According to our NBA.com buddies, "Player Impact Estimate (PIE) measures a player's overall statistical contribution against the total statistics in games they play in. PIE yields results which are comparable to other advanced statistics (e.g. PER) using a simple formula."
This is their definition of a simple formula:
(PTS + FGM + FTM - FGA - FTA + DREB + (.5 * OREB) + AST + STL + (.5 * BLK) - PF - TO) / (GmPTS + GmFGM + GmFTM - GmFGA - GmFTA + GmDREB + (.5 * GmOREB) + GmAST + GmSTL + (.5 * GmBLK) - GmPF - GmTO)
So have fun with that.
Anyhoo, here are the 10 most impactful players in the Association, according to the above alphanumeric salad:
| Rank | Player | Team | PIE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | MIL | 20.6 |
| 2 | LeBron James | CLE | 19.4 |
| 3 | Anthony Davis | NO | 18.9 |
| 4 | James Harden | HOU | 18.8 |
| 5 | Joel Embiid | PHI | 18.5 |
| 6 | Nikola Jokic | DEN | 18.3 |
| 7 | DeMarcus Cousins | NO | 18.1 |
| 8 | Tyreke Evans | MEM | 17.6 |
| 9 | Clint Capela | HOU | 17.1 |
| 10 | Damian Lillard | POR | 16.9 |
Giannis Antetokounmpo up top? Natch.
LeBron James at number two? Of course.
Boogie and Brow both in the mix? Obvs.
But Tyreke Evans? Welp, check out the man's per-36 numbers:
| Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turnovers | FG% | FT% | PER |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22.9 | 6.4 | 4.3 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 50.0% | 82.1% | 23.9 |
Those are legit All-Star digits, folks. Maybe the Grizz -- who have lost 8 of their last 10 outings -- should give him more than 28 minutes of burn a night. After all, he's the eighth-most impactful player in the NBA, according to this metric.