Every NBA playoff star strives to play efficient basketball, but only a few can actually manage to turn that dream into a reality.
It's easy to jack up shots left and right en route to a sparkling total in the points column. Far more difficult is doing so on just a handful of attempts from the field. And, of course, there's more to efficiency than just scoring.
To look at the efficiency of everyone playing in the postseason—both those still balling and those who have been eliminated—I've developed a rather basic metric called relative offensive efficiency (ROE).
This is by no means a perfect stat, but it provides a nice fundamental overview of how players are performing.
Calculating it involves just a few numbers: individual offensive rating, team offensive rating and usage rate. All you do is subtract the team offensive rating from the individual offensive rating, then multiply the difference by the player's usage rate.
By doing so, you're looking at how many more points per 100 possessions a player scores than the team average, then factoring in how often a player uses those possessions.
Again, it's basic, but it gives a nice glance at the overall efficiency landscape.
Note: For more information on offensive rating and usage rate, check out this primer. All stats used in this article, unless otherwise indicated, are current through Friday, May 17, and come from Basketball-Reference.com.