SportVU is an automated ID and tracking technology that has the ability to collect positioning data of the ball, players and referees during a game. SportVu, which is founded in Israel in 2005, was acquired by STATS LLC in 2008 December. SportVU tells us defensively and offensive alignment relative to ball location shot trajectory and the number of dribbles and …
Statistical Player Value, SPV
Basketball is rich with history, rich with talented players, and rich with data that helps to track player accomplishments in games. But it has always lacked a cohesive measure that allows the value added by players of differing skill sets to be compared as apples to apples. I am attempting to create just such a way of tabulating the value …
Statistical Plus-Minus (SPM)
Statistical Plus/Minus (SPM) is an estimate of the player’s contribution to the team’s point differential per 100 possessions, using his box score stats as inputs. In another words, SPM can be considered as a way of estimating adjusted plus-minus from box score stats. Statistical plus-minus puts weight to basic box score stats like points, steals, blocks, etc., in an effort …
Stats Perform
Formerly STATS LLC, has been one the world’s leading sports information, content and statistical analysis company. Currently being one of the largest sports data companies along with rival SportRadar, STATS provides statistical material including sports data collection, processing, and distribution for sports leagues, teams, and the media. ACQUISITIONS IN CHRONOGICAL ORDER In 2000, Fox Sports has acquired STATS LLC. In …
Steal Percentage
Steal Percentage is the percentage of estimated opponent possessions that end with a steal by the player while the player is on the court.
Strength Of Schedule (SOS)
Strength Of Schedule (SOS) represents a team’s average schedule difficulty faced by each team in the games that it’s played so far or for all season. The schedule difficulty of a given game takes into account the rating of the opponent and the location of the game. Strength of schedule in the NBA has not been considered nearly as important …
Synergy Sports Technology
Synergy Sports Technology is a company which owns and operates a real-time video-indexing statistical engine. Synergy’s products and services are used by professional sports teams, broadcasters and fortune 500 businesses around the world. Most NBA teams use Synergy’s professional content delivery network to enjoy instant video streaming playback via queried statistical displays. The online service is run by Garrick Barr, …
Tendex
Tendex is Dave Heeren‘s player evaluation metric which is generally considered the first player rating system with linear weights.
The Hot Hand Myth
The “hot hand” fallacy describes the belief that the performance of a player, temporarily improves following a string of successes. Making 10 consecutive shots does not prove that a player is hot. NBA players tend to become significantly overconfident after making consecutive shots. After making one shot, a player’s shooting percentage actually drops for the next field goal attempt. As …
The Price of Anarchy
The Price of Anarchy is a suboptimal arrangement used in “traffic networks” that can be applied to Basketball as well. ESPN.com sportswriter Bill Simmons calls it the “Ewing Theory”. The idea that a team could improve after losing one of its best players may in fact have a network-based justification, and not just a psychological one. Optimizing the performance of …
Total Player Possessions
Total player possessions is the total number of how many times a player ends his team’s possession. It represents a player’s total possessions in the game.
Touches
Touches estimate the number of times a player touched the ball in an attacking position on the floor. The theory behind the formula is that once a player gets the ball, he can only do one of four things (aside from dribbling, of course): pass, shoot, draw a foul, or commit a turnover. %Pass = 100 * (AST / 0.17) …
Trade Value
Trade Value is the estimate using a player’s age and his approximate value to determine how much value a player has left in his career. Invented by Bill James.
Trade-off Between Usage and Efficiency
Trade-off between usage and efficiency is the mathematical relationship between usage rate and efficiency. Trade-off between usage and efficiency explains the player’s gain of offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) for the drop of each percent of usage.
True Shooting Percentage (TS%)
True shooting percentage, aka TS%, is a metric that factors a player’s or a team’s performance at the free-throw line and considers the efficiency of all types of shots. This NBA statistic helps us compare players with varying responsibilities and shooting abilites on the floor. A higher True Shooting Percentage generally indicates a more efficient scorer, while a lower percentage indicates …
TruMedia Network
TruMedia provides sports analytics tools for assessing the teams and players. TruMedia’s sports analytics solutions for baseball, football and soccer, helps professional teams as well as sports media conduct granular analysis with providing integrated play-by-play video which can be customized.
Turnover Ratio
Turnover Ratio, aka turnover percentage, is the percentage of a team’s or player’s possessions that end in a turnover. Calculating the number of turnovers a player will make in 100 possessions makes itself ‘tempo-free’ (adjusted for team pace and minutes played) NBA stats that everyone wants to look at. But, the turnover ratio is also limited, as it is a …
Usage Rate
Usage rate, aka NBA usage percentage, is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor. Usage rate can be calculated with how a possession ends: “field-goal or free-throw attempt, or a turnover. As you can identify on the chart, when a player is on the court, his usage rate …
Value of Ball Possession (VBP)
Value of Ball Possession (VBP) is the league’s average points scored per possession. For example, let’s say, in a season that NBA teams score an average of 110 points per 100 possessions, the value of ball possession (VBP) for the season equals to 1.1 (=110/100).
Versatility Index
Versatility Index, which is invented by John Hollinger, is a metric that measures a player’s ability to produce in more than one statistic. The metric uses points, assists, and rebounds. The average player will score around a five on the index, while top players score above 10. Versatility Index stats can be followed on our own player stats pages.
Win Probability Added (WPA)
Win Probability Added aka WPA, utilizes box score stats to rank player contributions which are weighted to give more credit to clutch shots and pace of the game. Created by Mike Beuoy in 2014, WPA focuses on missed shots, made shots, turnovers, and free throws while ignoring rebounds, assists, blocks and steals in clutch minutes or in garbage time.
Win Score
Win Score is David Berri’s metric that indicates the relative value of a player’s points, rebounds, steals, turnovers, and field goal attempts. Win Score is sufficient to give you a quick snapshot of a player’s performance. And it is especially useful if you wish to know if a player is playing better or worse than he did before.
Win Share (WS/48)
Win Share is a measure that is assigned to players based on their offense, defense, and playing time. WS/48 is win shares per 48 minutes and invented by Justin Kubatko who explains: “A win share is worth one-third of a team win. If a team wins 60 games, there are 180 ‘Win Shares’ to distribute among the players.”
Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP)
Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) evaluates a player who belongs to a team that is made up of him and 4 average players. This team is compared to another team made up of, 4 average players and a replacement-level player. Using replacement level shows the value of players who can play heavy minutes and avoid injury while continuing to perform …
Wins Produced
Wins Produced is based on box score stats and derived from the relationship between wins and offensive and defensive efficiency. It takes five steps to calculate Wins Produces for each player. Wins Produced metric is invented by David J. Berri.
Winwal
Winwal, one of the first of its kind analytics software program, measures team chemistry and analyzes a player’s impact on his team’s ability to produce points. WINVAL is the labor of Jeff Sagarin and Wayne Winston, who are both graduates of MIT. Winwal’s most unique characteristic is that it measures individual and team performance after every lineup change in every game. Winwal’s …