With respect, I’ve never even heard of this website, and I’m pretty sure that their numbers aren’t 100% correct. Thinking Basketball had a video a couple of years ago where he analyzed MJ’s On/Off rating in the playoffs, and those numbers don’t line up with these. (IIRC, Thinking Basketball measured MJ’s On/Off to be around +24 in the 1989 playoffs before decreasing in the years that followed).

Not like I care too much, though, cuz I honestly don’t know how valuable a metric like “On/Off” actually is.

He has played 42 minutes per game in the playoffs on average, which means you are looking at extremely low sample when he sits…

Anyway i would expected guys with multiple rings be up there in the list, probably Kareem and Magic or Bird could be even better. And KG is in the mix just because he really played 4 playoffs runs(2004, 2008, 2010 and 2012), in the rest he was either injured or 1st round exit.

I feel bad for y’all young folk! I was a MJ fan in ‘88 and I watched him suffer until ‘91. Then in ‘91 when he finally got over the hill it was so dope! It’s hard to understand now but MJ beating the Lakers for his first title was just so great. And yes the Lakers were dealing with injuries but MJ and Pippen still took advantage of that and won.

Yeah i dont know how valuable this on-off stat is at gauging the impact of high minute players especially mike and lebron, who played 44+ minutes per game and mostly only sat in garbage time. Like lebron in 2006 (his first playoffs) was legitimitely playing 46 minutes a game, and he averaged 36ppg against washignton, but his on/off is -21. Thats just a sad takeaway from an otherwise great playoff performance.

Ya he’s the best player ever it’s not surprising . Lebrons just been here forever

Jokic? He’s the biggest On/off leader of recent times.

These numbers are wild when you think about what they mean. The Bulls were essentially a losing team when he wasn’t on the floor and a dominant one when he was. That kind of impact across multiple playoff runs is basically unmatched. The LeBron comparison in the post is fair to bring up but even at +9.5 LeBron had way more help around him during his peak playoff runs. Context matters but that +18.1 is still absurd.

That on/off of +18.1 in the playoffs is genuinely mind blowing. You look at what the Bulls were without him on the court and they were basically a lottery team. The fact that Curry and Garnett are up there too tells you a lot about what truly elite two way players do for their teams. The LeBron comparison is always going to be the debate but MJ doing it at +18.1 in the most high stakes games is really hard to argue with

Aside from the low sample size, 90s was also peak “strong link” era with all the expansions. Wouldn’t really draw conclusions from cross era comparisons.

Since others have brought up Thinking Basketball himself, here the deep dive on Jordan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5aNUS762wM

The on/off summary is from 21:51 onwards.

Basically–I think his numbers are close to yours: with some differences:

his on/off peak is in ‘89-‘91, and drops after that. (His on/off number is ~+20, but that’s only for this 3 year peak)

This number, however, doesn’t put him first. He would be #9 on the list (for playoff on/off). #1 is David Robinson (‘98-‘00)

-—

ah then if you are interested, here’s the broader video considering who had top 10 peaks, inclusive of playoffs or otherwise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzzlvnncLOQ

That +18.1 number is staggering when you actually sit with it. Jordan didn’t just elevate his team in the playoffs, he was basically the entire engine. The Bulls without him were a bottom tier defense with no offensive identity. What gets me is the LeBron comparison people always want to make. LeBron at +9.5 is genuinely elite but MJ is on a completely different level here. Garnett at +14.5 is probably the most underrated number in this whole conversation, that guy made everyone around him so much better it was ridiculous to watch.

Why are we not just using BPM? Bball ref has all that info…

Unadjusted on/off numbers are useless lmao

Pretty insane, and with MJ or Lebron that really is a decent sample size. But for most others I’d say low sample size to only look at playoffs

The +18.1 is genuinely staggering. What makes it even more impressive is that Bulls lineup without MJ wasn’t some bad team being dragged down, they still had Pippen and Horace Grant. The team just became a completely different entity when Jordan stepped off the floor. Garnett at +14.5 is always the underrated one in these conversations too

The +18.1 is absolutely wild when you think about what that means in practice. Teams were basically competitive when he sat and dominant when he played. What’s interesting is that even Garnett at +14.5 and Curry at +12.0 don’t come close, and both of those guys are legitimate all time greats who won championships. The LeBron comparison at +9.5 vs +18.1 is kind of staggering too. Whatever side of the GOAT debate you’re on these numbers are hard to dismiss.