Kobe Bryant is the least valuable player in the NBA, per this one metric

Kobe Bryant is the least valuable player in the NBA, per this one metric
(Image credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Kobe Bryant is not a bad basketball player. Far from it. But so far this season, he ranks 436th in the league — dead last — in player plus-minus, which measures the point differential for a player's team when he is on the court versus when he is off it. In other words, it measures if a team performs better when a given player is playing.

Now, the caveat: Team play affects plus-minus, so the metric is unkind to players on garbage teams. This year, the Lakers are indeed a garbage team. And Kobe is roughly a top 50 player according to the more nuanced player efficiency rating (PER.)

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.