on the most over rated list every single year though. Either people fucking hate him or there is some aspect we don’t see as fans that the players themselves understand and see on the court that might change their perception.
Players value offensive bag more than defensive prowess and Rudy just has very little skill on that end.
Highest true shooting of all time
Take that curry
I don’t see other defensive specialists falling in there though as high as he ends up being.
There’s no one else who’s a defensive specialist as much as him.
Because no other defensive specialists were traded for 5 1st rounders and got a max
I can’t think of many other 4 time DPOY that were traded during their peak years.
Not to say he was worth that much in the trade but it feels a little different relative to the other defensive guys currently in the league.
Yeah Rudy is definitely unique in that aspect. But it’s clear nba players don’t rate him as high as this sub does.
Its interesting because I’ve seen situations where the subreddit is on an island with its opinions but in this circumstance it seems like the fans, writers, media etc all think he’s great as far as defense at least and the players think he’s wildly over rated in general.
It’s a mixed bag tbh, a lot of fans think he’s overrated
It’s because he has no offensive bag but has 4 DPOY awards that put him in elite company and people can’t stomach giving him credit because of his lack of bag
Mind you players all this Kobe is top 3 becuase of how extensive his bag was so I feel like players take that shit extra seriously
I’d imagine almost any of the non centers think they could do what Rudy does if they just had his size/wingspan. It’s not true but I’d imagine a lot of them just see him as big with no skill
i think people see 4x DPOY Rudy gobert but also see the clips of Luka/steph/jokic making him look silly in the past and think he’s overrated, which is unfair because those guys are all time legends and cook everybody, but there is probably perception of you are by all awards the best defender to ever do it, be better. Which is why i think this series against the nuggets would probably do wonders for his perception because he went as close to 1 on 1 vs jokic as you can get and forced him into his worst playoff series ever
He’s french, bagless and his best skill is preventing those said players from scoring in the paint with contests at 7’10 wingspan
I’d hate him too
Did they just poll the whole Celtics team or what?
Rudy and Kat overrated? How many conference finals have they made recently! Plus they are both up 1-0 this series? Gimme a break.
They’re not overrated, they’re just straight up not liked by their peers. That’s why they keep appearing on these lists
Rudy Göbert
I thought he was French not German?
I fixed it.
sorry I just had to have some fun 👍🏻
Rudy Goebbels
The underrated player one is pretty useless given that no one received more than 4% of the vote (6 votes out of 151 ballots).
The best defender vote is a good example of why players voting for awards would be so bad. Only 40% said Wemby, and Kawhi got more than twice as many votes as Gobert.
This sub will do mental gymnastics to explain to themselves why players think Gobert isn’t as good as Reddit thinks lol. The answer is obvious: they don’t think he’s that good. Idk why you guys over complicate it ?
I’m sure the entire Celtics team is underrated
Huh I wonder if any of those votes would change after the celtics blew a 3-1 lead to a 7 seed
Jaylen Brown definitely voted for himself lmao
Probably made burner accounts to do it
Jaylen Brown being on the underrated list is surprising. I guess a lot of the players were just giving the Celtics their flowers for being 2nd in the East without Tatum.
Lmao most of the underrated players stinking it up in the playoffs while the overrated players did pretty well (minus Sengun). The irony
Why is Rudy Gobert overrated?
He played terrific defense on Joker in the first round and Wemby in game 1
He’s also an excellent rebounder, vet and someone who does the dirty work
Players might be just voting for guys they hate
Players love “the bag” and iso offense.
Jrue Holiday, the most “underrated” player of all time according to every list ever
He’s the perfect medium where he was never expected to match all star production like other stars (Kyrie, Jaylen Brown, etc) but when he produces it’s like a bonus
I think the explanation may be that everyone agrees on who/what he is, but people still don’t agree on how valuable that type of player is.
What I mean is for me personally, I covet Jrue as a piece to a championship team. Other people may view him as exactly as good offensively as I do and exactly as good defensively as I do, but still think of him as a “nice to have.” If a small number of people think like me, we vote him underrated every year and he gets the most votes for underrated.
So kind of a different meaning of underrated than disagreement on how good he is on offense and defense.
(99% these polls are just bullshit and people answer whoever for whatever reason. I’m just spitballing the 1% chance there is a coherent narrative that explains the result.)
He’s massively overrated too, shits the bed in the playoffs like other while making 30m a year and 300m but barely anyone bats an eye
Joe Mazzulla was completely outcoached by Nurse in their series. He won with an absolutely loaded roster once and hasn’t done anything since. He’ll be riding that one win for a decade, he’s basically Doc Rivers 2.0.
Where are these people talking about how great Paolo is? Lol
You might think he’s overrated but Paolo Banchero is definitely better than anyone on the Chicago Bulls that’s for sure. Lmao.
