There are several smaller narratives that make up the overall story of the 2008-09 season to this point. One has been the team's play at home. Another has been the surprisingly consistent offensive performances of Flip Murray off the bench. Poor free throw shooting. But the one I feel like I'm starting to notice above all others is the improvement of Marvin Williams.

ESPN's Bill Simmons talks about how it's so rare to see a player be underrated these days. Usually, a player who is underrated is so often mentioned as being so that he ceases to be underrated anymore - he either becomes "rated", or soon is overrated. In Simmons' mind, only one player in the NBA deserves to be considered underrated - Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant. However, given his offensive performances of late (including an All-Star Weekend record 46 points in the Rookie-Sophomore game), I am pretty sure his days of being overlooked in any way shape or form are over.

I'd like to nominate Marvin to take Durant's place as the leader of the underrated. No matter what Williams does on the court, it seems as if he is only known in the league for one thing - being drafted before Chris Paul and Deron Williams.

Marvin has improved his game every season so far, but he has really started to shine this year in particular. No one notices though, because he is rarely a focal point in the Hawks offense when everyone is available.

However, (warning - small sample size alert) when Joe Johnson or Mike Bibby are out of the action, all of a sudden the program changes. Marvin becomes a much larger part of the Hawks offense, and he contributes - and then some.

After last night's season-high 31 point effort against the Nuggets, Marvin is now averaging 25 ppg in the four games missed by JJ and Bibby this season - 11.1 points over his season average. Williams gets hyper-aggressive in those games, as he averages 12.5 FTA as compared to a normal mark of 4.6. And he's making them - (45-50 in the 4 games for 90%). He also grabs 7.3 rebounds, which is almost a full rebound over his season average (6.5).

Now, some of that is a function of more time on the court - normally Marvin gets 34.8 minutes a night, but in the four highlighted games he upped that to 40.5. And obviously, with his teammates missing he gets more shots up, from a normal average of about 10.1 to 14. Even with those caveats though, Marvin's production still impresses.

All of which is to say that even if the overall numbers don't necessarily suggest it, I think we are seeing this season that Marvin Williams is legitimately capable of being a star-caliber player in the NBA, and is quietly beginning to justify his draft position - regardless of who came afterwards.