“Nikola Jokic and Giannis have the two highest PERs in NBA history”: Nuggets and Bucks MVPs trump Wilt Chamberlain having the highest PERs in NBA history in 2021-22

Nikola Jokic and Giannis have the highest PERs in NBA history this 2021-22 NBA season, both of which are higher than Wilt Chamberlain’s. 

An extremely underrated storyline from this 2021-22 NBA season is the fact that the top 3 MVP candidates are all international players. Nikola Jokic, the reigning league MVP, is of Serbian decent, Giannis is from Greece, and Joel Embiid is Cameroonian. Ja Morant and DeMar DeRozan round out the top 5. 

Nikola Jokic is having perhaps the greatest advanced analytical NBA season this year and has actually gotten better on the offensive end of the floor when compared to his MVP season, somehow. His defense has also come to a point where saying he isn’t a good defender is just not true anymore.

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With the way Giannis plays, there isn’t much he can do wrong. His play is most favorable for what the PER stat looks for. He plays the game simple on the offensive end of the floor with him being second in the league in points per game in the paint. His help defense is second only to Draymond Green’s and that’s up for debate as well. 

It isn’t a surprise that both Nikola Jokic and Giannis have high PERs but them having the highest in NBA history in the same season is quite unprecedented. 

Nikola Jokic and Giannis have both trumped Wilt Chamberlain in single season PER. 

PER (player efficiency rating) is a statistic that John Hollinger created to quantify the amount of positive things a player does on the court and subtract the negative things they do. The league average for this number is 15.00 ever season and Giannis and Nikola Jokic have more than doubled that number this season.

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Giannis leads the league and well, NBA history currently, with a single season PER of 32.59 in 2021-22. Jokic follows the Greek Freak with an ever so slight difference of 0.15 with his PER being 32.44. 

The reigning Finals MVP actually had the single season highest PER in his 2019-20 MVP season when he posted up a 31.86, which was merely 0.04 higher than Wilt Chamberlain’s from his 1963 NBA season. 

The 3rd MVP candidate for this season, Joel Embiid, has a PER of 31.35 this season and ranks 12th all time in single season PER.