Rose at 24.8, Boozer at 20.1, Noah at 19.0. For 13 years, we struggled to find one guy approaching or beating 20, and we sucked or were mediocre at best. Ironically, a lot of fans wanted the Bulls to cut one of those three via amnesty and somehow shed the contract of another of those three. But it doesn't stop there. Watson was over 20, but has fallen to just under 18. Butler has come back to earth with meaningful PT, but is still at 17.2. Deng has a 16.2 PER, which is actually quite a bit better than it was much of the season when he was healthy. Gibson has raised his PER from the ~10 range to almost 16. That's SEVEN players who are "above average" when it comes to PER. It speaks to the quality of the Bulls' depth. We have nobody in single digits like last year. I do think it takes at least one guy with a PER in the 23+ range and another at 20+ to be a contender. The Heat have their big 3: LBJ 32.4, Wade 26.5, Bosh 19.8. Chalmers is their only other guy above 15, at 15.9. This speaks to their depth, and strengths. Seems like an accurate measure to me. LBJ has a reputation of wilting in the playoffs, yet he's been to the finals twice by the age Jordan made his first trip there. And what a ridiculous season he's having - 27/8/7 (on .545 FG%) and 2 steals to go with that 32.4 PER. Jordan's career best PER was 31.7 The Blazers have 5 guys with PER over 15, two over 17, same two over 19, and just LMA over 20 at 23.9 (all-star). They have a 16-14 record. Speaks volumes about having quality players deep in the lineup. Oddly, the guy with the worst PER on the Bulls is Ronnie Brewer at ~12.
Somehow, I don't think Jimmy Butler is of more value to the Bulls than Brewer. But your overall point is well taken. We have a fine team, which according to various measures is at or near the top in performance. One thing is clear is that the Bulls are much better at getting teams down and keeping them down than they were last year. But, for various reasons, we haven't really been able to establish dominance over our rivals, which is concerning. For the most part, I attribute that to injuries and to Noah's funk at the beginning of the year. So, I remain hopeful
I think you have to look at PER along with other stats. Like minutes played. Some people say usg% too. In that context, Butler actually has played better than Brewer. I also think that Brewer had a sparkling PER for a while and was leading the league in 3pt shooting. It seems he was playing SF in Deng's absence and his performance took a big hit.
Rose and Boozer are about where they ought to be at. Deng's better than his PER indicates, and he has always played that way. Nothing too surprising there. CJ Watson's fall was all but inevitable. He's not a 20+ PER player, he was just the beneficiary of a nice start and fortuitous circumstances. Ronnie's PER's demise is also not surprising, since he's a role player who recently has been asked to do more on offense than he's capable of. His shooting in particular is high maintenance since it needs a lot of external circumstances to work at a decent percentage. We don't have that right now. To me the biggest bright spot to take from all of this is that Boozer and Noah look like they've figured out how to play well together. That's big. I've really enjoyed the last 3 games I've watched, because their high/low game has gone very well, and it's just nice to know that they can both play without having terrible games.
Brewer as starting SG for the Jazz put up PERs of 18.4 and 16.1. He's never been a big minutes guy, though.
If a guy plays about 30mpg and has a PER of about 20, odds are you have a pretty good basketball player. Deng's living proof that PER isn't definitive when it comes to identifying pretty good basketball players. The Bulls have 4 pretty good basketball players and none are on the downside of their careers. They have 6 other players who are average to above average. They're coached well. Good time to be a Bulls' fan.
Deng us proof if you don't have guys with 20+ PERs, you're likely a first round exit or 2nd round if they have injury issues. ;-)
