Basketball Terms Ipsum

3p defensive rebounds (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) fta pythagorean losses; the formula is g - w pyth. orb% pprod ws. 2p% 3pa ast defensive rating (available since the 1977-78 season in the nba); for players and teams it is points allowed per 100 posessions. this rating was developed by dean oliver, author of basketball on paper. i will point you to dean's book for complete details. field goal percentage; the formula is fg / fga. free throws game score; the formula is pts + 0.4 * fg - 0.7 * fga - 0.4*(fta - ft) + 0.7 * orb + 0.3 * drb + stl + 0.7 * ast + 0.7 * blk - 0.4 * pf - tov. game score was created by john hollinger to give a rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game. the scale is similar to that of points scored, (40 is an outstanding performance, 10 is an average performance, etc.). league mvp ortg offensive rebounds (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) poss pts roy usage percentage (available since the 1977-78 season in the nba); the formula is 100 * ((fga + 0.44 * fta + tov) * (tm mp / 5)) / (mp * (tm fga + 0.44 * tm fta + tm tov)). usage percentage is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor. ws/48 year that the season occurred. since the nba season is split over two calendar years, the year given is the last year for that season. for example, the year for the 1999-00 season would be 2000..

2p 2-point field goal percentage; the formula is 2p / 2pa. fta league minutes played (available since the 1951-52 season) mov player efficiency rating (available since the 1951-52 season); per is a rating developed by espn.com columnist john hollinger. in john's words, "the per sums up all a player's positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player's performance." please see the article calculating per for more information. also see vaa and var. stops tov%.

2-point field goals 2-point field goal percentage; the formula is 2p / 2pa. 2-point field goal attempts 3p 3pa assist percentage (available since the 1964-65 season in the nba); the formula is 100 * ast / (((mp / (tm mp / 5)) * tm fg) - fg). assist percentage is an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on on the floor. blk% defensive player of the year defensive rebounds (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) efg% dean oliver's "four factors of basketball success"; please see the article four factors for more information. g losses most valuable player mp ows strength of schedule; a rating of strength of schedule. the rating is denominated in points above/below average, where zero is average. my colleague doug drinen of pro-football-reference.com has written a great explanation of this method. steals (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) team wins ws/48.