NBA’s most underrated players: Josh Hart, Trey Murphy and a former MVP make the list

We all have our favorites. Every year, the NBA staff at CBS Sports ranks the 100 best players in the league. And every year, inevitably, each of us has a player or two that we ranked substantially higher than everyone else. Maybe it’s a young player we expect to grow. Maybe it’s someone on a team we happen to watch more than others. Maybe it’s a player who’s been stuck in the wrong circumstances but is primed for a breakout. Or maybe it’s just irrational faith.

But it’s a central part of the basketball-viewing experience. We all have players that we simply believe in more than anyone else. So this year, we’re going to put our metaphorical money where our mouths are. Each of us decided to highlight one player that we ranked higher than all or most of the rest of the voters. Below, we will explain what we see in those players that the rest of the basketball world does not. These are the players that our staff consider to be the most underrated in the NBA going into the 2025-26 season.

Trey Murphy, Pelicans

The Pelicans are so cursed that the one reasonably consistent part of their team is by far the most overlooked. Trey Murphy isn’t the predestined franchise player battling conditioning issues like Zion Williamson. He’s not the ace defender with wildly fluctuating shooting percentages like Herb Jones. He’s really the only young player in New Orleans who has simply arrived and progressed in a somewhat linear fashion towards potential stardom. You can count on one hand how many players combine his shooting and athleticism, and with so many teammates missing time last season, Murphy, No. 72 on our list, got his first taste of a star-caliber work load. He handled it with aplomb, largely maintaining his efficiency despite increased volume while getting to the line and assisting at career-best rates. Things may be rough in New Orleans, but Murphy is the diamond waiting to be mined from this mess. — Sam Quinn

There’s been so much discussion about the Nuggets’ offseason acquisitions to boost their depth that it seems like everyone has forgotten about Braun, who snuck on to our list at No. 95. He was awesome last season in a breakout campaign in which he averaged an extremely efficient 15.4 points on 58/39.7/82.7 shooting splits. Only four other players in the league averaged at least 15 points on 58% shooting or better last season, and they were all centers: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Domantas Sabonis, Mark Williams and Ivica Zubac. Braun is an excellent cutter and finishes everything in transition, which makes him a perfect partner for Nikola Jokić. No Nuggets teammates played more minutes together than Braun and Jokić, and when they were on the floor Denver had a plus-11.8 net rating. The big question for Braun and the Nuggets is whether he can become a more consistent outside shooter. He shot 39.7% last season, but only took 2.8 attempts per game; in the playoffs, when teams dared him to beat them, he made just 29.6% of 5.1 attempts per game. — Jack Maloney

I anticipate a minutes bump and an All-Defense nod for Thompson this season, and I bet he’ll be much higher on next year’s list. Yes, his poor shooting is a problem, but, fortunately, he’s awesome at pretty much everything else. Few defenders are as much of a menace one-on-one, and his feel for the game on both ends is exceptional. Thompson, ranked 75th on our list, gets ridiculous rebounds, and the Pistons plan to put him on the ball a lot more this season, which means everybody will get to see that he has much more to offer on offense than his cutting in the halfcourt and his speed in transition. — James Herbert

I understand why the ranking on Embiid was so varied, given injuries have to factor into these projections. That said, if Embiid can get back to even playing 50+ games this season (certainly a big if), I think 26 is far lower than he belongs. He is one of the most dominant forces in the game when he’s functional, and as he ramps up for the regular season, the hope is he’s closer to the level we saw before his latest knee injury in 2023-24. I don’t know if we’ll ever see the MVP-level Embiid again, but even if he’s 85% of the player he was at his peak, he’s among the game’s best bigs. This is a player who averaged north of 30 points and 10 rebounds per game for three straight seasons (while providing high-end rim protection). Perhaps I’m wish-casting a bit here, but I really hope we see at least one more run of Embiid near his best because he is one of the most unique, talented forces the league has ever seen. — Robby Kalland

Maybe Josh Hart’s problem is that he’s too easy to forget. Or at least he’s severely undervalued. But this guy — ranked 94th in our Top 100 — does everything for the Knicks. I could’ve made the argument that he was New York’s second-most important player last season. You might not agree, but I assure you on a lot of nights it’s an honest argument. He swings so many games with his rebounding, pace pushing, end-to-end buckets, et cetera. We all love to focus on some of the lineup limitations he brings because of his shooting inconsistencies, but bottom line is Hart can be a borderline top-50 player when it comes down to impacting winning. — Brad Botkin