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From ESPN.com
We're halfway through the season, and we've had all sorts of great individual stories from the first semester -- from the exploits of LeBron James and Chris Paul, to C-Webb and Nellie reuniting in Golden State, to Kevin Garnett rejuvenating the Celtics.
Those stories have been covered in much detail, along with many others. But besides them, there have been players who have been overshadowed and also deserve press. These are the "sleepers" -- the players very few are talking about, who we should be paying much greater attention to in the second half of the season.
Why should we care about these guys? Because some are young, rising stars that haven't received much ink. Some are undervalued pieces on contending teams. And some are potential free agents who could be coming to a neighborhood near you this summer.
No matter the reason, I came up with a 15-man sleeper team for the second half. The rules? For starters, this isn't an all-underrated team as much as it's an all-no-exposure-whatsoever team. The other criteria are more obvious: They're playing well, and in most cases they're young enough that they're likely to keep it up or improve on it in the future.
That said, here' s my sleeper team. Keep an eye on these guys the rest of the way, because they're likely to get a lot more attention somewhere down the road:
David West, Hornets
In a few more weeks everyone will refer to West as the most underrated player in the league, so allow me to jump the gun. For crying out loud, he's averaging nearly a 20-10 for the first-place team in the West, yet not one fan in 50 would recognize him on the street.
Here's the thing about West: He does almost nothing that makes the highlights. And yet at the end of the game, you realize he killed you. He's always open -- it's uncanny. He floats to open spots and drills midrange jumpers or runs the floor and gets transition buckets, plus he's a good enough one-on-one scorer that he can take advantage of mismatches on switches. None of his buckets will make the highlight film, but he can be devastatingly effective -- as he showed with that ridiculous 15-for-19 flambé of San Antonio's vaunted defense Saturday.
Brendan Haywood, Wizards
With Washington playing so well minus Gilbert Arenas, it's kind of surprising that Haywood has managed to avoid getting any credit. He's having a career year with an 18.65 player efficiency rating (PER) and career bests in points and rebounds per 40 minutes (15.1 and 11.1) and true shooting percentage (59.1), not to mention a shocking improvement to 73.3 percent from the line -- he was at 56.2 percent for his career entering the season.
Yet Haywood's greatest impact may come at the other end. The Wizards as a group are the league's most improved defensive team, and the 7-footer's ability to anchor the middle has been a huge reason. So while Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison get the lion's share of the credit, don't sleep on Haywood. If the Wizards make noise in the playoffs, I expect him to be one of the reasons.
Josh Childress, Hawks
If it weren't for West, Childress would be the most underrated player in the league. He's also an important one, because he's a restricted free agent after the season. And with Atlanta already committed to Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Marvin Williams on the wings, it's plausible that they'd pass on matching a strong offer.
Childress is having his fourth straight season with a PER above the league average, shooting a career-best 56.9 percent from the field and plucking nearly seven rebounds per 40 minutes. He'll never be a go-to guy offensively with that funky shot of his, but he'd be extremely effective as a glue guy on a running team, because he can rebound, defend, handle the ball and finish. He'd also be the prime bait if the Hawks ever decided to make a run at Jason Kidd. Speaking of which …
Devin Harris, Mavericks
Harris is out for the next couple of weeks with a bone bruise on his ankle, but he has put together a strong season as the Dallas point man, scoring 18.9 points per 40 minutes on a 59.2 TS%.
His play has been strong enough, in fact, that I'd like to throw out a heretical thought for you Mavs fans contemplating a Harris-and-change-for-Kidd trade: What makes you think having Kidd would be better?
Harris has a much better PER this season and wasn't much behind Kidd in 2005-06 (last season Kidd had a sizable edge, though). While Kidd is a great defender against big guards, Harris is vastly superior against the quick guards -- Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, etc. -- the Mavs are likely to be matching up against in the playoffs. Additionally, Kidd shoots 36.9 percent from the floor and 34.3 percent from 3, while Harris is at 48.3 percent and 35.7 percent from 3 … so whom would you rather have spacing the floor for Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard?
