Trae Young is now officially considered underrated by some basketball analysts. Bleacher Report‘s Andy Bailey recently revealed his five most underrated players in the NBA, with Young at the top of the list.
NBA’s Most Underrated Players Last 5 Seasons (by B/R’s Andy Bailey) 👀
5. Larry Nance Jr.
4. Kyle Anderson
3. Jalen Brunson
2. Steven Adams
1. Trae YoungWho else belongs on this list? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/Jv8PDVeFw9
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 9, 2023
The poll comes amid Young not making the USA men’s basketball roster for this year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup. Young has said he wanted to play in the tournament and represent the country despite not making the cut, even after other NBA All-Stars have turned down the invitation.
“You see that list they got, man?” Arenas said on his podcast. “Ole sorry a– group. I’m happy for the people who make it. It’s cool for some of the guys who got there, who I don’t know even start for their team, I don’t know. I don’t want to look at it, but it’s embarrassing sometimes when you have guys who are star players and want to participate, and you just automatically say, ‘Nah. He’s not going to fit our style.’ How the f— do you know if he’s going to fit the style or not, and you didn’t even give the man a chance?” Arenas, an Addidas athlete, also accused the roster selection of being biased in favor of Nike athletes. Young is also an Addidas athlete.
In addition to being left off this summer’s USA team, Young also missed this past season’s All-NBA and All-Star teams. Young finished 11th in the league in scoring with 26.2 points per game and finished second in the league by averaging 10.2 assists per game.
The only times Young has made the All-Star teams were in 2020 and 2022 when he was voted in as a starter in the exhibition game. He was named to the All-NBA team in 2022 for the only time in his career after averaging 28.4 points and 9.7 assists per game. Young has also been the Hawks’ best player on a roster that has made the postseason for the past three seasons. In 2021, he led Atlanta to the Eastern Conference Finals and finished with 48 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds in a Game 1 win against the eventual-champion Milwaukee Bucks on the road. The Hawks appeared to be in the driver’s seat of winning the series with a Game 3 lead until Young stepped on a referee’s foot, which caused an injury that altered the series.
