NBA: Five Under-The-Radar Free Agents Your Team Needs To Know

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Jan 24, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors forward Patrick Patterson (54) during the first half at an NBA game against the San Antonio Spurs at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports /

As your favorite NBA team begins to think about free agency, it’s time to do some homework on the deep sleepers who are set to hit the open market.

The 2017 NBA Playoffs may be ongoing, but the time to look forward to free agency has officially arrived. Just two months remain until the most influential period in sports begins, and not every key addition will be a high-profile player.

For a number of teams, the most important moves of the offseason will come in the form of adding quality role players to round out the rotation.

Teams either have their stars in place or they don’t, and more times than not, free agency doesn’t change that. The likes of Kevin Durant and LeBron James may have rattled the NBA at its core, but that was due primarily to the fact that superstars rarely change teams in free agency.

Even if that trend is arriving, James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh will be the first players to tell you how important the likes of Shane Battier and Mike Miller were to their title pushes.

In order to find the perfect role players, even the contenders should be taking this time to study film and evaluate fits. A number of underrated pending free agents could be the difference between growth and stunted development in 2017-18 and beyond.

The question is: who are the under-the-radar players whom your team needs to be studying and evaluating in preparation for the 2017 period of free agency?