The 2020-21 NBA season has been in action for a couple of weeks now, and the stats have begun to stabilize. (Somewhat.) So it is now time for us to roll out the newest edition of our RAPTOR NBA player ratings dashboard, with updated data to help you track the best players in the league all year long.
RAPTOR, of course, is the Robust Algorithm (using) Player Tracking (and) On/Off Ratings — FiveThirtyEight’s way of measuring each NBA player’s contribution to his team’s offensive and defensive efficiency while on the court. RAPTOR is derived by blending two components: one based on individual box score and player-tracking data, and another based on how the player’s team does with the player on the court (versus without) after adjusting for the quality of his teammates and opposing lineups. Just like last season, you can find both of these components in our dashboard, allowing you to judge where a player’s value is coming from.
With the default minimum of 13.4 minutes per team game,1 this year’s top RAPTOR players (in terms of who has played best on a per-possession basis) are a pretty fascinating mix of the expected and wildly unexpected so far:
Who’s atop the early RAPTOR leaderboard?
Best overall RAPTOR ratings for qualified* 2020-21 NBA players
| RAPTOR | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Team | Min. | Box | On/Off | Overall |
| 1 | Nikola Jokić | Nuggets | 351 | +9.9 | +17.0 | +10.8 |
| 2 | Kyrie Irving | Nets | 231 | +9.6 | +16.8 | +10.6 |
| 3 | CJ McCollum | Blazers | 306 | +9.0 | +14.5 | +9.7 |
| 4 | Cameron Payne | Suns | 160 | +7.9 | +22.5 | +9.6 |
| 5 | Joel Embiid | 76ers | 258 | +8.6 | +16.0 | +9.5 |
| 6 | Paul George | Clippers | 347 | +8.8 | +10.1 | +9.2 |
| 7 | Hamidou Diallo | Thunder | 189 | +8.8 | +2.9 | +8.5 |
| 8 | John Collins | Hawks | 257 | +7.1 | +16.3 | +8.2 |
| 9 | Anthony Davis | Lakers | 297 | +8.2 | +5.8 | +8.1 |
| 10 | Chris Boucher | Raptors | 190 | +8.2 | +4.3 | +8.0 |
| 11 | Kawhi Leonard | Clippers | 312 | +7.1 | +8.2 | +7.4 |
| 12 | Talen Horton-Tucker | Lakers | 169 | +7.9 | -0.4 | +7.2 |
| 13 | Montrezl Harrell | Lakers | 266 | +8.5 | -6.1 | +7.2 |
| 14 | Nicolas Batum | Clippers | 322 | +6.5 | +11.3 | +7.2 |
| 15 | Clint Capela | Hawks | 185 | +7.9 | -1.9 | +7.0 |
Denver’s Nikola Jokić at No. 1? Not inconceivable. Kyrie Irving helping to power the Brooklyn Nets to the league’s fourth-best point differential? Makes total sense. Ditto Paul George and Kawhi Leonard of the Clippers ranking among this season’s best duos. And it’s no shock to see Lakers superstar Anthony Davis in RAPTOR’s top 10. But it is surprising to see journeyman Cameron Payne at No. 4 overall with a +9.6 RAPTOR, or third-year swingman Hamidou Diallo and fourth-year big man Chris Boucher rank among the top 10. We’re quite sure these are the usual outliers and weird artifacts you tend to find in early season small samples — although soon enough, the rankings will become more “real.” In our research, we found that a player’s RAPTOR is pretty reliable after about 1,000 minutes played.
(Note that for the links above, you can now generate custom player URLs in the interactive by clicking on their name in the table — perfect for pointing Cameron Payne doubters to evidence of his emerging greatness!)
Perhaps a better measure of early value is our RAPTOR wins above replacement (WAR) metric, which fuses per-possession performance with playing time to determine how many more wins each player has produced than a generic player would have in the same minutes:
RAPTOR’s early season MVPs
Most RAPTOR wins above replacement (WAR) for 2020-21 NBA players, along with minutes played and RAPTOR plus/minus
| Rk | Player | Team | Min. | RAPTOR +/- | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikola Jokić | Nuggets | 351 | +10.8 | 2.44 |
| 2 | Paul George | Clippers | 347 | +9.2 | 2.14 |
| 3 | CJ McCollum | Blazers | 306 | +9.7 | 1.94 |
| 4 | LeBron James | Lakers | 358 | +6.3 | 1.65 |
| 5 | Anthony Davis | Lakers | 297 | +8.1 | 1.65 |
| 6 | Stephen Curry | Warriors | 341 | +6.4 | 1.63 |
| 7 | Joel Embiid | 76ers | 258 | +9.5 | 1.63 |
| 8 | Nicolas Batum | Clippers | 322 | +7.2 | 1.62 |
| 9 | Kawhi Leonard | Clippers | 312 | +7.4 | 1.59 |
| 10 | Kyrie Irving | Nets | 231 | +10.6 | 1.59 |
| 11 | Mike Conley | Jazz | 306 | +6.9 | 1.53 |
| 12 | Khris Middleton | Bucks | 322 | +6.2 | 1.45 |
| 13 | Rudy Gobert | Jazz | 309 | +6.4 | 1.44 |
| 14 | John Collins | Hawks | 257 | +8.2 | 1.43 |
| 15 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Bucks | 282 | +6.8 | 1.41 |
With playing time included, a few more familiar players rise toward the top — including the magnificent LeBron James, currently running in fourth, and a resurgent Steph Curry at No. 6. And funky outliers like Payne and Diallo are nowhere to be found here. But Clippers veteran Nicolas Batum and John Collins of the Atlanta Hawks (a good young player, though not necessarily a star) might be surprises in the top 15, ahead of even some of their higher-profile teammates. Although it’s still very early, we’ll have to keep an eye on their RAPTOR progress as the year goes on.