I don’t think he’s overrated at all. To br overrated there would need to be people singing his praises. I haven’t seen that. But yes, I would love to trade Patrick Williams for him. Lol
Jaylen Brown is most definitely not even close to the most underrated player. 7⁄9 years and almost every postseason he has negative on off splits. He barely cracks the top 50 for EPM (the metric most used by GM’s of publicly available advanced stats). He’s really good at all of the important things we overrate (isolation scoring, on ball defense, pure assists) and bad at all the things we overrate (poor ts percentage, awful turnover ratio, terrible offball defender). He’s still a top 50 player in the league but most people view him as either a top 10 or borderline top 10 player and you want to call him underrated? People were (and some still are) viewing him as an MVP canidate and putting him ahead of Luka lmao.
I wonder if any players changed their mind after watching them in the playoffs.
Yummy, outrage bait.
Only 81 players voted. Don’t take this too seriously.
I think its important to remember, when it comes to these lists, that a lot of players are dumbasses.
Honestly this looks like they polled the staff of The Ringer more than NBA players.
So you’re saying the Ringer staff is all ball-knowing geniuses right?
Rudy not going to be viewed overrated anymore thanks to these playoffs
Derrick white is actually overrated as fuck for his role/archetype
100% agree. Grossly inefficient shooter (chucker), mid passer/rebounder. Great help defender but average on ball defender and overrated defender in general.
Rudy is great player but players don’t want him to be
These polls are toxic, especially asking players to name peers as “overrated”
Chris Finch not in the top 5 there is crazy
Doesn’t even appear on the list. Behind Mike Brown and Ime Udoka???
Mazulla def ain’t number 1 now
Hard to believe that Rick Carlisle is ranked 11th after getting the Pacers to game seven of the finals with a chance to win it all. I thought he out coached Daigneault. What do I know.
Wait the Atlantic does NBA now?
I think he meant Athletic
I meant Athletic, but I’m a dope. Now I can’t change it.
There should be a most overrated coach vote. I’m curious on what the results would be.
He spits hot fire!
NBA players don’t know ball.
David Adelman came in 10th while Finch didn’t receive any votes lmfao
Sengun number for overrated is accurate though
So I think it’s safe to say that of the 81 players 16 of them were Celtics players
I really hate this polls. They are slop content.
Most overrated vote for example: 81 voters. Sengun with 12% of the voters and Gobert with 8 percent of the voters. That means that around 10 players think Sengun is overrated, and around 8 think that Gobert is overrated. In a universe of +400 NBA players.
Every casual then hangs on this tidbit for years to swear that this or that player is universally hated by their peers.
Slop.
Atlantic???
Looks like Shaq’s years-long hate campaign against Rudy and KAT has been working. 2 of the only players on either list directly responsible for playoff wins right now. shake my dang head.
Yup, most of these narratives stick for awhile
Perhaps these 81 NBA players that were rolled loved Mazulla’s principle of ‘live by the three, die by the three’ since they thought it will be easy to follow.
The way Katts playing in the ayoffs this year… It should change
Austin Reaves underrated is crazy
Players don’t know shit apparently, only respectable one is coaches
trae still getting put in overrated conversations despite missing most of the season is hilarious. i can’t take this list seriously though when there’s 3 celtics players in the top 5 for most underrated
Sengun really went from Charmander to Charizard in that meme with Sabonis and Jokic, but in being overrated.
deaaron fox
Hilarious how Gobert is always overrated yet continues to be a dominant defensive player.
Jalen Johnson might be the most overrated player itl
Only 80 people voting and no result gets more than a handful of votes means this means nothing
Lmfao were only Boston players asked? 3 out of the top 5 underrated players are Celtics players who are overrated, DWhite took a step back this year, Pritchard is the most overrated player on that team, and we’ll JB is JB.
KD really did a number on sengun damn.
these guys HATE rudy lmao
just a list and it already aged badly lol
If that celtics team was so underrated, why the fuck almost every sports media member were claiming they will be in the finals?
The overrated part alone shows that the people who vote in this doesnt know shit.
Gobert is underrated
Jalen Johnson (tied 1st)
can you be most underrated if youre ass?
I think the best coach in the league is Spo by a pretty decent margin. They haven’t given him a contending team in years and he’s made it work. Joe Mazulla is a good coach but he also had a one of the best teams in the league the entire time.
[deleted]
That’s like 20% of the league, my man.
How many times did JB vote
Jalen Johnson 😂😂😂😂😂
“Our writers surveyed 161 players, a record high for this project, which is approximately one-third of the league’s workforce.”
But how many responded?
That’s my point, at best a third of the league responded. I think another thread stated 81 responded.
Okay, hear me out. This makes a lot of sense having so many Celtics players up there. The constant narrative has been Boston wildly overachieving throughout the season, acting like that roster has zero business being anywhere above the play-in. It sounds like the players feel like the team actually didn’t over-perform, but instead many of their players are underrated by the media. Because they’re so underrated, media/fans think the team massively outplayed their skill level.