Wouldn't it be more correct to assume that Wright's extraordinary PER is an outlier, considering the metric was created to put Jordan at the top?
He's a good player, for sure (and a definite upgrade), but he's really an example of the limitations of PER, rather than it's poster boy.
I do not trust PER, either. But it suffices as shorthand.
Wright's PER with Dallas the last four years has been 22.6, over 198 games, in about 3500 minutes. If that's who he truly is as a player now, where that would put him on the all-time and active PER leaderboard...it'd place him in the company of absolutely no one who even vaguely sucks, not even close to any average players. He'd have to be one of the most singular outliers in sports history.
By the way, to address a point someone else made: Wright is almost a year and a
half younger than Rondo, he's entering rather than about to leave his late 20's which is a crucial juncture, and he has logged far fewer total minutes in his career, and his performance is only improving year by year, not declining like Rondo's. And, look, I love Rondo. But sometimes players just turn, like dairy products. I hope Rondo has another 5-10 good years, but the trend he's establishing now doesn't bode well. Wright's trend is good.
As for Wright also expiring, sure, but he's also not going to ask for max or near-max money, and we will have his Bird Rights and be able to
comfortably outbid any other team. As opposed to uncomfortably re-signing Rondo to a cap-choking mega-deal that begins as he's hitting 30 years old. And the odds in Vegas on Rondo re-signing must be awful vs. Wright wanting to stay.