Nine NBA players flying under the radar: De’Andre Hunter, Payton Pritchard, more quietly having great seasons

The 2024-25 NBA season is past the quarter pole and inching up on Christmas, which is when it feels like things really begin. But that doesn’t mean what’s transpired so far is of any less importance. It’s a cliche because it’s true: The early games count the same as the late games. 

From an individual standpoint, we’ve seen enough to start having conversations about who’s playing well and who’s underperforming. Nikola Jokic, for instance, is having the best season of his career, if you can believe that is even possible for a guy who’s already won three MVPs.

But for the purposes of this article, we’re going to be looking at a lower class of players than Jokic and other MVP and All-NBA candidates. Some of these guys are flying further beneath the radar than others, but of the nine guys listed below, only one has made an All-Star team at any point in his career. Let’s call these players sub-stars. 

Below are nine of them who are having outstanding campaigns so far. 

Norman Powell, Clippers

Powell and Tyler Herro are the closest things to a star on this list, but it’s still a stretch to give either of them that label. So Powell lands at the top of this list. Prior to the season, Powell had this to say about the Clippers losing Paul George over the summer: “I saw it as addition by subtraction. … More guys getting opportunities, including myself.”

That was a brutally honest quote, even if you can argue its merit. Either way, Powell was right about the opportunity that George’s departure opened up for him and to say he has full taken advantage would be an understatement. 

Anyone who says they predicted Powell having this kind of season is a liar. He’s been a good player for a good while, but averaging 23 points on 50/48/83 shooting splits in late December is next level. The 48% from 3 is wild given that it’s coming on a career-high eight attempts per game.

No player in history has managed to keep up that level of efficiency on that kind of volume for an entire season. It’s unlikely that Powell will, either, but the fact that we’re even using Powell’s name in the same sentence as “NBA history” is evidence of the monster year he’s having. 

De’Andre Hunter, Hawks

There’s been a lot of talk about Atlanta’s newfound dynamite defensive duo in Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson, but quietly De’Andre Hunter, who was supposed to be the elite perimeter defender the Hawks needed to support Trae Young when he came into the league, has been having a career season after the shine has sort of come off his name. 

Hunter has really cut down on his long midrange shots and is making a career-high 45% of his 3s on a career-high six attempts per game. It’s adding up to 19.3 PPG, another career high, as Hunter is now a bench star rather than the starting wing who was expected to be an actual star. 

The Hawks are building something pretty perfect around Young with an army of two-way wings who are tough defenders with the size and athleticism to make full use of Young’s extraordinary facilitation skills. Hunter fits in perfectly as a knockdown shooter that now has to be respected to the fullest to keep those penetration lanes open. 

Dennis Schroder, Warriors

If you’re wondering why the Warriors are so thrilled to have traded for Dennis Schroder, it’s because he’s having a career season across the board. He’s averaging just under 19 PPG and has never shot more 3s. He is connecting on those at a 39% clip as part of a true-shooting percentage that is, for the first time in his career, approaching the elite 60% territory. 

Schroder, who was simply playing too well for a Brooklyn team that is uninterested in winning as many games as it has to begin the year, gives the Warriors a true second scorer alongside Stephen Curry who can consistently breach the paint and create his own offense independent of Golden State’s system. 

Tyler Herro, Heat

Tyler Herro is making a push for his first All-Star appearance but he’s only really been talked about, at least nationally, in the fine print. That’s because the Heat, when they’re a middling team, just don’t get a lot of attention. Herro is averaging career highs in scoring (24 PPG) and assists (4.8) while shooting the lights out from all over the floor (41% from 3, 51% from midrange, a higher effective field-goal percentage than Stephen Curry). 

Herro’s 128.3 points per 100 shot attempts, per Cleaning the Glass, blows away his previous career high of 114.1 and registers in the 93rd percentile among combo guards, notably higher than Kyrie Irving, who is on a tear of his own this season. 

Herro has been a tough player to evaluate to this point in his career. He’s extremely talented as a scorer, but he’s been a defensive detriment — a notable playoff target — and he’s never been quite efficient enough to offset the damage of that. This year he’s been so great offensively that his value, defense notwithstanding, has never been higher. 

