Basketball Terms Ipsum

Age 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. tov wins over .500; the formula is (w - l) / 2..

. 3-point field goal percentage (available since the 1979-80 season in the nba); the formula is 3p / 3pa. 3-point field goal attempts (available since the 1979-80 season in the nba) age; player age on february 1 of the given season. 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. defensive player of the year drb drtg fg field goals (includes both 2-point field goals and 3-point field goals) free throw attempts mvp mov offensive rebound percentage (available since the 1970-71 season in the nba); the formula is 100 * (orb * (tm mp / 5)) / (mp * (tm orb + opp drb)). offensive rebound percentage is an estimate of the percentage of available offensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor. per poss pts smoy 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. steals (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) stops; dean oliver's measure of individual defensive stops. please see dean's book for details. total rebounds (available since the 1950-51 season) true shooting attempts; the formula is fga + 0.44 * fta. w > .500 wins over .500; the formula is (w - l) / 2. ws/48 year 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..

Pythagorean losses; the formula is g - w pyth. mov opp pace factor (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba); the formula is 48 * ((tm poss + opp poss) / (2 * (tm mp / 5))). pace factor is an estimate of the number of possessions per 48 minutes by a team. (note: 40 minutes is used in the calculation for the wnba.) per 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. 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. win shares per 48 minutes (available since the 1951-52 season in the nba); an estimate of the number of wins contributed by the player per 48 minutes (league average is approximately 0.100). please see the article calculating win shares for more information..