Is Bradley Beal UNDERRATED?

 

The 2021 NBA season is different. Weird, actually. Its kind of ironic to think about, primarily because many more NBA players are averaging great numbers, the ones that have been living in 2^nd place their whole lives are averaging even better an anticipated. Did you realize this? Players like Jaylen Brown, Kyrie Irving, De Aaron Fox, Nikola Jokic, and Donovan Mitchell are averaging higher numbers than expected this season. We also did not really expect NBA stars like Anthony Davis or James Harden to settle down this season, and focus on other aspects of their game.

But there is one player than has been mostly unheard of until the 2020/21 season, and his name is Bradley Beal.

 

Bradley Beal. Surprising right? Not really. He has been trying to show the NBA that he is a super star since he was a rookie, and that he is not just some random guard. This season he is averaging MVP worthy stats, 33.1 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 4.5 APG, and averaging almost 50% from the field (47.9%). With these stats, I think we can all agree that Bradley Beal deserves to be at least an All Star.

If you did not know about Bradley Beal and his stats before, you are probably wondering why, and why players like Luka Doncic, LaMelo, Lebron, Steph, KD, and Giannis are “stealing the spotlight” from him (I’m not saying that these players don’t deserve the spotlight). Well… it’s not because of the players in the spotlight. Its mostly because of the team he’s playing on, and that is the Washington Wizards.

I am not hating on The Washington Wizards. This team is a good NBA team and deserves the same attention as others. But sadly, this season Washington Wizards are one of the last teams in the NBA, having a record of 8 wins and 17 losses (16th February 2021). NBA fans don’t like to focus on teams doing satisfactory this season. Famous channels and companies like Bleacher Report, NBA TV, House of Highlights, and ESPN simply won’t tell fans a lot about Bradley Beal this season; these companies and channels want to tell fans about teams that are succeeding. This is actually not an opinion; this is a fact. When was the last time you heard these channels talk about Bradley Beal or teams like Detroit Pistons or Pelicans? Other than them announcing games or highlights, almost never. Also, NBA fans usually don't talk about teams that are struggling, they talk about teams that are strong offensively, defensively, and teams that have famous players.

Bradley Beal is more than underrated, he is unappreciated. I can say this confidently: If Bradley Beal was on a winning team, all these channels and companies are going to only talk about him, therefore Bradley Beal would get the attention he long desired and deserved.