Caris LeVert, Cavaliers

Caris LeVert is among a contingent of Cavaliers players who are shooting the leather off the ball. He has been a heavy midrange shooter in the past. In Brooklyn, some 40% of his shots came from the most inefficient spots on the floor, and the last two years he’s been at a near 30% midrange frequency rate. 

This season, only 12% of his shots are coming from the midrange, and only two percent from the dreaded long midrange (14 feet to the 3-point line). Do the match, and some 88 percent of his looks are coming at the rim or from beyond the 3-point line, where he is converting at a sky-high 49% clip. The Cavs are 13.9 points better per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor, per CTG, the best mark on the team. 

“I failed in Brooklyn, or we failed in Brooklyn trying to get him to change his shot profile,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson (who also coached LeVert with the Nets) recently said of LeVert. “We tried everything. That was a big part when I came in [to Cleveland] was to make another push [to change LeVert’s shot diet] and he’s bought in. … It’s changing his value to our team. His value for future contracts. You have to be efficient in this sport. That’s what teams are looking for. That’s what we’re looking for. And man, he’s turned a corner.”

Christian Braun, Nuggets

Denver’s bench has been an issue all season for two overarching reasons. One, Nikola Jokic is the clear MVP and when he leaves the floor the Nuggets go to hell no matter who’s trying to hold those minutes down. But two, Christian Braun has elevated into the starting lineup to take the place of the departed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. 

Braun was not necessarily a bench carrier, but he’s a very good player and most of his minutes are now tied to Jokic’s, leaving Russell Westbrook (who is, to be fair, playing much better than his on/off splits suggest, particularly when he’s gotten his chance to play with the starters) as the second-unit engine. 

This is to say, any lineup from which Braun is removed is a worse lineup for Denver. They are outscoring opponents by over 27 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor, per Cleaning the Glass. Again, Braun is tied to mostly Jokic minutes, but don’t downplay the significant impact of a 15 PPG guy who’s posting 57/40 shooting splits.

If the Nuggets can swing a trade to add scoring (they are reportedly interested in Zach LaVine), it could potentially move Braun back to the bench unit, which would really strengthen Denver as a whole. 

Andrew Wiggins, Warriors

Buddy Hield dominated much of the early Warriors talk in terms of a Stephen Curry wingman, but Wiggins, the only player on this list with an All-Star selection on his resume, has quietly been incredible in his own right. He has, for the most part, rediscovered the form that made him the second-best player on the 2022 title team. He’s scoring as a spot-up shooter and a self creator when it becomes necessary. He’s drilling 44% of his 3s on over five attempts per game. He’s defending. 

There is a lot of talk about Wiggins being part of a potential trade if the Warriors go star hunting, but that would only be because he makes the kind of money to financially facilitate such a deal. It won’t be because the Warriors actually want to lose him. He’s playing great. 

Payton Pritchard, Celtics

Among players who have logged at least 250 non-garbage time minutes, Payton Pritchard’s 68.1 effective field goal percentage is the second-best mark in the league among every perimeter player. Better than the likes of Stephen Curry. Kyrie Irving. Kevin Durant. Donovan Mitchell. All of them. 

Pritchard, who has never averaged double-digits in scoring, has completely exploded this season at over 16 points a night in a career-high 29 minutes. The nine 3-point attempts per game at a 43.5% clip make him a lot more than the specialist bench shooter he’s been in the past. He’s a high-volume marksman to which defenses, if he were on any other team, would have to devote honest game-plan attention. 

But on the Celtics, Pritchard is surrounded by Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis. You can only account for so many shooters. In the chaos of that, if you forget about Pritchard for a split second, he’s going to toast you. 

AJ Green, Bucks

As mentioned above, Pritchard has the league’s second-highest eFG% among all perimeter players. Who’s the one player with a higher mark? AJ Green, who comes in at an off-the-charts 71.3%, per CTG. 

Green is attempting over five 3-pointers per game, which takes him from a small-sample shooter who doesn’t really concern a defense in the macro to a bonafide weapon in volume. Green has hit multiple 3s in 10 consecutive games and has made three or more in 14 of his 24 games this season. 

If Green were to continue this pace, he would become just the eighth player in history to make at least 47% of his 3s while taking at least five per game. He is a major part of a Bucks team that has won 12 of its last 15 games (13 of 16 if you count the NBA Cup title game on Tuesday, which doesn’t technically count) by shooting the lights out from beyond the arc.