Can beginners rely on NBA player efficiency rating to gauge performance and guide workouts?

24 Eyl 15:52

John Hollinger’s PER is essentially a weighted box‑score line that tries to bundle every positive stat (points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, etc.) and subtract the negatives (missed shots, turnovers, fouls) into a single number, then normalizes it per minute and scales the league average to 15. In practice you’ll see a long formula that multiplies each stat by a coefficient derived from league‑wide averages, adds them up, divides by the player’s minutes, and finally applies a pace adjustment so that a fast‑tempo team doesn’t automatically look better. The appeal is obvious: you get a quick, league‑wide benchmark that lets you say “this guy is 20 PER, he’s above average.” It does a decent job of capturing raw offensive output and can be handy for spotting high‑usage players who dominate the stat sheet. But it’s also a blunt instrument—defensive impact, spacing, off‑ball movement, and the quality of the competition are all invisible. Because the formula rewards volume, a player who takes a lot of shots (even inefficient ones) can still post a solid PER, while a defensive specialist can look terrible. For a beginner trying to shape workouts, PER isn’t the shortcut you want. It tells you “how many points, rebounds, etc. a player puts up per minute,” not “what skill is holding him back.” If you’re looking to improve your own game, focus on the underlying metrics that matter to your position: shooting percentages, true shooting % for scorers, rebounding rate for bigs, assist‑to‑turnover ratio for guards, and defensive rating or opponent field‑goal% if you care about the other end. Use PER only as a high‑level reference—maybe to see that a player you admire is a high‑efficiency scorer—but design drills around the specific actions you need to sharpen.