2007-8 NBA All Underrated Team

In my "2007-8 NBA All Overrated Team", I gave some criteria for overratedness. The criteria for underratedness are the opposite.

Point Guard: Jose Calderon, Raptors- Became the sixth player to shoot 50/40/90 during a season (Larry Bird 87,88; Mark Price 89; Reggie Miller, 94, Steve Nash 06,08; Dirk Nowitzki 07). Averaged 8.3 assists and 1.5 turnovers, for a 5.37 a/to ratio. Began April with 21 assists and one turnover, then finished the season with 45 assists and zero turnovers. Will shine brighter next year now that he doesn't have to inexplicably share time with TJ Ford, who isn't as good as Calderon.

Shooting Guard: Kevin Martin, Kings- Averaged 23.7 points on superefficient 45/40/87 shooting. Led the league in free throws made per game. One of the best pure shooters in the NBA. At the beginning of the 2007 season, his breakout year, when he averaged 24.9 points per game after the first 12 games after averaging 11.1 the season before, I remember thinking that teams would adjust and then he'd fall down to Earth. Two seasons later, he's shooting 45.6 percent as the opponent's primary defensive focus, averaging 23.7 per game.

Small Forward: Shawn Marion, Suns/Heat- Averaged 15-10 on 52.6% shooting, with 2.02 steals and 1.49 blocks for the Suns before averaging 15-12 on 48% shooting for the Heat. For all the talk over the last four seasons about how the Suns don't play any defense, they were always average defensively. They play at a faster pace, meaning there are more possessions, meaning opponents score more. On defense, he played alongside Steve Nash (can't keep his man in front of him), Raja Bell (overrated), Amare Stoudemire (2005-8 Knicks level of indifference towards defense), Leandro Barbosa (bad defender), and Boris Diaw (not a terrible defender, but he had to play center in D'Antoni's system). In spite of all that, the Suns had Marion to cover up teammates' defensive weakness by guarding other teams' point guards, power forwards, and everything in between, rebounding better than any other small forward (minimizing a major disadvantage of smallball).

On offense, he filled out the break, didn't take a lot of bad shots, and consistently contributed while rarely having the ball in his hands. People always point out how Nash makes teammates look good, but Marion makes Nash look good by playing so well off the ball. How many times has Nash jumped in the air with nowhere to pass the ball, then Marion materializes out of nowhere to prevent Nash from looking like a total boob? He doesn't get credit for how smart he is because he is a finisher and not a creator, but if he can score in the high teens and low 20's for most of his career without taking a dribble, he has to have some basketball IQ.

Luckily, the Suns got rid of him and replaced him with Shaq, a move that's going to look better and better over the next two years and $40 million.

Honorable Mention: Shane Battier, Caron Butler, Danny Granger Gerald Wallace

Power forward: Anderson Varejao, Cavaliers- Averaged 8.2 rebounds in 27.4 minutes per game. Plays annoying physical defense, drawing charges, boxing out, harassing opponents. On offense, he doesn't shoot a lot, but he does get a lot of offensive rebounds and tip outs. He's basically a glue-guy, the kind of player that good teams need to build around a superstar. While it's often said that Lebron's teammates don't give him any help, they do in fact contribute in a lot of unglamorous ways that go unnoticed, mostly by playing good defense, and Varejao epitomizes the overlooked contributions.

Honorable Mention: Tyson Chandler

Center: Andrew Bynum, Lakers- Averaged 13/10/2 blocks and shot 64% in 29 minutes per game. Averaged 8/6/1.6 blocks and shot 56% in 2007, and 1.6/1.7/.5 and shot 40% in 2006. Next year, he'll probably get around 15-17 points, 12 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, and the Lakers will win 63ish games and the first of several more championships. Fuck. Also, he'll turn 21 right before the season starts. Any proclamation that he'll join the Mikan/Chamberlain/Abdul-Jabbar/Shaq pantheon of Laker centers is premature, but he'll be pretty good.