Among the 284 players with at least 10 games last season, Walter Tavares was the 82nd best scorer. In PIR, the league's own all-in-one number, he was 21st.

Sixty-one places. Same player, same season.

A scoring table sees a center who put up 9.6 points a game. PIR sees more, for example 6.6 rebounds along with the points and it counts every one.

What PIR counts

Points are only the start. PIR adds rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and fouls drawn. Then it takes away missed shots, turnovers, shots that get blocked and fouls committed. Every action is worth one, up or down.

So in PIR a rebound is worth as much as a point. A missed shot costs you one. A scoring table ignores both. Is it fair? Is the best we have? The debate is long.

Who it helps

Centers, first. Take the regulars from last season, the 170 players with 20 or more games and 15 or more minutes a game. The typical center produced 19.0 PIR per 36 minutes. The typical guard, 16.7. The typical forward, 15.2.

You can see why in the formula. Rebounds and blocks each count once, and those are the things centers collect.

Size isn't the only way up, though. Tomas Satoransky was 140th in scoring at FC Barcelona, with 7.0 points a game. His PIR was 10.9, good for 78th. The difference sits in the rest of his line: 3.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists a game. A guard who does a bit of everything except score looks ordinary in one table and much better in the other. He plays for Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv now.

The Olympiacos pattern

If you rank every player by how far he climbs from the scoring list to the PIR list, you’ll discover three of the five biggest climbs last season belonged to Olympiacos: Donta Hall, Thomas Walkup and Nikola Milutinov. Hall and Walkup made the longest jumps of the three. Milutinov's is the most striking. He was 73rd in scoring and 3rd in PIR. Hall stays in Piraeus with him this season, while Walkup has moved to Dubai Basketball.

A number with a point of view

PIR gives every good action the same value. A point is worth one. So is a rebound. So ten rebounds add as much to a player's PIR as ten points do. That is why centers do so well in it. They grab a lot of rebounds, and PIR counts every one.

Not every fan sees the game this way. Some think a basket matters more than a rebound. Some think the opposite. The full PIR ranking orders the league the PIR way. With Define Your Best, you decide what matters more, and the league is ranked your way.

The new season is fast approaching. Round 1 is played on 24 and 25 September. After it, the league names its first Round MVP of the season, and the rule is simple: the highest PIR among players on a winning team.

The best scorer of the round may not get it. The formula never asked him to score the most.