Are Anthony Davis, Trae Young, and Paolo Banchero Overrated or Overhated? A Statistical Breakdown

In a slew of off-season rankings, Bleacher Report has dropped a list of the NBA’s top 10 most overrated players.

We’ve seen lists like this in the past, most notably the Athletic’s, but what’s remembered is usually more about who was embarrassingly wrong than who was right.

Tyrese Haliburton was infamously voted most overrated in 2025 before leading the Pacers to game 7 of the finals. The subjectivity of these lists often proves incriminating, and while there may be some merit to a few of these picks, others are completely undeserved. Which players deserve some slack, and which really are overrated? 

While some names on this list are debatable, De’Aaron Fox at eight is not. Since joining the Spurs, De’Aaron Fox has been a shell of himself.

The burst that once defined his game is no longer noticeable. The clutch gene that earned him clutch player of the year honors has faded. His scoring average has dropped by 8 points since his peak in Sacramento, and in a year and a half in San Antonio, his box plus-minus sits at just 0.2.

These past playoffs definitely played a part in Fox’s inclusion on this list, which isn’t completely fair considering his ankle injury. At the same time, he was drastically outplayed by the other guards on his team, leaving many to question his contract. Swipa earns this spot thanks to fans holding on to the player he once was. 

Someone who has not benefited from his past success is Trae Young, who was ranked the seventh most overrated player in the league.

His defense is nonexistent, and he is extremely ball-dominant, but he has repeatedly shown that despite his flaws, he can elevate his teams far beyond expectations.

He led the Hawks to the conference finals in 2021, and he pushed the Celtics to six games the next year while averaging 29, 10, and nearly two steals a night.

He led the NBA with 11.6 assists per game in 2025, yet still made the All-Star Game only as a replacement. Young owns the highest assist average of any active player, and the third highest of all time.

Despite all of this, he is still perceived as overrated. Not only is he not overrated, when taking everything into account, but he’s also become criminally underrated. 

Another player who suffers from negative press is Zion Williamson, who takes the next spot. The best ability is availability, and this is the only reasonable argument I could come up with for how in the world Zion could possibly be overrated.

On the rare occasion he’s healthy for an extended period of time, he looks like one of the best players in the league. He averages a super-efficient 24 points per game for his career and was even in the MVP conversation for a big part of 2022.

In the lone postseason game of his career, he gave LeBron and the Lakers 40 before leaving the game with an injury. Injuries and off-court issues have damaged Williamson’s image, but calling him overrated is absurd. 

A player who deserves the overrated label, though, is Jaren Jackson Jr, who lands just outside of the top 3 of this ranking. Jackson has a reputation as an elite rim protector, but that version of him has become outdated. His 1.5 blocks per game are still impressive, but they’re half of the 3 that he averaged during his DPOY season.

His offense is what really put him over the top, though. At 6 foot 10, he shoots over 6 threes per game at a poor 35% clip. His shot selection seems to be dictated by whatever the defense gives him, and his shaky handle forces him to settle into bad shots instead of leveraging his size inside.

Obviously, JJJ is a very good player to be called overrated in the first place, but his game is still held in a little too high regard. 

The same could be said for Paolo Banchero. It seems like Orlando is building around the idea of Paolo, rather than the player he really is. His numbers are impressive on paper, but his improvement has largely plateaued since he came into the league.

His outside shot remains unreliable, and overall, his play style hasn’t contributed to winning. The Magic held a 3-1 lead on the Pistons in this year’s first round before Franz Wagner went down. Paolo did have some great games in the remainder of the first round, but none resulted in a victory.

His numbers don’t even dip in the postseason, but as a whole, his game isn’t mature enough to build a team around. As talented as he is, Paolo Banchero is overrated.

On the other side, the number one spot going to Anthony Davis is difficult to justify. Just two seasons ago, Davis was named to the second team and finished fourth in DPOY voting.

His Dallas debut reminded us of the dominant force that The Brow can be on offense. His one glaring issue has been his availability, missing 91 games over the past two seasons, but when he’s on the court, his impact is overwhelmingly positive.

We haven’t seen Davis suit up for Washington yet, and his age and injuries can always be factors moving forward, but his last healthy season was dominant. Calling him overrated, especially the most overrated player in basketball, is simply undeserved.