BPM is a modern evolution of PER. It expresses a player's contribution per 100 possessions relative to a league-average player. A BPM of +5 means the player produces 5 more points per 100 possessions than replacement.
The scale is fairly stable: 0 = league average, +3 = solid starter, +5 = All-Star, +7 = MVP level, +10 = historic season. BPM is calculated from box score only, which makes it widely available but misses some defensive nuance.
A variant called VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) uses BPM to estimate a player's cumulative seasonal value, factoring in minutes. VORP is used by Basketball-Reference to rank the greatest seasons in history.
BPM has become a standard in analytic player evaluation, alongside EPM and LEBRON. It offers a good tradeoff between computational simplicity and explanatory power.
Real example
A player with a BPM of +6 over 2,500 minutes accumulates significant seasonal VORP.
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