Frame of Reference for GO Ratings

You may have seen the Hayward stats piece up on the front page somewhere. My Gestalt Offense (GO) Rating is still a work in progress, of course, but the numbers we get from them mean nothing unless you look at the numbers within the context of one another. As a result, I'm going to list some . . .

Once in a generation player (GO Rating 150-200)

These are offensive juggernauts that come along every 15 or so years. (or perhaps even rarer) Offensively they are the best to ever get Go Ratings. This tier includes Shaquille O'Neal (150.783 last time I checked his stats), Earl Monroe (157.405), LeBron James (159.557). Pete Maravich (168.289), and some former offensive fouling guard who played for the Bulls and sold a lot of sweat shop shoes (191.841). That's the entire tier, 5 guys.

Epic (140-149)

This is a pretty exclusive tier when it comes to players - filled with some active players who are at their peaks right now, but without the rounding off of numbers from lengthy play as 'old guys'. Wade (141.329) lives here, maybe one day Shaq will do. Four older players with long careers are here too, showing only their greatness, Kareem (146.529), Nate Archibald (145.931), George Gervin (141.893) and Rick Barry (141.839).

Legendary (130-139)

These guys were a) better all-around players than some of the guys with higher GO Ratings, or b) straight up offense-only guys. This tier we see Adrian Dantley (139.622), Magic (138.748), Kobe (135.898), Larry Bird (135.591), Karl Malone (135.273), Allen Iverson (134.883), Bernard King (133.812), and Julius Erving (130.143).

Elite (110-129)

A larger tier in range, you see a lot of great players at this level: Dominique (129.026), Barkley (122.379), Melo (119.349), Alex English (117.895), Vince Carter (117.580), John Stockton (111.897), Dirk (111.800), Clyde Drexler (110.253) among others.

Go-to-Guy (90-109)

Again, this is a larger range, so you find a lot of our favorite players here: Paul Pierce (108.713), Isiah Thomas (107.862), David Robinson (105.546), World B. Free (104.982), Hakeem (104.337), Walter Davis (103.289), Brandon Roy (101.686), Tim Duncan (100.811), Marques Johnson (101.028), Deron Williams (99.871), Moses Malone (99.588), Ray Allen (98.608), Mitch Richmond (97.919), Steve Nash (93.828), Keving Garnett (93.234), Gus Williams (91.102) and so forth.

Guys better off as 2nd Options (70-89)

This group is mixed with guys who should be 2nd Options, and guys who are the 1st option on their team and their team sucks. Yao (89.466), Ewing (89.275), Gary Payton (88.882), Chris Mullin (87.719), Reggie Miller (85.969), Pau Gasol (85.905), Grant Hill (83.842), Tony Parker (82.510), Michael Adams (82.260), Jason Kidd (81.904), Rolando Blackman (81.311), James Worthy (81.288), Chauncey Billups (78.910), Jeff Hornacek (74.842), Dwight Howard (74.653), Carlos Boozer (74.387), Scottie Pippen (71.431), Joe Johnson (71.300), Manu Ginobili (70.542) and so forth.

3rd Options are, obviously, lower (50-69)

Joe Barry Carrol (69.900), Dale Ellis (69.346), Rashard Lewis (67.461), Terry Porter (66.807), Xavier McDaniel (65.716), Russell Westbrook (62.770), Robert Parish (61.835), Detlef Schremph (61.111), Truck Robinson (60.927), Mo Williams (60.538), Bill Walton (59.362), David West (59.144 - Ticktock6 will kill me now), Danny Manning (58.916), Ron Artest (58.808), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (56.743), Rickey Green (56.491), Otis Thorpe (56.353), Mehmet Okur (54.237), Rasheed Wallace (53.205), Sean Elliott (51.840), etc.

Specialists (that aren't also better players) live in the this range (40-49)

Here we have guys like Brad MIller (48.355), Andrei Kirilenko (46.795), Gerald Wallace (44.934), Dan Majerle (43.913), Kevin Willis (43.355), Matt Harpring (41.488), Valde Divac (41.450) and others.

These guys should not shoot (39 and lower)

You might be a really good basketball player, but not a good one on offense. This strata is filled with guys like Jerome Kersey (37.033), Derek Fisher (36.382), Andrew Bynum (34.103), Kermit Washington (33.960), A.C. Green (31.039 - wow, lots of Lakers), Gordan Giricek (30.194), Dennis Rodman (24.274), James Donaldson (25.741), Greg Ostertag (12.030)Ben Wallace (17.181) and other players who did not help their teams on offense much.

Notes:

Please also note that for active players these ratings may not take into account this last year's worth of work. (I haven't updated this spread sheet in a while) Deron is surely above 100 by now, Shaq is surely below 150 by now, and so forth.

What about guys like Wilt, Russell and Oscar?

The GO Rating formula is based on all currently tracked offensive statistics. Not all the stats that we have now were tracked back then. Jerry West played without a three point line (as did many other NBA greats that would have impressive ratings) - and without any metric to score his more difficult shots he only gets an error message in my formula. Same deal with guys like Willis Reed, Wilt, Bill Russell, Oscar, Bob Cousy, Elgin Baylor and so forth.