One of the other cool features we’ve added to this year’s dashboard is the ability to look at RAPTOR from past seasons, going back to 2013-14 (the earliest season for which the NBA collected player-tracking data). So you can explore Steph Curry’s epic 25-WAR seasons in 2014-15 and 2015-16, or look at last year’s leaders to compare which players are performing better or worse than in 2019-20. Among players with at least 130 minutes in 2021 and 950 in 2020, here are RAPTOR’s most (and least) improved players so far:
RAPTOR’S most (and least) improved players so far
Among qualified* players in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons (including playoffs), the biggest improvements and declines in RAPTOR plus/minus
| Biggest gainers | RAPTOR +/- | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Team | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | Diff. |
| 1 | Bobby Portis | Bucks | -2.9 | +6.5 | +9.4 |
| 2 | De’Andre Hunter | Hawks | -3.8 | +5.3 | +9.1 |
| 3 | CJ McCollum | Blazers | +0.7 | +9.7 | +9.0 |
| 4 | Darius Garland | Cavaliers | -6.5 | +2.2 | +8.8 |
| 5 | John Collins | Hawks | -0.4 | +8.2 | +8.6 |
| 6 | Mike Conley | Jazz | -0.2 | +6.9 | +7.1 |
| 7 | Cameron Johnson | Suns | -0.1 | +6.5 | +6.7 |
| 8 | Myles Turner | Pacers | -0.8 | +5.6 | +6.4 |
| 9 | Jordan Clarkson | Jazz | +0.9 | +6.8 | +5.9 |
| 10 | Jeff Teague | Celtics | -3.1 | +2.7 | +5.9 |
| 11 | Nikola Jokić | Nuggets | +5.1 | +10.8 | +5.7 |
| 12 | Khem Birch | Magic | -1.0 | +4.6 | +5.6 |
| 13 | Joel Embiid | 76ers | +4.0 | +9.5 | +5.5 |
| 14 | Monte Morris | Nuggets | -2.1 | +3.2 | +5.3 |
| 15 | Aaron Gordon | Magic | -0.9 | +3.9 | +4.9 |
| Biggest decliners | RAPTOR +/- | ||||
| Rk | Player | Team | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | Diff. |
| 1 | Aaron Holiday | Pacers | +1.1 | -7.4 | -8.5 |
| 2 | Bojan Bogdanović | Jazz | -0.7 | -8.9 | -8.1 |
| 3 | James Harden | Rockets | +10.5 | +3.0 | -7.5 |
| 4 | Ivica Zubac | Clippers | +4.6 | -2.5 | -7.1 |
| 5 | Danuel House Jr. | Rockets | +0.0 | -6.9 | -6.9 |
| 6 | Bryn Forbes | Bucks | -3.4 | -9.9 | -6.5 |
| 7 | Damian Lillard | Blazers | +6.4 | +0.0 | -6.3 |
| 8 | Markelle Fultz | Magic | -2.4 | -8.7 | -6.3 |
| 9 | Pascal Siakam | Raptors | +0.7 | -5.5 | -6.3 |
| 10 | Bogdan Bogdanović | Hawks | +1.2 | -5.0 | -6.2 |
| 11 | Kelly Oubre Jr. | Warriors | +0.1 | -6.1 | -6.2 |
| 12 | Buddy Hield | Kings | -0.7 | -6.8 | -6.1 |
| 13 | Paul Millsap | Nuggets | +0.9 | -4.9 | -5.9 |
| 14 | Ricky Rubio | Timberwolves | +1.6 | -4.0 | -5.6 |
| 15 | Gary Trent Jr. | Blazers | +0.0 | -5.5 | -5.5 |
As we’ve said many times in this story, it’s still very early in the season! So many of the biggest RAPTOR risers and fallers should change as the year goes on — or, at the very least, revert some toward their previous levels of performance. But if you’re wondering why certain teams have been better or worse than expected early on, these lists can help explain some of that.
At any rate, we hope you enjoy using the new RAPTOR interactive this season. While you’re at it, you can also download the data to play around with yourself, and be sure to let us know if you have any feature requests for future iterations of the dashboard.
Check out our latest NBA predictions.