In a recent anonymous player poll conducted by The Athletic, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert emerged as the NBA"s most “overrated" player, despite being a front-runner for his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award.
Gobert garnered 13.6% of the player votes for the most overrated player in the league, with Washington guard Jordan Poole trailing behind at 8.6%. However, only 81 out of 142 NBA players interviewed responded to this question, marking it as one of the least answered queries in the poll.
While Gobert"s defensive prowess is widely acknowledged, NBA players participating in the poll didn"t rank him among the top three best defensive players in the league.
In a survey of 132 respondents, Gobert secured only 6% of the vote, placing him fifth. Surprisingly, his Timberwolves teammate Jaden McDaniels tied for fourth place with 8.3% of the vote. The top spot for best defensive player was awarded to rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama, with 15.2% of the votes.
Anthony Edwards was recognized as the third-most preferred player to build a franchise around from scratch, earning 10.3% of the votes.
Naz Reid shared the ninth spot for the most underrated player in the league with Kyrie Irving and Jamal Murray, each receiving 2.4% of the votes, while Mike Conley clinched the 10th spot with 1.6%.
Head coach Chris Finch didn"t receive votes for the question regarding which coach players would like to play for outside of their current coach.
The Target Center scored 0.3% of the votes for the favorite arena to play in.
The Wolves received 1.6% of votes when players were asked about which team, other than their own, is most likely to win the title this season.
On a less flattering note, former Timberwolves coach, and current New York Knicks head coach, Tom Thibodeau was dubbed the coach players would least like to play for outside of their current coach, obtaining a staggering 46.8% of votes from 77 respondents.
In an unexpected twist, former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins found himself on the receiving end of a jab from an anonymous player in the poll.
When asked for their favorite athlete outside of the NBA, one player singled out Cousins, stating, “Kirk Cousins because he gets paid and doesn’t have to win or don’t have to do anything and made $400 million off of one playoff win. Legend."
An anonymous NBA player says Kirk Cousins is his favorite Non-NBA athlete
"He gets paid and doesn’t have to win or don’t have to do anything and made $400 million off of one playoff win. Legend."
(Via https://t.co/fOzCR8ak3L) pic.twitter.com/wJWZdqEbma
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 22, 2024
