Who are top 5 players with the highest Player Efficiency Rating (PER) in 2023 NBA regular season entering Playoffs?

Player Efficiency Rating is a fairly new advanced stat that has made waves in the NBA. Created by former executive John Hollinger, it is an all-in-one stat that accounts for a player's entire statistical performance.

PER is calculated on a per-minute basis and accounts for everything a player does while on the floor. Each action has positive and negative values, which is adjusted all throughout the course of the game.

Since Player Efficiency Rating takes in everything a player does, more all-around players sit at the top of the leaderboard in this stat. The No. 1 overall leader in PER this season was Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic at 31.78.

Rounding out the top three are the two other players Jokic is battling in the MVP race. Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid finished second in PER at 31.69. Giannis Antetokounmpo came in third at 29.29.

Rounding out the top five in PER this season is Luka Doncic (28.99) and LA Lakers star Anthony Davis (28.00). Other notable names in the top ten include Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, and Zion Williamson despite all his missed time.

Which players have the highest all-time Player Efficiency Rating?

Looking at all-time career Player Efficiency rating, Chicago Bulls icon Michael Jordan sits in the top spot at 27.9. However, Joel Embiid currently is tied with him in second place.

After Jordan and Embiid, the rest of the pack is not far behind them. Nikola Jokic is in third place at 27.7, and LeBron James (27.2) is also close in fourth. Rounding out the top five all-time rankings is fellow Laker Anthony Davis.

As expected, the career PER rankings include some of the greatest players to ever step foot on an NBA court. Some of the names that stand out include Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Kevin Durant.

While the list is mainly filled with current or future Hall of Famers, there are some outliers in the all-time PER rankings. The name who sticks out the most is Hassan Whiteside. He is only one spot below Magic Johnson with a career PER of 24. Whiteside had some productive years with the Miami Heat, but has since been a role player in the league. The 33 year old big man couldn't even secure a roster spot anywhere in the NBA this season.

As more do-it-all players come through the pipeline, these rankings are sure to change in some ways years down the road.