Plus/minus stat ?

[dav4463]

Does anyone pay attention to the plus/minus stat?

Tim Duncan was (minus one) tonight. Matt Bonner was (plus 22!)

Duncan was in the game battling all night; keeping it close....basically playing one of the best games he's played all season.

Bonner did OK, but just happened to be on the floor when Spurs made some nice runs.

What a weird stat!

[DesignatedT]

but just happened to be on the floor

He was strategically placed on the floor.

[DesignatedT]

dp

[Spurtacus]

Bonner has tigerblood.

[slick'81]

i have a feeling when ur not asked to do anything but stand around and shoot threes as one of the leagues top shooters ur +/- might be allright

[Borosai]

People pay attention to it when they agree with it. Go figure.

[GSH]

If you could leave him on the floor for 48 minutes, and he still could keep a positive +/- we would have an answer to everything.

Except the playoffs.

[Gagnrath]

+/- as a stat is useful to some extent to compare players that are similar in other respects. If two players are playing roughly the same amount of time with about the same line-ups otherwise, you can use +/- to have a concrete indication of who is playing tighter defense, tapping rebounds out to their own guys, setting better screens, providing all of the little things that don't directly show in most stats, but should show up in +/- since it helps the team overall.

That said merely being in with a stronger line-up or at a time when a team is making a run even if it is with no contribution on your part jacks up your +/-.

[chazley]

It is widely known that paying attention to +/- for a single game is retarded. You have to start getting into larger game size sample for it to be an effective tool in evaluating a player.