Kidd's major advantage over Harris is that he's an awesome defensive rebounder, but the Mavs already rank eighth in defensive rebound rate -- how much can he really improve that number? And to get those rebounds, they're giving up the whopping 6.8 points per 40 minutes advantage Harris has, not to mention picking up some extra turnovers (Kidd has been wildly turnover-prone, in what is one of the season's most underreported stories). And finally, remember that Dallas is one of the league's slowest-paced teams … so whom would Kidd be running with?
If I were Dallas, I'd make sure I remembered I'm not trading for what Kidd did over the past decade, but what he'll give me in the next three months … which I'm not convinced exceeds what Harris will do.
Andrew Bogut, Bucks
He plays for the Bucks, so by definition he gets no attention. But amid another disappointing season for his team, Bogut has shown solid improvement. The third-year center from Australia draws offensive fouls by the bushel, but this season he's been a better defender in other respects too; his added muscle has made him stronger in post battles.
And offensively, he's finally showing a low-post game -- helped along by one of the best left hands among NBA big men. The results? Career bests in PER and points and rebounds per 40 minutes.
But a bigger reason to watch Bogut is because he's stepped it up another notch over the past month. In 15 January games, he's averaging 17.4 points, 10.1 boards and 3.1 assists (oh yes -- he's also one of the game's best-passing centers) while shooting 57.8 percent from the field. OK, he's not as good as Chris Paul, but the 23-year-old Aussie may still end up one of the top four or five players from the 2005 draft.
Louis Williams, 76ers
Meet the poor man's Allen Iverson: Williams is incredibly fast, light as a feather, plays for the Sixers, struggles from outside, and nobody's sure whether he's a shoot-first point guard or a diminutive 2 guard.
What's certain is that he can score. The Sixers' reserve guard scores 19.4 points per 40 minutes and this season he's even making 3-pointers (36.9 percent), although he's cooled off since a very hot start to the season.
The 21-year-old will be thrust into the spotlight if Philly's much-rumored Andre Miller trade ever comes to fruition, but either way, he's an important player to watch because he's also a restricted free agent this summer.
Rashad McCants, Timberwolves
McCants could be a big-time scorer in another year or two; he has all the tools and just needs to figure out how to put it together. In his first full season back from microfracture surgery, he's scoring 21.4 points per 40 minutes and shooting 43 percent on 3-pointers. The 23-year-old guard can also score in the post against small guards and is a good finisher off the dribble.
Right now, two things hold him back. First, he's still figuring out what is a good shot and what isn't; on some nights he seems pretty far from the solution. Second, he has a very low free-throw rate and hasn't figured out how to get himself easy points at the line. Despite those shortcomings, his talent is undeniable, and his recovery from the surgery is one of the few positive stories in Minnesota's long season.
Thaddeus Young, 76ers
Any time a teenager has a PER above the league average, we really ought to pay attention to it. Young has been way, way, WAY under the radar because he comes off the bench on a bad team, but the 19-year-old forward is having a noteworthy rookie season. The lefty can put the ball in the hoop (14.6 points per 40 minutes) and rebounds extremely well for a small forward -- so well, in fact, that he's often used at the 4.
He still needs to figure out a lot of things, like how to draw fouls for instance -- his rate of free throws is scandalously low for a player with his athleticism. Nonetheless, Young is one of the league's most promising young players, ranking fourth among rookies in PER, and he's received virtually no attention so far.
Nate Robinson, Knicks
In our zest to chronicle the assorted sideshows at Madison Square Garden these days, we perhaps have missed a story right in front of our faces -- Robinson's development into a real, live NBA player. It doesn't seem possible that a 5-foot-9 shooting guard can cut the mustard, but in his third pro season, Robinson is pumping in 20.6 points per 40 minutes and, even more shockingly, snaring 5.0 rebounds.
Of late, Stephon Marbury's absence has given Robinson a bigger opportunity to shine, and he's taken full advantage. In 14 January games, Robinson has averaged 14.7 points and 4.7 assists and shot 47.1 percent; in fact, he and Jamal Crawford form a far more effective backcourt than anything else the Knicks have tried over the past couple of years, which is one reason the team's play has improved of late.
Ryan Gomes, Timberwolves
One of the big factors in the Wolves' sudden burst of competence this past week has been Gomes, who pumped in 35 points in a win at Golden State and is quietly putting together a very solid third pro season.
