Instead of going over a new stat this week, I decided instead to show you one of the fun ways these stats can be used: as evidence in an around-the-water-cooler argument. And this year, the most popular water cooler argument has to be the question of who is the better player: Kobe Bryant or LeBron James? Laker fans will swear it is Kobe, while if you live in Ohio the answer is obviously LeBron. The national media seem to be split on it as well. Everyone watches some combination of the same games, but everyone also has a different opinion and personal interpretation. So to break the stalemate, let's look at some of the statistics that we've gone over the last few weeks to see if they shed any light.
Production
PER: Byant 24.5, James 31.9
As a quick review, we talked about how PER is a measure of box score production, normalized per minute and set so the league average is 15. Thus, it isn't surprising that James is ahead of Bryant in this measure since James is producing bigger numbers than Kobe almost across the board (points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals). It may come as a surprise that the gap is so large, though, or that James' current pace would challenge Wilt Chamberlain for the highest recorded PER in history. But remember, two of PER's biggest weaknesses are that it doesn't account much for defense and not at all for team impact. So let's look at some stats that measure those areas.
Impact
+/- (basic): Bryant +10.4/48 minutes, James +16.6/48 minutes
+/- (on-court/off-court): Bryant + 8.6/48 minutes, James + 24.5/48 minutes
These are two different ways to use the +/- stat we discussed a couple weeks ago. The basic +/- stat tells us that the Cavaliers are more than 6 points/48 minutes more productive with LeBron on the floor than the Lakers are with Kobe on the floor. The on-court/off-court +/- tells us that the fall-off for the Cavs when LeBron is off the floor is tremendous, whereas for the Lakers Kobe's presence on the court (as opposed to when a teammate is replacing him) is a positive but not nearly as large a positive as LeBron's with respect to his teammates.
Offense and Defense
Ratings: ORTG: Bryant 116, James 120. DRTG: Bryant 106 (T 5th on Lakers), James 97 (T 1st on Cavs).
As we learned last week, these ratings tell us that James is a more efficient producer of points than Bryant (he produces four more points per 100 possessions), and that the Cavaliers' defense is nine points stingier when James is on the floor than the Lakers' defense is when Kobe is on the floor. The fact that LeBron's defensive rating is tied for the best on the Cavs while Kobe's is in the middle of the pack for the Lakers would also suggest that LeBron plays a larger role in his team's defense than Kobe does for the Lakers.
Bottom line
As I always emphasize, stats can only answer the specific questions for which they have been designed, so don't make them the whole of your argument. That said, these numbers indicate pretty emphatically that LeBron has been more statistically productive than Kobe, that LeBron has had a larger impact on leading a more successful team (when each are on the floor) with less teammate support, and that LeBron has been both more efficient on offense and a bigger part of a more successful defensive unit than Kobe has. Two counter-arguments could be that there are other stats that we could have used (but I haven't covered yet), or that Kobe might be pacing himself more because he has better teammates (which isn't statistically measurable). But for the things that are measurable, it looks like LeBron is building a commanding lead over Kobe in the "who's the best?" showdown this season.