Question.

[GinobiliForTres]

I've been watching since 07-08, and I know 95% of the terms in the NBA.

What I do not understand is the plus/minus thing. Hill was a plus 19 last night, but what does that mean?

[coyotes_geek]

When Hill was on the court, the Spurs scored 19 more points than the Thunder did.

It's the most misused statistic there is, but does give you a sense as to whether or not the team was playing well when a particular player was on the floor.

[Bender]

how useful of a stat is it?

a player can stand around on court and pick his nose, while the other 4 players kick ass... and the nose picker would have a good +/- ??

edit: I didn't read CG's 2nd sentence above before posting... I guess that somewhat answers my question...

[Solid D]

If "said" player was picking his nose, just think how much better the +/- would be if "said" player wasn't picking his nose.

:smokin

[Bender]

it's 2 minutes till 5, and I'm leaving work... can't think of this complicated stuff now...

[Warlord23]

a player can stand around on court and pick his nose, while the other 4 players kick ass... and the nose picker would have a good +/- ??


You just described Matt Bonner's modus operandi.

[DesignatedT]

Doesn't that say something about "said" player that whenever he is on the floor the other 4 are kicking ass.....

[coyotes_geek]

Not neccissarily.

[duncan228]

The E-N chimes in.


Parker, Duncan lead Spurs in season plus-minus totals (http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2010/11/15/parker-duncan-lead-spurs-in-season-plus-minus-totals/)
by Tim Griffin

...It’s actually a pretty easy concept. Players receive credit for points scored while they are on the court and have points taken away when the opposing team scores.

...The score doesn’t take game pace into account. So players who play more would have the chance to score more points than those who don’t play much.

...It’s not exactly a fail-safe indicator, but used as a tool, it still provides some interesting information about a team.

...Here’s where the Spurs rank after nine games.

Tony Parker: plus-83

Tim Duncan: plus-80

Richard Jefferson: plus-69

Manu Ginobili: plus-51

George Hill: plus-44

DeJuan Blair: plus-18

Antonio McDyess: plus-18

Gary Neal: plus-17

Matt Bonner: plus-14

Bobby Simmons: plus-6

Tiago Splitter: minus-3

James Anderson: minus-8

Alonzo Gee: minus-11

Chris Quinn: minus-11

Garrett Temple: minus-17

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2010/11/15/parker-duncan-lead-spurs-in-season-plus-minus-totals/

[Xylus]

Plus-minus can be a good stat if the individual's plus-minus is extremely high or extremely low. So if Tim Duncan ends a game with a +30, while the rest of his teammates have a much smaller plus-minus, then you know that Tim Duncan had a huge impact on that game.

Plus-minus is most effective over the course of a long season, when many many games have been taken into account. It's especially good at determining the best lineups that a team employs, rather than an individual's effect on games. You might have a fantastic bench player who always has an impact, but the rest of the bench might suck, which would bring that player's plus-minus down.

But by the end of the season, you can check 82games.com for the best 5-man rotations for each team based on plus-minus, and they're pretty much always accurate.