as a basketball fan, i'm fascinated by the players barely hanging on to a roster spot on any given team. the storylines vary widely, from veteran there to teach the youngsters, to scrappy upstart who barely made the cut, to the sibling of a star player.

in the nba, these are guys who are literally better than 99.9999% of the planet, and yet, they often seem to be treated like hangers-on rather than some of the best.