It's just a lot easier to pick at Trae than "mystery player". Mystery player is great until you actually account for the difficulty in acquiring them and also consider the reality that mystery player will likely have flaws as well. Not saying Trae is the greatest option either, but every option is difficult and imperfect. To be overrated, you need to be rated in the first place. When I look at the credit Trae gets, the accolades he's been given, and the evaluation of him (in this thread in particular)...I just don't see a player who is overrated and I would actually lean towards the opinion that people are too harsh him and not giving him enough credit for the good stuff he does.
For example, a lot of the criticisms I see in this thread are so heavily team performance related. It's not necessarily bad to account for team success, but let's also remember he's reached the same peak as the Jazz franchise has had in decades, he hasn't played on great rosters, and his adjusted +/- stuff is actually pretty damn good great (especially on offense obvs). Again, not perfect, but people are hammering on him for not doing enough on offense when his 3 year offensive LA-RAPM is 7th out of all players. His single season offensive RAPM stuff is consistently amazing. RAPM isn't perfect, but it's a way to assess an individual vs the team. It's not fair to dump on him for how his team performs when the numbers strongly indicate he's been carrying that team. Like go ahead and be harsh on his defense because he deserves it, but at the same time I think you also have to give him his roses for the offensive impact he's had. If he's not elevating his team's offense enough, you can count the guys who are with like one hand. And to clear, we want those guys, but are we actually going to get them?
I actually think Zach Lavine is a better option at the high salary and for his relative acquisition cost....but it's only fair to give Trae his due.
