Talk:Player efficiency rating

Latest comment: 1 year ago by 2600:1700:BB5C:7820:75F0:7C12:7F0:9B87 in topic Luka Doncic on PER career leaders.

Untitled edit

I have added some things here to make it more complete. As it was, it was basically just a regurgitation of hollinger articles from ESPN. I think this may be a little better in describing how PER should be used and why it is important.

If anyone can format my tables better, feel free. I tried to line them up left to right but they got jumbled and were covering text.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Stwhalen (talkcontribs)

An alternative calculation to PER is the BPI - Berg Performance Index - created by Larry Berg in 2006 to assess player efficiency at the college level. As an aside to that effort, Mr. Berg also calculated all-time BPI values for former and current NBA players, and the results are similar, yet notably different from those of PER.

The formula for calculating BPI is far more simple, although similar in concept, to PER:

BPI = (((FG Made x 2)+ FT made + 3Pt FG made + (Total Rebounds / 2) + Assists + (Steals / 2) + (Blocks / 2)) - (FG Missed + FT Missed + (Personal Fouls / 2) + (Turnovers / 2))) x 40 / Minutes Played x 4

For the NBA (as of 6.1.2010), the top 15 players with a minimum of 15,000 minutes played are (as calculated from data provided at NBA.com):

1 Magic Johnson 109.58 2 Michael Jordan 102.69 3 Wilt Chamberlain** 101.52 4 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar** 101.07 5 Oscar Robertson** 100.15 6 Larry Bird 99.07 7 LeBron James 94.24 8 Jerry West** 93.15 9 John Stockton 92.48 10 Charles Barkley 92.42 11 Kevin Johnson 91.77 12 Julius Erving 90.23 13 Dwyane Wade 89.69 14 Karl Malone 89.38 15 David Robinson 88.71

    • At least part of his career was played when blocked shots, turnovers, steals, and/or 3-point shots were not recorded.

Note: Chris Paul, with 12,881 minutes played (about 2,120 short of qualifying for this list), would otherwise rank as the 8th most efficient player in NBA history with a BPI of 93.60.


There are obviously some notable differences when comparing the highest ranking players for PER and BPI. For many observers, it may simply be a matter of which list meets a preconceived notion of how players SHOULD rank. Example - for those who believe Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson, Bob Petit, Tim Duncan and Neil Johnston are among the 10 most efficient NBA players ever, PER will likely carry more weight, regardless of the science behind the actual calculation. For those who instead believe Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird and Jerry West should replace those 5 in the top 10, BPI will likely have more sway.

It should be noted that 5 of the top 10 players ranked by PER are centers, which may be deemed an unusually heavy bias towards that position given that it statistically represents only 20% of a typical starting lineup and pool of players.

Larryberg (talk) 21:56, 26 June 2010 (UTC) Larry BergReply

Can someone add a "History of the PER" section that notates how, why, and WHEN hollinger came up with this measure? I'd be interested to see if certain players PER went up after it was made popular via exploiting the formula. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.46.9.93 (talk) 16:52, 4 March 2011 (UTC)Reply

Note that data may be dated: "For example, Bruce Bowen, widely regarded as one of the best defenders in the NBA (at least through the 2006-07 season), has routinely posted single-digit PERs." -- Anything more recent? Gprobins (talk) 18:18, 25 June 2012 (UTC)Greg RobinsonReply

Untitled2 edit

"The 2008–2009 season was unique in that it was the only season in which more than one player (LeBron James (31.67), Dwyane Wade (30.46), and Chris Paul (30.04)) posted efficiency ratings of over 30.0." But here https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/per_top_10.html are different points listed: L. James (31.67) D. Wade (30.36) C. Paul (29.96) — Preceding unsigned comment added by DocFly (talkcontribs) 19:08, 20 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

Luka Doncic on PER career leaders. edit

I believe Luka Doncic has a career PER of 24.7 which would have him at 11th all time for career PER. He is not on the list. 2600:1700:BB5C:7820:75F0:7C12:7F0:9B87 (talk) 15:34, 5 November 2022 (UTC)Reply