Jan. 7 -- Docket #4.14
Remain seated and come to order. The Honorable AJ Mass presiding…

Word of the day: Underrated (adj.) - Having too low a value placed upon a thing, compared to its accepted worth.

The word underrated gets tossed around more than Dakota Fanning on a roller coaster. Just this past week I heard on more than one occasion people discussing Vince Young and calling the Longhorn QB underrated and that his Rose Bowl performance proved this to be the case. Let me explain something… when you are considered one of the top three players in your sport (college football in this case) and you outplay the other two in a single game, you are not, nor were you, underrated. You're good. Maybe great. But not underrated, which implies a much larger gap in perceived worth than in this case. It's not being third versus being first or second… it's more like being not even mentioned in the Top 100 versus being solidly entrenched in the top ten.

Here's two other points on the subject:

1) If everyone agrees that something is underrated, then it isn't. I researched my way through twenty or so Most Underrated Rock Bands of All Time lists recently and every single one had Deep Purple either at, or very near, the top. They may have been underrated at one time, but eventually the tag goes away as more and more people start to subliminally hum Hush in the shower, and set Smoke on the Water as their ringtone.

2) Philip Seymour Hoffman has been getting rave reviews for his performance in Capote. And many critics are calling him a "vastly underrated actor". No, he's not. Nearly everybody who sees his work agrees he is a brilliant talent. Ergo, he is not underrated… merely unknown. It's not the same thing at all!

We'll have more on this topic later on, but first let's take a letter from a reader. I usually edit the questions I receive for spelling and grammar mistakes, but sometimes they just make me laugh too hard "as is" to change. Take it away, Pdeanfarrar!!!

"Non-Keeper H2H league. Only got room for one of these centers on the rooster. Better pick between Frye & Bogut. I currently have Frye, but after looking at some stats I have a feeling Bogut will do better in the stretch. I am lacking in points, but not sure what the hell Larry Brown will do with Frye & who knows will Bogut will find his scoring touch. Bogut starts, but Frye plays more minutes. Any thoughts?"

My advice? Get yourself a bigger rooster! Seriously, though, Channing Frye is currently trailing Andrew Bogut in the TCE battle, 12.74 to 11. But if your sole concern is scoring, Frye has been better by far, averaging about 5.5 more points per game. My inclination would be for you to keep the status quo and stick with Frye. For one, the TCE gap is not that large, and secondly, the rooster is already comfortable with him. Cock-a-doodle-doo!!

A quick word on these TCE's that I use… Think of them as an expected output by a player, given a full season of play. (An All-Star player should have a TCE of around 20.) If a player gets hurt during the season, his TCE stays where it is until his return, because if he makes a full recovery, he should still have that level of impact on his team when he comes back. And this is perfectly legit, since I use the TCE as a forecasting tool. If, however, we want to use the TCE as a way to rank a player amongst his peers for his performance to date, we must adjust the TCE numbers for the amount of actual games played.

For example, our good friend Ron Artest is #22 overall in the league with his TCE of 20. When and if he gets back on the court, we'd expect his talent level to remain where it is, and for him to pick up playing exactly where he left off (even if he isn't playing in the same location as where he left off). But, as time passes, and he misses more and more action, his 2005-6 rank amongst his peers will drop precipitously in the overall adjusted TCE rankings (or XTCE) where he is currently #111.

I'd like to think of the XTCE as this website's version of the AP poll, which crunches the same numbers, but in a different way than our "Coaches Poll", Pete Becker and the Stat Rat ratings. They're not better, or worse, just a different way of looking at the world.

With that all said, let's get back to our discussion of underrated… The All-Star voting ends on January 22nd. Looking at the early returns and the TCE's, it appears there are many underrated players who would miss out on the affair if it were left to public perception. And THAT'S the definition of the term. If we are to assume that fans are indeed voting for the perceived "best of the best" players out there, then the fact that these guys aren't even blips on the fan radar proves their underratedness.

First, let's look at the top vote-getters at each position thus far, with their TCE and ranking. These leaders could presumably be the fans' choice for the complete All-Star roster, if the voting were already finito. Players NOT in the Top 25 are ORANGE.

EAST FORWARDS	EAST CENTERS	EAST GUARDS
LeBron James (Cle) - 2 - 25.72	Shaquille O'Neal (Mia) - 65 - 15.34	Allen Iverson (Phi) - 1 - 26.71
Jermaine O’Neal (Ind) - 33 - 18.61	Ben Wallace (Det) - 25 - 19.21	Dwyane Wade (Mia) - 3 - 25.69
Rasheed Wallace (Det) - 47 - 17.68	Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Cle) - 86 - 13.33	Vince Carter (NJ) - 24 - 19.33
Chris Webber (Phi) - 20 - 20.80		Jason Kidd (NJ) - 7 - 23.92
Ron Artest (Ind) - 22 - 20.00		Chauncey Billups (Det) - 26 - 19.11
WEST FORWARDS	WEST CENTERS	WEST GUARDS
Tracy McGrady (Hou) - 12 - 21.91	Yao Ming (Hou) - 64 - 15.40	Kobe Bryant (LAL) - 16 - 21.45
Kevin Garnett (Min) - 6 - 24.27	Marcus Camby (Den) - 15 - 21.60	Steve Nash (Pho) - 9 - 23.29
Tim Duncan (SA) - 19 - 20.96	Mehmet Okur (Uta) - 59 - 15.68	Manu Ginobili (SA) - 57 - 15.99
Dirk Nowitzki (Dal) - 34 - 18.43		Ray Allen (Sea) - 31 - 18.82
Pau Gasol (Mem) - 23 - 19.90		Tony Parker (SA) - 27 - 19.08

Now let's look at our list of the snubbed:

Baron Davis (GS) - 4 - 24.50
Chris Paul (NO) - 5 - 24.44
Brevin Knight (CHA) - 8 - 23.41
Shawn Marion (PHX) - 10 - 22.73)
Gilbert Arenas (WAS) - 11 - 22.69
Paul Pierce (BOS) - 13 - 21.69
Andrei Kirilenko (UTA) - 14 - 21.66
Elton Brand (LAC) - 17 - 21.34
Andre Miller (DEN) - 18 - 21.04
Lamar Odom (LAL) - 21- 20.49

I give you the ten most underrated players in the NBA. There's still time to fix this, folks. Vote some of these deserving players onto the squad! It's up to you.

Next week: More from the mailbag, including angry letters from John C. Reilly, Blender Magazine, Andy Partridge and Child Protective Services.

All rise… The Court has now adjourned!

AJ Mass is a fantasy expert for NBA.com. His column The Commish’s Court runs every Saturday as part of the NBA.com Premium Scouting Report. Contact him at thecommish@TalentedMrRoto.com.

The views expressed by the TalentedMrRoto.com represent only the views of the writers; they do not represent the views of the NBA or any NBA team.