http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics #19 Derick Rose (23.64) #41 Ronnie Brewer (21.35) #71 Joakim Noah (18.70) #79 Luol Deng (17.99) #95 CJ Watson (17.33) #109 Carlos Boozer (16.80) #147 Kyle Korver (14.33) #194 Rip Hamilton (11.88) #205 Taj Gibson (11.21) #243 Omer Asik (8.88) My observations: 6 guys over 15 PER is oustanding. Taj and Omer are kinda sucky. I hope for better from Rip. Our starting SG from last year (Bogans) isn't on anyone's roster. Others of interest: #35 Hakim Warrick (21.98) - Ain't cap space grand? #45 Tyson Chandler (20.63) - The guy's not even in a contract year. #83 Kurt Thomas (17.68) - We need a 6th center, dammit! #93 Jamal Crawford (17.39) - He sucks, Pax said so! #98 Ben Gordon (17.21) - Detroit kept the right SG. #126 David Lee (15.78) - Pax had a hard on for the guy when Curry was dealt, and we could have signed him instead of Boozer. #132 Elton Brand (15.42) - Old man river, he just keeps rollin' along. #151 Tim Duncan (14.13) - Old man river, he doesn't keep rollin' along. #156 Steve Nash (13.89) - Old man... well, just old man. #167 Thabo Sefalosha (13.47) - Thibs would play him 47 minutes a night here. #173 Ben Wallace (12.92) - Better PER than two of our young bigs. #193 Courtney Lee (11.90) - Don't look at me, I was never on this bandwagon. Though 11.90 is better than Bogans. #195 Chris Duhon (11.75) - I don't get it, for his minutes, his stats are pretty awesome. #250 John Salmons (8.33) - If we signed him, he'd be playing a lot of SG, and we'd hate it. #262 Stephen Jackson (7.51) - FJ? FJ? Ferris Buehler?
I'm an admirer of John Hollinger's work. I find his written voice entertaining, and he's a had a large impact on fan appreciation of statistics. But I just can't seem to get down with PER. It seems to me to be a worthless stat that teaches you little about player tendencies and abilities.
Over 6 games it's not a reliable statistic. Looking over those numbers, Noah's PER surprised me. Has he had one good game so far this season? CJ's is an anomale because he doesn't play much and had that one great spurt. Everyone else? Not too too surprising. Go Ronnie! But I agree, over this time frame, it doesn't do much to shed light on who's doing what.
PER seems to really favor rebounding. And high FG%. I think it is a fair measure of how the guys are doing. Taj and Omer have sucked hard.