His numbers since the new year are particularly noteworthy: 15.5 points, 6.4 boards and 50.3 percent shooting. Though he's still perceived as a tweener and his jumper needs to get more consistent, he's a low-mistake guy whose variety of skills would make him a nice glue guy off the bench on a good team. And as with Williams, he's a restricted free agent this summer.
Dorell Wright, Heat
The Heat are down on Wright because he was drafted as a scorer and he hasn't been able to score consistently. But that doesn't mean he's a bad player; in fact, I would argue he's a pretty decent bench player now, and at 22, should only get better.
Wright is one of the best rebounding small forwards in the game, pulling down 8.2 boards per 40 minutes, and his low turnover ratio the past two seasons has partly made up for his modest offensive output. Additionally, he's a good defender who can block shots. If he ever fills out his 205-pound frame, he could be a very effective small-ball power forward, too.
Wright is worth watching for another reason -- he's a restricted free agent this summer. Given Miami's lukewarm attitude toward him over the past four years, one can't imagine the Heat putting up much of a fight if another team makes a decent offer.
Shawne Williams, Pacers
Indiana has a fairly grim future, with the exception of two young forwards named Danny Granger and Shawne Williams. Granger is a known commodity, but Williams gets little ink. The 6-9 forward should be a junior at Memphis, but opted to enter the league early and spent much of last season on the bench.
He's an intriguing prospect because he can shoot from deep (35.8 percent career) but also gets to the rim. Right now he looks great half the time and totally out to lunch the other half, but let's see what happens in the second half of the season as he gets more experience. Certainly his 18.3 points per 40 minutes warrants attention -- guys who can score at that rate at the age of 21 are pretty rare.
Kris Humphries, Raptors
One wonders how long Andrea Bargnani will be allowed to stink it up before Humphries takes over the gig. While he doesn't fit in with Toronto's space-the-floor-with-shooters concept, Humphries is the team's lone dose of physicality and rebounding muscle.
Additionally, he's the same age as Bargnani, so it's not like they're mortgaging the future with such a move. Unlike his teammate, Humphries has taken another big step forward this season, registering 16.9 points and 11.5 boards per 40 minutes and making Bryan Colangelo's decision to sign him to a low-cost extension before the season look like a master stroke.
Or rather, a second master stroke. The original master stroke was trading for him in the first place, in return for epic lottery bust Rafael Araujo. And Toronto Star writer Doug Smith has since dubbed Humphries "Not-Haffa-Bad."
Sure, Humphries has his weaknesses: He's still way too shot-happy, he fouls a lot and his D can be sloppy at times. But if my alternatives are Bargnani and Rasho Nesterovic, this guy is the clear winner. That's why I suspect that by playoff time he'll have a much bigger role than his current 14.6 minutes per game.
Francisco Garcia, Kings
Don't look now, but Sacramento may have the deepest perimeter group in basketball. With Garcia, John Salmons and Beno Udrih backing up Ron Artest, Kevin Martin and Mike Bibby, the cupboard suddenly looks awfully full out there.
Garcia isn't getting much attention, but he has more than doubled his scoring average from last season thanks to his increasing confidence in a deadly 3-point stroke. In his third pro season, he is shooting 39.6 percent from downtown and scores 18.7 points per 40 minutes, plus he's a solid defender who has cut down on all the hacking he did last season.
Now that the Kings have all their players back he may see his minutes cut, but if the much-discussed trades of Bibby and/or Artest happen, it won't be for long. While Garcia doesn't have the upside of some other players on this list because he's already 26, his shooting, defense and ballhandling make him a strong complementary player.
Ronny Turiaf, Lakers
L.A. has a ridiculously deep and productive bench, but the one member of the group who gets fairly little attention is Turiaf. Yes, he can't shoot, he's a below-average rebounder and he seemingly fouls on every play. But despite those shortcomings, he's a very productive player.
Turiaf isn't a refined post player but can pile up points on garbage baskets because he runs the floor and never stops moving -- he is scoring 15.5 points per 40 minutes on 50.6 percent shooting this season. The hyperactivity also helps on D, where he posts over a block a game in just 17.3 minutes of action.
With Andrew Bynum and Chris Mihm out, Turiaf is getting a much bigger opportunity to showcase his skills, and he could become important come playoff time. Even if he doesn't, he's a restricted free agent after the season who could prove tempting to teams with holes in the frontcourt.
