Ranking the most underrated NBA players of the last 5 years | News, results, highlights, stats and rumors
Chris Gardner
It’s telling that Fred VanVleet ends up here, even though his contribution to the Toronto Raptors’ championship run falls outside the time period we’re looking at.
It’s fine. He doesn’t need that to support his position.
Let’s start with VanVleet, who has the league’s 21st overall VORP since 2019-20, ahead of Devin Booker, Pascal Siakam, Jrue Holiday, Paul George, DeMar DeRozan and Kyrie Irving — among many other, more decorated stars. Then thinly slice the data to uncover FVV’s other incredible statistical accomplishments.
He is the only player in the last five years to make at least 900 three-pointers and have 500 steals, and Tyrese Haliburton is the only other player in that span to have at least 2,000 assists with fewer than VanVleet’s 652 turnovers.
Enough with the individual numbers. Let’s look at VanVleet’s impact on the team’s success, where he somehow looks even better.
It is difficult to know what to make of the 2019/20 season, when VanVleet’s Raptors were actually 2.3 points per 100 possessions worse with him on the court. But the fact that his worst The difference between the two values over the last four seasons was plus 5.9, suggesting that we can write off this single season, in which he recorded the only negative value of his career, as an outlier.
VanVleet was voted an All-Star in 2021-22, but has put up roughly similar numbers in each of the five seasons we’re examining. If there were an All Half-Decade team, he’d have a good chance of being on it based on individual stats and team-wise numbers.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes) and subscribe to the podcast “Hardwood Knocks,” where he talks with Bleacher Reports Daniel Favale.