Not Overrated, but Maybe Overpaid

Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle? From now till the regular season starts, we're going to throw our own Top Fives at you.

Since this is the first one, and it's the middle of the offseason, how about five players who look a lot better in August than they do in December, a lot better in the summertime than in winter? Here are five players who have had better offseasons than regular seasons in their NBA careers.

Overrated might be too strong a word here -- but it's time for these guys to start earning earning their money.

-- Gilbert Arenas: Tons of money left on his deal (OK, only about $95-ish million, unless he exercises early termination) and 15 regular-season games the past two years. Only once to the second round of the playoffs, and swept that time. Arenas is quietly eight years in now. He's on this list because he deserves to be and because maybe this will end up on his bedroom wall.

-- Andrew Bogut: We hate to hold it against a player for something beyond his control, like being selected first in the NBA draft. After all, we have a deep-seated respect for Joe Smith, a terrific role player who was plucked No. 1 in 1995. But Bogut is a center, and, ostensibly, a skilled one. Then why does everyone in Milwaukee feel so bad that he's under contract through 2014 at an unwieldy chunk of change?

-- Luol Deng: Can someone please explain to me what I'm missing about Deng? The argument goes that he can score a little bit, shoots a pretty nice number from the field, rebounds well for a perimeter guy and can defend some. OK, fair enough. But what's he doing to earn the other half of the $60 million-plus he set to earn over the next five seasons?

-- Peja Stojakovic: The parlay of age and injury has caught up with Stojakovic, and it's done so in a hurry. He may still be 6-foot-9, but Stojakovic can be guarded with players much smaller. And if that small guy has quickness, all the better (except for Stojakovic). Stojakovic can exercise an early termination option at the end of 2010 and give up more than $14 million the following season. Yeah, like that's going to happen. Stojakovic is a general manager's nightmare: Contract rising, skills diminishing.

-- Anderson Varejao: The only reason David Lee isn't on this list is because he doesn't have a contract yet. If he gets one, and it's for more than what Varejao makes (up to $50 million over the next six years), then he'll bump Varejao to No. 6. Why? Because Varejao has won more.

More Steinmetz on Twitter: @matt_steinmetz