NBA players have made their voices heard in terms of who they believe are the most overrated and underrated players in the league for the 2025-26 season.
In an anonymous player survey conducted by The Athletic, Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson and Boston Celtics guard Derrick White tied atop the ranking of the most underrated players.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Houston Rockets forward Alperen Şengün was voted the most overrated player in the league, with Rudy Gobert and Trae Young finishing tied for second.
Behind Johnson and White in the underrated category was a four-way tie for third place, with Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Payton Pritchard and Austin Reaves all receiving 3.3 percent support from 151 votes cast. For the overrated category, 81 players cast a vote.
Gobert and Young have been staples in the overrated category of this survey. They finished second and third last year, respectively, behind only Tyrese Haliburton as he was in the midst of leading the Indiana Pacers to the NBA Finals.
This is a huge step up in attention for Şengün, who didn’t even receive a vote in last year’s poll. He has made the All-Star team in each of the past two seasons, but the Rockets were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs both times.
There was a brighter spotlight on Houston down the stretch this season in part because of the speculation about Kevin Durant using burner accounts on social media critical of Rockets players, including Şengün and Jabari Smith Jr.
“He’s crying every play,” one player who voted for Şengün said in explaining their vote. “He’s talented, but, dude, just play hard.”
Johnson being atop the underrated category comes after he became the centerpiece player for the Hawks after Young was traded to the Washington Wizards in December. He turned in a season worthy of All-NBA consideration, setting career-highs in scoring average (22.5 points per game), rebounds (10.3) and assists (7.9).
Interestingly, four of the top six underrated vote-getters played on the Celtics within the past 12 months. White, Brown and Pritchard are still with Boston, while Jrue Holiday spent two seasons with the club before being traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in July 2025.
White finishing as high as he did comes after the worst shooting season of his career. The 31-year-old averaged a career-high 16.5 points per game in the regular season, but he shot 39.4 percent overall and 32.7 percent from three.
One way that White made up for his offensive inconsistency was on defense. He finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, making him the top guard on the list.
