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Post by tichayo on Jun 4, 2009 7:32:59 GMT -5
In the box scores on wnba.com, what is the meaning of the "+/-" column and what do the numbers in it mean?
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Post by petrel on Jun 4, 2009 11:07:47 GMT -5
Assume that Betty Basketball (no relation to Betty Lennox) comes into a game two times.
The first time she comes in, the score is 20-20. When the coach finally substitutes for her, the score is 35-30 in favor of Betty's team. In effect, the team increased its lead by five when Betty was on the court. We give Betty a +5 for this interval.
The second time she comes in, her team is ahed 65-50. When she leaves, the score is 70-65 - clearly Betty's presence wasn't helping anything. The lead decreased by 10 points when Betty was out there. We give Betty a -10 for this interval.
These were the only two times Betty was on the court during the game: we add all of her plus-minuses together for each time she was on the court: +5 + (-10) = -5
Next to the box score, there will be a "-5" next to Betty's name. The implication is that the team did five points worth of worse when Betty was out there.
The whole point of +/- is to draw some sort of conclusion as to whether or not the presence of a particular player helps or hurts a team.
However, it's not a perfect stat. +/- is greatly affected by who is with you out there on the court. For example, during the Dream preseason game, Angel McCoughtry had a +14 plus-minus; Iziane Castro Marques had -11. Then again, when Angel was out there the first team was usually out there with her; the reverse was true in Izi's case.
You can also do +/- stats for duos of players ("How much did the lead change when both players were on the court?"), trios, and entire lineups.
The Dream uses +/- in its evaluation, but the duos-trios-quartet-lineup +/- breakdowns are not released to the public.
--Pet
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