Article - NBA's most underrated

[Litany]

It's an insider article. If anyone has insider I don't think you can post it but can you summarize?





Sleep on Derrick Favors and the Utah Jazz at your own peril.

Rejoice, the NBA season finally is here. Though we still should temper our knee-jerk reactions to opening night's surprises (Lakers to the Finals! Carlos Boozer for MVP!), it all counts now as the long grind of the season has begun.

Indeed, the offseason is for speculation and the big names and big cities rightly soak up much of the spotlight and coverage. But what about the things fans and the media might have missed? Here's a list of the most underrated players, teams and storylines that might have escaped the public eye.


https://m.espn.go.com/nba/story?storyId=9902211&src=desktop

 

[b_line]

Most underrated Western Conference team: Utah Jazz


General consensus suggests that the youthful Jazz have fallen into the "tank mode" bucket. It's easy to see why. With an eye on future flexibility, the front office let four of its starters, Mo Williams, Randy Foye, Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap, walk elsewhere this offseason without receiving anything tangible in return. Utah also happily took on $24 million of deadweight expiring contracts from Golden State in order to grab future first-round picks. Oh, and John Lucas III was their marquee free-agent signing.

In reality, Enes Kanter (21 years old), Derrick Favors (22) and Gordon Hayward (23) make up a precocious frontcourt that's way too talented to tank. All three have legitimate buzz for most improved player this season and they have the per-minute productivity to back it up. The Jazz probably will stumble out of the gate with injuries to lottery pick Trey Burke, Brandon Rush and Marvin Williams, but there's enough talent here that they could enter the playoff picture by season's end. Don't sleep on the Jazz.

 

[MoTappin]

Thanks for posting that. I like that they are being called the most underrated, but I'm a little bit torn between wanting to shock everyone by making the playoffs, and getting a high draft pick. I'd still go with the pick at this point, but I guess we'll see how it goes. Sure gonna be an interesting season.

 

[mhindy]

The beauty of it is that it's fine either way. If we win a bunch of games with this core, they're probably good enough that they don't really need a top 5 pick to be a good playoff team going forward. If they're bad, it self-corrects with the high pick.

Win-win. Just enjoy the season!