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Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Most Forgotten NBA Starters of 2024
There are more than 500 players in the NBA, ranging from future Hall of Famers like LeBron James, Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo to role players that many casual or serious hoops fans couldn’t name without help.
Of the bounty of professional basketball players, it appears that a 24-year-old member of the San Antonio Spurs, who was a second-team All-ACC talent at Florida State, is the least known member of today’s NBA fraternity.
As the regular season and NBA betting gets underway this week, BetVirginia.com used a quiz on the Sporcle.com website called “NBA Projected Starting Lineups 2024-25” – a quiz that has been taken by more than 33,200 people as of Oct. 23. We used that quiz to determine the most forgotten NBA starters based on the projected opening night lineups for the 2024-25 NBA season.
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Top 25 Most Forgotten NBA Starters (2024-25 Projected Opening Night Lineup)
Overall Rank | Player | Team | % Correct By Quiz Takers |
1 | Devin Vassell | San Antonio Spurs | 38.5% |
2 | Deni Avdija | Portland Trail Blazers | 39.1% |
3 | Pascal Siakam | Indiana Pacers | 42.6% |
4 | Taylor Hendricks | Utah Jazz | 43.3% |
5 | Harrison Barnes | San Antonio Spurs | 43.4% |
6 | Kyle Kuzma | Washington Wizards | 43.8% |
7 | Jonas Valanciunas | Washington Wizards | 46.1% |
8 | Tobias Harris | Detroit Pistons | 46.4% |
9 | Bilal Coulibaly | Washington Wizards | 47.5% |
10 | Deandre Ayton | Portland Trail Blazers | 47.7% |
11 | Jakob Poeltl | Toronto Raptors | 47.8% |
12 | Aaron Nesmith | Indiana Pacers | 48.2% |
T13 | Dillon Brooks | Houston Rockets | 50.0% |
T13 | Lauri Markkanen | Utah Jazz | 50.0% |
15 | Andrew Nembhard | Indiana Pacers | 50.3% |
T16 | Jeremy Sochan | San Antonio Spurs | 50.9% |
T16 | Jerami Grant | Portland Trail Blazers | 50.9% |
18 | Alex Sarr | Washington Wizards | 51.5% |
19 | Alex Caruso | Oklahoma City Thunder | 51.8% |
20 | Nikola Jovic | Miami Heat | 52.3% |
21 | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope | Orlando Magic | 52.5% |
T22 | Gradey Dick | Toronto Raptors | 52.7% |
T22 | Zach Edey | Memphis Grizzlies | 52.7% |
24 | Franz Wagner | Orlando Magic | 53.1% |
25 | Luguentz Dort | Oklahoma City Thunder | 55.2% |
Some of these players, in addition to all the top NBA stars, are available for prop wagers at Virginia sportsbooks right now.
Who Is The NBA’s Most Anonymous Player?
Overall, 24-year-old shooting guard and small forward Devin Vassell of the Spurs ranked as the least-known player in the NBA, according to the Sporcle.com respondents. In the survey, 38.5% of respondents correctly named the 11th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
Vassell has 9.7 career win shares and a 14.1 player efficiency rating, while averaging 13.6 points per game for his four-year career. He averaged a career-high 19.5 points and 4.1 assists a game last season for the Spurs.
Operators offering the best Virginia sports betting promo codes list San Antonio as a longshot to win its sixth NBA championship in 2024-25, with odds ranging from +10000 to +15000.
Others NBA Players On List
Deni Avdija of the Portland Trail Blazers (39.1%), Pascal Siakam of the Indiana Pacers (42.6%) and Taylor Hendricks of the Utah Jazz (43.3%) were also low on the list when it came to the percentage of respondents that correctly named each member of today’s league rosters.
Three members of the Washington Wizards rank in the top 10 of the least-known NBA starters on our list. To learn more about them and the team, check out our Washington Wizards odds page.
Kyle Kuzma is sixth among NBA starters that Sporcle quiz respondents had a tough time identifying, with 43.8% correct answers. Right behind (or ahead?) of him was Jonas Valanciunas at 46.1%, and Bilal Coulibaly was ninth at 47.5%.
A fourth projected starter for the Wizards made the list, but he’s a player that a lot of American fans have not seen because he had been playing in France. That’s Alex Sarr, who was No. 18 on the list at 51.5% recognition. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft is slated to make his debut on Thursday (Oct. 24) when the Wizards host the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics.
See our Alex Sarr NBA career projection odds for how he might fare.
More About Vassell
Back to the No. 1 player on our list. Vassell has improved his scoring average from 5.5 as a rookie to 19.5 PPG in 2023-24, while increasing his field goal percentage from .406 to. 472 in that time. Still, that on-court evolution wasn’t enough to gain any type of household popularity for the Georgia native, with Vassell ranking dead last in the NBA when it came to recognition entering the league’s 2023-24 season.
Things might not be any rosier on the court for Vassell this season, with oddsmakers from bet365 Virginia Sportsbook giving the Spurs a preseason win total over/under of 36.5 this season.
USA Today photo by Kirby Lee
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