Basketball Terms Ipsum

2-point field goal attempts 3p% blocks (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) blk% drb defensive rebounds (available since the 1973-74 season in the nba) drb% dws games gs l pyth league most valuable player margin of victory; the formula is pts - opp pts. ortg orb% 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. pf 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. stops tov trb% total rebound percentage (available since the 1970-71 season in the nba); the formula is 100 * (trb * (tm mp / 5)) / (mp * (tm trb + opp trb)). total rebound percentage is an estimate of the percentage of available rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor. true shooting percentage; the formula is pts / (2 * tsa). true shooting percentage is a measure of shooting efficiency that takes into account field goals, 3-point field goals, and free throws. 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.) win shares; an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player. please see the article calculating win shares for more information. 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..