True, assists always mean points, but think of how many shots a game that Yao and Dirk and other top big men can alter in the course of a game. You can combine that with blocks and rebounds (and lots of points for a few of them). Assists are very important to the game, but it seems like the top performers in this category today (Rondo, Nash, Kidd just to name a few), seem to be compromised of mostly PGs which can limit their role and value.

But back to PER talk - it is mostly an offensive grading system. You can't measure other important factors of a player using the system such as hustle, durability, and a lot of things left up to mostly opinion. It may be one cause for Stockton to be so low. Basketball is hard to use stats on, unlike baseball or football, because there are so many factors that are hard to measure concretely and which the PER cannot be a true judge of. I cannot argue that Stockton is one of the best, if not the best PG, to play the game, and it's unfortunate that he is rated lower than some players that are only B+'s. I think it comes down to position mostly.