The most overrated player in the past five years: Xiao Qiao ranked first, Jaylen Green on the list, and the Lakers have three players

This list always causes controversy. This is understandable. "Overrated" is a word that has no positive meaning. But remember that while this is not necessarily a disguised compliment, the players who can show up here, first of all, are much better at their jobs than most of us at full-time jobs, and secondly, they themselves have real value.

Although this is inevitably ignored, these names don't appear here because they beat them up. Instead, this selection aims to focus on players whose reputation has been most disconnected from their actual influence on the court since the 2020-21 season.

Jaylen Green, the sun

youth made Jaylen Green not higher on this list. His career covers only four seasons in our selection window.

The hot performance that started in February each year actually hurt him. These performances have allowed people to continue their hopes for him to become a star, but they have also made the expectations of the outside world never match his performance throughout his career.

When measuring Green's performance from a visual perspective, he looks like a major ball-holder and scoring point. His ball-holding speed is attractive, and he has both skill and explosiveness around the rim.

However, data is data: Green is not outstanding. His career average of more than 20 points sounds glamorous, but this is based on the fact that he is not ideal for ball-holding and off-ball efficiency and lacks organizational ability development.

The 23-year-old has only once been above the league average in non-assisted shooting percentage, according to BBall Index. His highest shooting percentage from the field is in the 60th percentile (over 60% of players) – and he has been at the bottom of the league in the past year. His assist usage has never exceeded the 27th percentile. And during his time with the Rockets, the team had only once achieved better net efficiency when he was on the court.

Kyle Kuzma, the Bucks

If we apply Kyle Kuzma's rookie performance to his later career, he could have been at a higher position on this list. But expectations for him began to change almost immediately since then, and over the past five years he has been swaying between showing encouraging plasticity (including the defensive end) and extremely destructive high usage rates.

Although Kuzma has made great progress in finishing ability near the rim, he is a negative scorer in any other area. He has not been able to play effective or real hits at the league average so far.

Although he has ranked at least the 90th percentile in every season over the past five seasons, his score rate per shot has never exceeded the 34th percentile. And he has only surpassed the 45th percentile in the league in shooting fouls.

has been his life-saving straw for the Wizards for nearly four seasons. As a transitional stopgap, he assumed the necessary amount of shots, unlike other players who will be mentioned later, which should have been the cornerstone of the team's long-term team building. He also often undertakes some more difficult defensive tasks. This background provides some cover for his poor stat performance, including one of the worst presence/off efficiency differences in the past five years, but is not very effective.

DeAndre Ayton, Lakers

Before DeAndre Ayton received the Lakers' special halo bonus, people had already had too high expectations. Almost every analysis about him tends to start like "If he can regain the defense and fighting spirit that helps the Suns only two games away from the championship...", as if the 2021 NBA Finals were not the same as what they were four years ago.

The rumors about his problematic behavior during the Suns and the Trail Blazers have little to do with Ayton's position on this list. His own performance is enough to illustrate the problem.

His defensive investment is sometimes as high as a mountain, and sometimes he falls to the bottom. The same is true of his rebounding performance. His team has only once had better defense when he was on the court and has only been twice with better performance in defensive rebounds.

Aiton's habit of fighting under the basket and playing far away from the basket still exists. His mid-range feel is indeed above average, but it is far from offsetting his unusually low number of shots at the basket and free throw lines. Among all inside players in the past five years, his shots at the basket have never exceeded the 44th percentile in the league, and his shooting foul rate has never exceeded the 32nd percentile.

Even the most powerful compliments must be accompanied by warnings of possible disastrous performance. Diggin Basketball substack reporter Iztok Franco recently ranked Ayton at the seventh center in the West, ahead of Isaiah Hartenstein, Derek Levley II and Walker Kessler. But at the same time, he also pointed out: "If he can't turn the situation around in Los Angeles, he is likely to fall out of the top 10, or even the top 15." This, coupled with the decision by the Blazers to pay him more than $25 million to play for the Lakers than to hope to trade his $35.6 million expiration contract, is already very telling.

Marcus Smart, Lakers' injury has caused Marcus Smart to only play 54 games in the past two seasons, but this has nothing to do with his selection in this list. It's more about him having one of the worst shooting percentages over the past five years compared to other players with higher shooting volumes.

Since the 2020-21 season, Smart ranked 143rd in the other 155 players with a comparable number of shots. The ability to finish close has always been good. But any positive signs from the outside have proven to be just a flash in the pan.

Long before leaving the Celtics, Smart seemed powerless when he was used as a starting point for the ball. In the past five years, he has had only once better than the 19th percentile player in the league. His passing issues have reached a new astonishing level in his few appearances since he left Boston (which really needs to be admitted).

Smart's team usually performs better when he plays, which is worthy of recognition. But it is also worth mentioning that his defensive performance has not fully reached the level of his legendary reputation. The responsibilities he assumes are always huge, but even in the season when he won the Defensive Player of the Year (2021-22 season), there is tangible controversy over whether he is the best defensive player on his team.

Miles Bridges, Hornets

Miles Bridges is likely to become the benchmark for NBA's empty-scoring data. His ability to avoid being discussed in this way was both an outside negligence and a small miracle, and this itself proves that he was overrated. (Note: Bridges missed the entire 2022-23 season for being charged with felony domestic violence and no pleading in the end.)

Why not check out Tom Ziller at Good Morning It 's Basketball Substack wrote what he wrote when he argued that the Hornets should cut the 27-year-old:

"In an environment where talent is lacking, he was given a lot of opportunities but achieved almost nothing. Last season, of all players who were eligible to make the rankings, he was the lowest-efficient 20-point scorer in the league, with a real shot of only 54.1%. Yes, he is less efficient than Jaylen Green! But don't worry, in 2023- In the 24th season, he was the seventh-lowest 20-point scorer. The good news is that his only plus in the NBA is scoring ability and has almost nothing else to contribute. So, yes, his only positive trait (scoring) comes with a negative attribute - one of the least efficient ways to score in the league. "

Although Bridges wasn't as efficient as that before the 2023-24 season, his role is also simpler. In the Hornets' offense, his central position in holding the ball is not that outstanding.

Even so, his efficiency is not outstanding. He has only played above-average real-time hits twice in the past five years, and he ranked 41st in effective hits among 96 players who use the same period with a percentage of equal or higher than his average — which is totally unappreciating for a player whose most goals come from assists.

He doesn't have enough desirability in other ways to make him worthy of the status of an ordinary rotation player. Defensively he can rotate in multiple positions, but throughout his career, the Hornets have only one season lost fewer points per leg when he plays.

For a player with such a high usage rate, his passing ability is mediocre. Among the 96 players mentioned above, he ranked 73rd in assists. Meanwhile, his free throw shooting percentage ranks 71st.

As an on-court player, Bridges has its role. It's just that his role is far less than the top 100 players in the league - and this has been going on for quite some time. Just pick a player you like with high-level stats, and he may only be ranked as the top 100 players in the league at most in one season.