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About the Statistics

The following statistics and abbreviations are used on the player and team pages:

G - Games Played
Min - Minutes Played
MPG - Minutes per Game
Pts - Total Points
PPG - Points per Game
FGM - Field Goals Made
FGA - Field Goals Attempted
FGP - Field Goal Percentage
FTM - Free Throws Made
FTA - Free Throws Attempted
FTP - Free Throw Percentage
3PM - Three Pointers Made*
3PA - Three Pointers Attempted*
3PP - Three Point Percentage*
REB - Total Rebounds
RPG - Rebounds per Game
AST - Total Assists
APG - Assists per Game
STL - Steals**
BLK - Blocks**
TO - Turnovers**
EFF - Efficiency***
AV - Approximate Value (see below)
PF - Total Personal Fouls
VI - Versatility Index (ppg*rpg*apg)^.333 (see below)
PPFGA - Points per FGA ??Points/(FGA+(FTA*.44)) (see below)
PPR - Assist/Turnover Rating ??(((ASTS*.66)-TO)*100)/Minutes (see below)
RbRate - Rebound Rate ??(Reb*Team Minutes)/(Player Minutes*(Team Reb + Opp Reb)) (see below)

* The NBA did not have three point shots until 1979
** Steals, Blocks and Turnovers were not recorded in the NBA until 1973
*** Efficiency is a new stat the NBA developed in 2002. It is calculated using the following formula: (pts*100)/((fta*.44) + fga + to - oreb)
Since Efficiency is calculated on a per game basis, it is good at seeing how well a particular player has performed, regardless of the number of games that the player has played during that season. For an estimate of a players value to his team for the entire season, Approximate Values can be used.

Approximate Value (AV)

Approximate Value (AV) was developed by Dean Oliver. You can read more about this formula and more at this website: http://www.powerbasketball.com/theywin2.html

Here is a quick synopsis of AV values

Credits= PTS+REB+AST+STL+BLK-FG MISSED-FT MISSED-TO

AV= Credits^(3/4)/21

The Value Approximation Method was a major task to come up with, taking me about two months to finally arrive at satisfactory results. The plan for the method was to end up with a scale of integers between 0 and about 20 rating players, with 10 representing an 'average' player. It was to be based upon several standards a player was to meet in order to gain points of approximate value. The whole thing was modeled on Bill James' Value Approximation method for baseball. As James did, I assigned verbal descriptions to ranges of scores in order to see if the method produced results that matched general descriptions of players. Those descriptions are as follows:

  • A score of about twenty indicates an exceptional MVP season.