Stat to compare players from different leagues

larsk · Post #1 » by **larsk** » Tue Dec 30, 2014 4:59 pm

So I'm trying to compare some players from the NBA with some players who play in different European leagues. I tried to compare Goran Dragic to a player who is playing in Holland (Worthy de Jong) with the PER stat. Goran Dragic currently has a PER of 17.48 while Worthy de Jong has a PER of 24.35 but obviously Dragic is a much better player and due to the level difference between the two leagues Worthy de Jong appears to be better using the PER stat. Is there a way to compare these two players fairly.

Thanks!

andyhop · Post #2 » by **andyhop** » Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:12 am

You would have to have a method of adjusting for the strength of the players both are playing with and against to come up with a statistically meaningful comparison.I can't imagine there is any non wild guess methodology you can use to achieve this.

Post #3 » by **penbeast0** » Thu Jan 8, 2015 9:42 pm

If you get enough players moving back and forth between the leagues, you can look at their relative per minute numbers and get a rough estimate of the relative leagues . . . APBR has done this for ABA/NBA a couple of times.

giberish · Post #4 » by **giberish** » Fri Jan 9, 2015 9:10 am

penbeast0 wrote:If you get enough players moving back and forth between the leagues, you can look at their relative per minute numbers and get a rough estimate of the relative leagues . . . APBR has done this for ABA/NBA a couple of times.

I know someone on a big site (Hollinger a few years ago?) did this for translations between Euroleague and the NBA, maybe the Spanish top division as well. I'm sure there aren't enough players going between Holland and the NBA to make direct comparisons, at best you'd have to compare Holland to Euroleague #'s, then translate those to NBA #'s.