The Horace Grant Conundrum

Why are players like Horace Grant so underrated?

The Chicago Bulls’ Horace Grant had the best season of his career in 1991-92, averaging 14.2 PPG and 10.0 RPG while shooting a career-high 57.8% from the field. He was also one of only six players in the NBA that season to record at least 100 steals and 100 blocks.

On the surface, those numbers appear to be good but not great, yet he finished third in the NBA with 14.1 win shares, and his average of .237 win shares per 48 minutes was good for third as well.

Truth be told, I don’t believe Grant was a top-five player in the NBA that season, as I think the win shares system overrates low-usage, high-efficiency players like Grant. That said, I do believe Grant was a top-15 player, and considering he did not receive a single individual honor that season — All-Star, All-NBA, or All-Defensive — that’s not an opinion many would share.

Anyway, how did this happen? How did a player like Grant manage to contribute so much to the bottom line when his statistics, while good, are not especially eye-popping?