NEW YORK – It’s time to have an awkward discussion regarding a few decent to excellent NBA players.

It’s never easy to rank the Association’s most underappreciated contributors; the process is seldom precise and full of suffering. To be completely honest, I absolutely detest doing it. I must rant about my favorite players who are often overlooked. It’s only right that I do this activity too.

Consequently, this list represents the perspective of one bigot. My opinions are mine alone. And here is my effort at a sincere discussion. It is not intended to be a derogatory or malevolent trolling job.

An example would be the Orlando Magic, who may have overpaid Franz Wagner by extending his contract to a maximum of five years, even though he had trouble making three-pointers the previous season. But the great majority of responses expressed that sentiment. Therefore, he and anybody else in a boat like his won’t be included.

This exercise also attempts to take potential applicants into consideration who are negatively influenced by their existing circumstances. Now that Evan Mobley has signed a max agreement with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the takes will flow. The majority of them will express concern about his limited offensive growth. That’s reasonable. However, his growth potential will be limited as long as he is positioned next to two guards who use their weapons less frequently and spends time with a large who doesn’t fire.

Opportunity counts. Jaden McDaniels, Mobley, and many others are examples of people who fit into this category.

Lastly, the ranking is a judgment call on the discrepancy between a player’s perceived worth and usefulness and his real worth and utility, both to his team and individually.

Orlando Magic’s Jonathan Isaac

Select the defensive metric of your choice. Jonathan Isaac most likely scored in the upper echelons of the list. On the less glamorous end, the 26-year-old is as powerful as they come.

However, don’t count on him to play for longer than 15 to 20 minutes each time.

Following a left knee injury in January 2020, a series of lower-body problems appear to have placed Isaac under permanent availability management. Over the previous five years, he has only made 103 appearances in regular-season games. Last year, he only had three appearances beyond the 25-minute mark.

Without a doubt, this is a real disappointment. When he’s on the court, Isaac plays the role of a single defensive system. He’s modified his shooting diet to mostly consist of layups, dunks, and threes, which he hit at a 37.5 percent clip in 2023–2024.

It is impossible to dispute his brilliance. He inked a five-year, $84 million renegotiation and extension with the Orlando Magic, so there’s no reason not to enjoy it. His increased pay of $25 million for the upcoming season may be accommodated within their cap space; after that, it will decrease to $15 million or a little less, and the agreement includes injury protections.

This has more to do with how the per-minute effect has been overly romanticized. I’m sure you’ve seen or heard someone state that, in terms of minutes played, Isaac was the greatest or most dominating defender in the NBA the previous season. That is noteworthy and outstanding. Some were disappointed that he wasn’t a candidate for All-Defensive MVP.

However, that’s sort of the idea. In his career, Isaac has just ever amassed 1,000 minutes in a single season. He is not to blame. It’s awful, too. It’s also the truth.

Maybe he will redo it next year. or even the subsequent year. However, until and unless he does, it is pointless to advocate for his pseudo-inclusion in defensive-award discussions as the mother of all “Well, if only” qualifiers. Dominance in minutes per minute is only so valuable when your annual total of minutes is 280th.