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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.

A score of seventeen or eighteen indicates a strong MVP candidate or an ordinary MVP season.
A score of sixteen indicates an MVP candidate.
A score of fifteen indicates a definite All-Star who is a marginal MVP candidate.
A score of fourteen indicates a probable All-Star.
A score of thirteen indicates a marginal All-Star.
A score of twelve indicates a very fine season; an All-Star candidate.
A score of eleven indicates an above average regular; an excellent player playing about 1800 minutes.
A score of ten indicates an average regular or a very good sixth man.
A score of nine indicates an average regular or a good sixth man.
A score of eight indicates a fair regular or an average sixth man.
A score of six or seven indicates an average bench player or a good player playing under 1500 minutes.
A score of four or five indicates a player who plays about 1000 minutes and who doesn't deserve many more.
Scores of three or less usually indicate players who are unimpressive in limited playing time.
Before the '73-74 season, steals (STL), blocks (BLK), and turnovers weren't kept as official stats. In the credits formula for player seasons before '73-74, those stats are just omitted as they tend to cancel each other out to some degree when included anyway.

Versatility Index

The Versatility Index is a metric that measures a player's ability to produce in more than one statistic. In this case we are using points, assists, and rebounds. The average player will score around a five on the index, while top players score above 10. The index was designed by John Hollinger and more information can be found in this article.

PPFGA

Points per FGA is sometimes a better way of looking at shot efficiency than FG PCT because it takes into account three point shots and points gained due to free throw shots. It was used by John Hollinger in his book Pro Basketball Prospectus and I encourage anyone interested in this statistic to check out his book.

PPR

PPR is an assist to turnover ratio which is much better than the simple assists divided by turnovers ratio which is often used by the media. Turnovers were not kept as an official stat by the NBA prior to the 1977-78 season so PPR is only displayed or accurate after this that season. It was used by John Hollinger in his book Pro Basketball Prospectus and I encourage anyone interested in this statistic to check out his book.

Rebound Rate

Rebound Rate is an excellent stat for measuring the rebounding ability of a player. It simply measures the percentage of missed shots a player rebounded while he was on the floor. Rebounds allowed by opponents was not kept as an NBA stat prior to the 1970-71 season so rebound rate is only available after that year. It was used by John Hollinger in his book Pro Basketball Prospectus and I encourage anyone interested in this statistic to check out his book.

About statistical abbreviations

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