One of the most commonly used metrics in NBA discourse is “Win Shares,” as it estimates how much credit goes to individual players for team success. It is viewed as one of the better player evaluation metrics, and someone has now interestingly flipped it. Instagram user “graphbasketball” has come up with the “Loss Shares” metric, and here are the leaders in it over the last 10 seasons.
1. Russell Westbrook: +30.3
2. Draymond Green: +17.5
3. Marcus Smart: +13.3
4. D’Angelo Russell: +13.2
5. Kyle Kuzma: +10.7
6. Luka Doncic: +9.8
7. Lonzo Ball: +8.9
8. Ricky Rubio: +8.9
9. Jordan Poole: +8.0
10. Trae Young: +7.2
Free agent guard Russell Westbrook sits atop the list, with Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green a distant second. The most surprising entry on this list is definitely Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic, though. Doncic has been one of the very best players in the NBA for years now, so how is he on here? Well, first let’s look at the explanation provided by graphbasketball.
“How much do individual players’ actions contribute to a team losing games? In the same way that win shares are calculated as the points a player produces past the league average, loss shares are calculated as the points a player misses beyond what an average player would.”
The win share equation is points produced past the league average/0.32 x league points per game. The points produced figure comes from points, rebounds, assists, and defensive plays.
The loss share equation is points missed beyond what an average player would/0.32 x league points per game. The points missed figure comes from missed shots, missed free throws, and turnovers. Westbrook and Washington Wizards guard Bub Carrington were the joint leaders for the 2025-26 season at +2.8.
Now, getting back to Doncic, graphbasketball explained how someone like him, who has contributed a lot to winning over the course of his career, ended up on here.
“You’ll notice that Luka makes the top 10 despite having relatively high-ranking win shares as well, and that’s because actively contributing to team losses and team wins isn’t necessarily exclusive. If we plot both win shares and loss shares for the last 10 years together, we can see some players contribute primarily to winning, [Nikola] Jokic, Jimmy Butler, and DeMar DeRozan among some, while others contribute heavily to both wins and losses.”
Doncic’s win share tally for last season was +9.1 according to Basketball Reference, which ranked ninth in the NBA. The Slovenian has ranked in the top 10 in four of the last seven seasons. So, Doncic certainly contributes to winning.
Now, the argument against this “Loss Shares” metric, of course, would be that there are more contributing factors to losing than just missed shots and turnovers. You’re also penalizing ball-handlers like Doncic and Westbrook more compared to centers, as they’re inevitably going to turn the ball over a lot more.
Still, it is an interesting metric. Westbrook, who remains unsigned, might not want NBA executives to come across it and get another reason not to bring him on board.