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How important is the +/- stat in the NBA

Posted on 4/14/19 at 6:26 am
Posted by brmark70816
Atlanta, GA
Member since Feb 2011
9831 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 6:26 am
I missed the Raptors/Magic games, so I was looking over the recap and stat boxes. Lowry is getting slammed cause he went scoreless. But then I looked at the stat lines and he is the only starter with a positive +. Then I compared him to his back-up VanaVleet..

Lowry 0pts (0-7fg, 0-2ft), 7rbs, 8asts in 34 min, +11
VanVleet 14pts (5-9fg), 2rbs, 1asts in 27 min, -16

So in those 14 minutes Lowry wasn't playing, that VanVleet was, the team was getting destroyed. But Lowry is the escape goat today. Is that right? Shouldn't that stat say it all?
Posted by ReauxlTide222
St. Petersburg
Member since Nov 2010
83591 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 6:31 am to
quote:

But Lowry is the escape goat today
Posted by brmark70816
Atlanta, GA
Member since Feb 2011
9831 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 6:38 am to
Here is another, that is sort of the reverse. I watched the Nets/Sixers game and thought that Russell was awesome and lead the team to the huge victory. But that doesn't seem to be the case at all..

Russell 26 pts, 3rbs, 4asts in 29 min, -10
Dinwiddie 18 pts, 3rbs, 1asts in 32 min, +17

Turns out the team was getting spanked with Russell out there. So in those 15 minutes that Dinwiddie played without Russell, is when the team really won. Puts a whole other spin on the game..
This post was edited on 4/14/19 at 6:41 am
Posted by Epic Cajun
Lafayette, LA
Member since Feb 2013
32742 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 7:25 am to
It’s an “incomplete” stat for sure. It could mean something about a particular player’s performance, or it could mean nothing.

For instance, what if Embiid was dominating in the post while Russell was on the court, is that something that Russell can really do anything about?
Posted by TallMan
Member since Jul 2014
360 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 7:55 am to
On its own it's not a super telling stat, but it is one that should make you go 'hmmmmm' like it did with Lowry yesterday. The fact that Toronto performed that much better with Lowry on the court has to mean something. But it's very susceptible to being distorted by context, such as a player playing the majority of their minutes with another star or against bench units.

The actual advanced +/- stats like RAPM that account for who you play with and against are the best single number stats out there, but single-game plain +/- isn't very helpful without context.
Posted by LittleRockHog501
Member since Nov 2011
2482 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 9:34 am to
I think it is best used over a long period of time and not just a single game


The Raptors with Lowry all year have been elite. I think without him they have a losing record. That +/- from yesterday is right in line with what has happened the majority of the year so he definitely does have some positive impact outside of scoring.
This post was edited on 4/14/19 at 9:37 am
Posted by whatiknowsofar
hm?
Member since Nov 2010
21237 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 9:43 am to
quote:

How important is the +/- stat


The biggest problem with stats in the NBA is that fans and some analyst don't look at all of them as pieces to the puzzle.

You can't look at fg% and 3pt% without looking at eFG% and usage. But some still do. +/- is still a useful stat, but you gotta look at all the pieces to the puzzle to use it in the right context.
Posted by jackwoods4
Member since Sep 2013
28667 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 9:48 am to
It's not great. It means way more in hockey IMO.

It doesn't account for players going against first/second units etc.
Posted by Cocotheape
Member since Aug 2015
3782 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 9:59 am to
It means exactly what it says, that when Kyle Lowry was on the court the Raptors were much better than the Magic. Whether or not Lowry is responsible for that, and how much, is a different question.

+- isn’t an advanced stat, and I don’t think it’s worth much personally. You are just going to end up looking at other stats to determine if the +- means anything anyway, so I’d rather just ignore it as a serious measure of a player’s effectiveness
Posted by CaptainBrannigan
Good Ole Rocky Top Tennessee
Member since Jan 2010
21644 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 11:44 am to
quote:

+/- stat


Fake stats
Posted by DownSouthCrawfish
Simcoe Strip - He/Him/Helicopter
Member since Oct 2011
36499 posts
Posted on 4/14/19 at 12:27 pm to
I think it's a trash stat but some people look at it as if it's an end all be all measure.

So you have a team that has 4 Durants and 1 Javale. That team plays all 48 minutes and beats some team by 25 points. Every player will be +25.

Javale could have 3pts/2rebs/20to and still be +25. It's a trash stat, especially for single game use.
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