82games playoff ratings

Just checked the 82games ratings for the playoffs. Luol Deng is the top player so far in the playoffs, at least according to one measure. The "Roland Rating" considers three elements:

1. Player's production are measured by the PER metric
   
2. Opponent's production at the same position as measure by PER
   
3. On court/off court unadjusted +/- differential
   

(I suppose you could say this is just two factors: PER differential and +/- differential)

While Deng has a very impressive PER of 27.3, this stills trails three other players: LeBron, Amare and Baron Davis. But Deng has the largest PER differential, because the Miami forwards he matched up against recorded a truly ungodly PER of 4.9.

To understand how bad that is, first note that PER is standardized so that the league average is 15. A season's score as high are Deng's suggests "strong MVP candidate." (Obviously PER is supposed to be considered over the whole season, and few people can record a PER that high - only Dirk and Wade achieved it this year).

Hollinger describes the sub-15 PERs as follows:

13: in the rotation

11: scrounging for minutes

9: definitely renting (nice)

5: on the next plane to Yakima

Yes, Eddie Jones, James Posey and/or Jason Kapono could certainly be on that flight.

A few other players do well despite unimpressive PER. Desagana Diop has recorded a typically mediocre PER of 10, but has an amazing +/- rating. Same situation for Mikki Moore on the Nets.

Also, the results suggest that Darko had a pretty good series. Finally.

(NOTE: I just discovered that 82games "production" numbers don't seem to be quite equivalent to basketball-reference.com PER numbers. Hmm.)