NBA Player Post Season Rankings
During a lively ongoing discussion about the 2019 NBA Playoffs, the subject of which player was performing the best was tendered. Then the question became “How can one even compare Lillard to Jokic?”
Hold my beer…
Nikola Jokic is having a statistically historic post-season. He is also lumbering, awkward, and can’t jump – so his greatness looks different.
How does one compare that to the silky smooth, poetry in motion, big shot nailin’, Dame Lillard?
Well if you’re like me you create a all new basketball metric and run the numbers. I’m calling it:
True Value Over Replacement Per Winshare PlusMinus
If you are interested in advanced stats, some of that Frankenstein-ish monstrosity of stat abuse should sound familiar. If you want more information about any of those specific terms head over to the excellent basketball-reference.com.
note: basketball-reference.com is also the source of all F7F basketball data.
NBA Player Post Season Rankings
| Rank | Name | Team | Pos | true_value_over_replacement_per_winshare_plusminus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Jokic | DEN | C | 5.932476 |
| 2.0 | Giannis | MIL | PF | 4.267828 |
| 3.0 | Leonard | TOR | SF | 3.704816 |
| 4.0 | Harden | HOU | PG | 2.875477 |
| 5.0 | KD | GSW | PF | 1.461979 |
| 6.0 | Embiid | PHI | C | 1.288240 |
| 7.0 | Butler | PHI | SF | 1.257731 |
| 8.0 | Lillard | POR | PG | 1.151748 |
| 9.0 | DeRozan | SAS | SG | 0.315253 |
| 10.0 | Ben Simmons | PHI | PG | 0.224938 |
| 11.0 | Draymond | GSW | PF | 0.146616 |
| 12.0 | Siakam | TOR | PF | -0.111957 |
| 13.0 | Curry | GSW | PG | -0.684006 |
| 14.0 | Jamal Murray | DEN | PG | -0.690951 |
| 15.0 | CP3 | HOU | PG | -0.698172 |
| 16.0 | Middleton | MIL | SF | -1.105826 |
| 17.0 | Kyrie Irving | BOS | PG | -1.299638 |
| 18.0 | McCollum | POR | SG | -1.342535 |
| 19.0 | Klay | GSW | SG | -3.394015 |
The idea is that a ranking of zero would be that of average impact playoff player. For example Draymond Green has had a successful post season so far while curry is not playing up to an elite level. So far…
You would have a difficult time arguing that Jokic, Giannis, Leonard, Harden, and KD were not having as good a playoffs as anyone. Or that Kyrie did not have a quality postseason.
If you are a casual fan you might not realize the extent that Nikola has statistically dominated this years postseason. Or just how bad Kyrie was…
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