Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo might shatter the previous record of best PER of all-time held by the Greek Freak himself.
Advertisement
Most of the players from previous eras will tell you that advanced statistics don’t tell you about a player any better than a simple eye test. But most of the major sports these days involve advanced statistics, including Basketball.
The NBA keeps a player’s plus-minus, net rating, win shares, value over replacement, and many such statistics to evaluate individual and team performances. The Player Efficiency Rating is one such stat that can tell us who is the best player in a team or in the league.
Also read: Desmond Bane describes his ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment was getting ‘bullied’ by the Lakers superstar
“The PER sums up all a player’s positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player’s performance.” according to a columnist, John Hollinger of The Athletic, who developed the PER.
Reading its definition one might think of the likes of Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan and truly so. Both these legends had multiple sensational seasons where they finished in the top-10 all-time PER leader.
But this 2021-2022 season, we might have a single year of multiple players ending up in that top-10 all-time list.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic are on the verge of shattering history
Giannis Antetokounmpo has already broken Wilt Chamberlain’s best PERs back from 1962-63 and 61-62’ back in the 2019-2020 season when he earned his second MVP. But the Greek Freak is on his way to breaking his own record by a significant margin, having a PER of 32.13 currently.
In a season that can result in him winning both the Defensive Player of the Year and the MVP, Giannis will still rank second among the top PERs of all-time if the regular season ends today.
Then who is leads the 2x MVP you ask? The reigning MVP of the NBA – Nikola Jokic. The Serbian international with a “33.15” PER leads the Greek international with a whole number difference, while the difference between Giannis’ best PER and the 20th player on the list, i.e., David Robinson’ is under 1.5.
That tells you the dominance the Joker is having this season. Playing without Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr. is bringing the best performance out of him. He leads the league in Win Shares, Value over Replacement, Offensive Win Shares, and field goals made.
Another big man, who is also in the MVP race this season, broke into the top-10 all-time list of PERs. Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia Sixers stands at 10th on that list with a 31.62 per.
