Earlier this year John Pudner launched a database called Value Add Basketball which tracks, on a team and individual basis, how valuable any given player is versus either a typical BCS-level replacement player or a replacement-level low-major player (depending on the player in question). Luke Winn explained it this way in 2011: "Value Add attempts to quantify the percentage drop-off if, say, Ohio State were to give all of Jared Sullinger's possessions to a generic, ninth or 10th man on a Division I bench."
Pudner relies on tempo-free data from Ken Pomeroy, especially usage rate and minutes statistics, and his work first appeared on Marquette's Cracked Sidewalks blog. He explains in detail how he arrives at the value-add figures in a guest post from May on the Big Apple Buckets blog.
His website, which is fantastically sortable, searchable and comprehensive, has become a valuable resource, and he just updated the database today. So who are the current individual leaders? Here are the top 25, ranked by actual calculated value add for the current season.
| Rank | Player | Team | Off. Value | Def. Value | Value Add |
| 1 | Wolters, Nate | South Dakota St. | 12.68 | -2.00 | 16.68 |
| 2 | Dillard, Jud | Tennessee Tech | 11.19 | -1.20 | 13.39 |
| 3 | Plumlee, Mason | Duke | 9.23 | -3.16 | 12.39 |
| 4 | Napier, Shabazz | Connecticut | 8.62 | -2.19 | 12.31 |
| 5 | Thomas, Deshaun | Ohio St. | 9.81 | -0.82 | 10.63 |
| 6 | Raffa, Anthony | Coastal Carolina | 9.35 | -0.23 | 10.58 |
| 7 | Canaan, Isaiah | Murray St. | 8.84 | 0.00 | 10.34 |
| 8 | Craft, Aaron | Ohio St. | 8.22 | -0.55 | 10.27 |
| 9 | Noel, Nerlens | Kentucky | 4.28 | -5.88 | 10.16 |
| 10 | Hulls, Jordan | Indiana | 8.12 | -0.45 | 10.08 |
| 11 | Cotton, Bryce | Providence | 7.76 | -0.65 | 9.90 |
| 12 | Early, Jeff | Southern Illinois | 6.31 | -3.01 | 9.82 |
| 13 | McCollum, CJ | Lehigh | 8.58 | -1.23 | 9.81 |
| 14 | Daniel, Ed | Murray St. | 5.58 | -4.21 | 9.79 |
| 15 | Cobbs, Justin | California | 7.33 | -0.91 | 9.73 |
| 16 | Niles, Warren | Oral Roberts | 9.21 | 0.00 | 9.71 |
| 17 | Muscala, Mike | Bucknell | 6.22 | -3.17 | 9.39 |
| 18 | Releford, Trevor | Alabama | 7.09 | -1.29 | 9.38 |
| 19 | Jackson, Pierre | Baylor | 8.18 | -0.19 | 9.37 |
| 20 | Foster, Kevin | Santa Clara | 5.95 | -3.41 | 9.36 |
| 21 | Armand, Sean | Iona | 8.76 | 0.00 | 9.26 |
| 22 | Burke, Trey | Michigan | 7.72 | 0.00 | 9.22 |
| 23 | Green, Erick | Virginia Tech | 7.68 | 0.00 | 9.18 |
| 24 | Trasolini, Marc | Santa Clara | 7.70 | -1.44 | 9.14 |
| 25 | Dellavedova, Matthew | St. Mary's | 7.61 | 0.00 | 9.11 |
In case you're curious, Cody Zeller (8.49) comes in at No. 33 and Doug McDermott (5.30) is 214th. Also, here's one reason Jud Dillard is doing so well.
