Basketball Terms Ipsum

Minutes played (available since the 1951-52 season) pprod. 3-point field goals (available since the 1979-80 season in the nba) age age; player age on february 1 of the given season. 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. defensive win shares; please see the article calculating win shares for more information. effective field goal percentage; the formula is (fg + 0.5 * 3p) / fga. this statistic adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal. for example, suppose player a goes 4 for 10 with 2 threes, while player b goes 5 for 10 with 0 threes. each player would have 10 points from field goals, and thus would have the same effective field goal percentage (50%). fg free throws free throw attempts 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.). l pyth league mp mov opp ows offensive win shares; please see the article calculating win shares for more information. poss possessions (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba); the formula for teams is 0.5 * ((tm fga + 0.4 * tm fta - 1.07 * (tm orb / (tm orb + opp drb)) * (tm fga - tm fg) + tm tov) + (opp fga + 0.4 * opp fta - 1.07 * (opp orb / (opp orb + tm drb)) * (opp fga - opp fg) + opp tov)). this formula estimates possessions based on both the team's statistics and their opponent's statistics, then averages them to provide a more stable estimate. the formula for players is rather lengthy and can be found in dean oliver's book. points simple rating system; a rating that takes into account average point differential and 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. steal percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba); the formula is 100 * (stl * (tm mp / 5)) / (mp * opp poss). steal percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent possessions that end with a steal by the player while he was on the floor. stops tm w.

3p ast% block percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba); the formula is 100 * (blk * (tm mp / 5)) / (mp * (opp fga - opp 3pa)). block percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field goal attempts blocked by the player while he was on the floor. field goal attempts (includes both 2-point field goal attempts and 3-point field goal attempts) free throws ft% dean oliver's "four factors of basketball success"; please see the article four factors for more information. games behind; the formula is ((first w - w) + (l - first l)) / 2, where first w and first l stand for wins and losses by the first place team, respectively. offensive rating (available since the 1977-78 season in the nba); for players it is points produced per 100 posessions, while for teams it is points scored per 100 possessions. this rating was developed by dean oliver, author of basketball on paper. i will point you to dean's book for complete details. opp offensive rebounds (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) pace per game a statistic (e.g., assists) divided by games. stops stops; dean oliver's measure of individual defensive stops. please see dean's book for details. tov wins pythagorean wins; the formula is g * (tm pts14 / (tm pts14 + opp pts14)). the formula was obtained by fitting a logistic regression model with log(tm pts / opp pts) as the explanatory variable. using this formula for all baa, nba, and aba seasons, the root mean-square error (rmse) is 3.14 wins. using an exponent of 16.5 (a common choice), the rmse is 3.48 wins. (note: an exponent of 10 is used for the wnba.) w-l% ws win shares; an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player. please see the article calculating win shares for more information. ws/48.

Free throws four factors games started (available since the 1982 season) wins. 2-point field goals 2-point field goal attempts age; player age on february 1 of the given season. blocks (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) defensive player of the year drtg dean oliver's "four factors of basketball success"; please see the article four factors for more information. games gs mvp opp orb% per 36 minutes a statistic (e.g., assists) divided by minutes played, multiplied by 36. pf poss simple rating system; a rating that takes into account average point differential and 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. stl stl% stops team tsa wins over .500; the formula is (w - l) / 2. pythagorean wins; the formula is g * (tm pts14 / (tm pts14 + opp pts14)). the formula was obtained by fitting a logistic regression model with log(tm pts / opp pts) as the explanatory variable. using this formula for all baa, nba, and aba seasons, the root mean-square error (rmse) is 3.14 wins. using an exponent of 16.5 (a common choice), the rmse is 3.48 wins. (note: an exponent of 10 is used for the wnba.) w-l% ws/48.