Thanks for the HoopsHype article, that is very interesting too. Another thing I have noticed with the PER stat is the weighting of various stats seems to have somewhat of a bias towards the bigs, making comparing players at very different positions, like a PG to a C for example difficult. There is also the question of the competition.
I was comparing last year's players to how the played the year before, and after 6 games the results were terrible. But I was comparing the prior year end PER to the figure for that year thru just 6 games. In our case the early season schedule is much tougher than when we get into the conference schedule, so predictably as we got into the easy part of the schedule most player's numbers got significantly better, but still disappointing compared to the prior year.
Win share per 40, and offensive and defensive ratings are also interesting, particularly when you look at a player coming from another program. It will be interesting for a player like Lou for example. Her PER was better than Azzi or Caroline, but of course done against much weaker competition, and on a team where she was the first option offensively. That means her PER at Uconn is probably lower, because of far fewer scoring attempts and maybe other Uconn players grab a rebound she could have gotten etc.
On the other hand her efficiency at scoring could be better because she won't draw the toughest defender and won't have to put up as many difficult shots, but overall I think the PER goes down a little bit.
Other stats though will be better because she is playing with better teammates. Win share per 40, offensive and defensive ratings reflect how the team does while you are on the floor, so all of those should be better than her Fairfield numbers. Dorka faced a similar situation last year, her PER numbers came down a little and the more team related ones got better.
Here's hoping and wishing her all the best for Lou, but I'll wait and see.
Time to board the “L” train.
