No. 52 - Reggie Miller

Reggie Miller is a player of contradictions.

He lands very near the top 50 in my ranking yet his peak value wasn’t among the top 100. In fact, every player ahead of Reggie on this ranking had at least one 300-point season. Reggie’s best season score – 1994-1995 when had a 277.45 – was similar to the best years of Carmelo Anthony (270.37), Andre Iguodala (277.48) and Bill Laimbeer (271.01).

For as highly regarded as he is, he went into the Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility, he only made five all-star games and received MVP votes in just two seasons.

Miller did little other than score – he averaged only three rebounds and three assists per game – which leads to generally average Player Efficiency Ratings. His regular season high was just 21.2 and he only had six seasons above 20.0. But he had very strong win shares, showing how important his contributions were to his Indiana Pacers. He had 11 seasons of 10.0 win shares or better and his career total ranks ahead of such shooting guards as Kobe Bryant, Jerry West and Clyde Drexler.

Miller built a reputation as a playoff assassin – the videos of his famous trash talking matches with Spike Lee and the New York Knicks are all over Youtube - and his advanced stats support his reputation. His PERs increased from the regular season in nine of 15 appearances and his box +/- went up in 12 out of 15. The chart below shows how Miller regularly upped his play in the postseason.

Miller regular season vs. postseason
	PER		Box +/-
Year	Season	Playoffs	Season	Playoffs
1989-90	20.8	20.0	3.8	3.9
1990-91	21.2	16.7	4.0	3.0
1991-92	17.6	22.4	2.9	5.6
1992-93	19.4	23.4	3.8	6.4
1993-94	20.2	21.9	4.1	6.0
1994-95	20.1	21.8	4.3	5.5
1995-96	20.1	35.8	3.9	4.8
1997-98	19.8	17.4	4.3	3.5
1998-99	18.7	20.1	3.5	3.9
1999-00	17.3	21.8	3.3	5.3
2000-01	17.3	24.6	2.4	6.4
2001-02	16.5	21.2	2.9	6.1
2002-03	15.9	7.5	1.9	-4.5
2003-04	16.1	16.1	2.9	3.5
2004-2005	16.6	14.2	1.0	1.6

Even with these numbers, Miller never was on an NBA championship team and played in just one NBA Finals. His career winning percentages are solid, 55.3 percent in the regular season and 52.8 percent in the playoffs, but lots of players were bigger winners.

What drove Reggie up very nearly into the top 50 was his metronomic consistency. He played in 80 or more games 11 times – and in all 50 games of the strike-shortened season of 1998-1999 – and knocked down shots until he was nearly 40. Even in his last year, at age 39, he averaged 14.8 points in 31.9 minutes on 43.7 percent shooting. His career effective field goal shooting (factoring in 3-pointers) finished at 54.41 percent and still ranks 40^th all-time.

Miller Time always seemed to be on display in the playoffs. It was nearly enough to make my top 50.

Reggie Miller bio info
Career	1987-2005
Games	1,389
Points	18.2
Rebounds	3.0
Assists	3.0
FG Pct.	47.1
All-Star games	5
NBA MVPs	0
NBA Titles	0
Playoff seasons	15
Playoff games	144
Points	20.6
Rebounds	2.9
Assists	2.5
FG Pct.	44.6%
Hall of Fame	2012

Top 100 rankings
	Points	Top 100 ranking
1-year	277.45	Not in top 100
5-year	1,365.71	68th
10-year	2,513.70	48th
Career	3,694.38	26th

Reggie Miller at his peak
1994-1995	Miller	Top 5	Points
PER	20.1	26.79
Win Shares	11.4	14.44
Box +/-	4.3	6.98
VORP	4.3	6.67
Total Advanced Stats	40.1	54.87	73.08
Playoff PER	21.8	26.70
Win Shares	2.6	2.77
Box +/-	5.5	7.20
VORP	1.2	1.56
Total Advanced Stats	31.1	38.23	81.35
Reg. Season Win %	64.20		64.20
Playoff Win %	58.82		58.82
MVP Voting (75 points)	0		0
Playoff MVP (25 points)	0		0
Total Score			277.45

Miller’s 10 greatest seasons
1994-1995	277.45
1993-1994	273.53
1997-1998	272.18
1999-2000	272.06
1998-1999	270.49
2003-2004	252.92
1995-1996	231.56
2001-2002	225.44
2000-2001	220.70
1992-1993	217.37

Career winning percentage
	W	L	Pct.
Regular Season	767	620	55.30%
Playoffs	76	68	52.78%