Glossary

3P

3-Point Field Goals (available since the 1979-80 season in the NBA)

3P%

3-Point Field Goal Percentage (available since the 1979-80 season in the NBA); 3P / 3PA.

3PA

3-Point Field Goal Attempts (available since the 1979-80 season in the NBA)

Age

Age; player age on February 1 of the given season.

AST

Assists

AST%

Assist Percentage (available since the 1964-65 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * AST / (((MP / (Tm MP / 5)) * Tm FG) - FG). Assist percentage is an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on on the floor.

Award Share

The formula is (award points) / (maximum number of award points). For example, in the 2002-03 MVP voting Tim Duncan had 962 points out of a possible 1190. His MVP award share is 962 / 1190 = 0.81.

BLK

Blocks (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA)

BLK%

Block Percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (BLK * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Opp FGA - Opp 3PA)). Block percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field goal attempts blocked by the player while he was on the floor.

DPOY

Defensive Player of the Year

DRB

Defensive Rebounds (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA)

DRB%

Defensive Rebound Percentage (available since the 1970-71 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (DRB * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm DRB + Opp ORB)). Defensive rebound percentage is an estimate of the percentage of available defensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor.

DRtg

Defensive Rating (available since the 1977-78 season in the NBA); for players and teams it is points allowed per 100 posessions. This rating was developed by Dean Oliver, author of Basketball on Paper. I will point you to Dean's book for complete details.

DWS

Defensive Win Shares (available since the 1951-52 season in the NBA); please see the article Calculating Win Shares for more information.

EFG%

Effective Field Goal Percentage; the formula is (FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA. This statistic adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal. For example, suppose Player A goes 4 for 10 with 2 threes, while Player B goes 5 for 10 with 0 threes. Each player would have 10 points from field goals, and thus would have the same effective field goal percentage (50%).

FG

Field Goals

FG%

Field Goal Percentage; the formula is FG / FGA.

FGA

Field Goal Attempts

FT

Free Throws

FT%

Free Throw Percentage; the formula is FT / FTA.

FTA

Free Throw Attempts

Four Factors

Dean Oliver's "Four Factors of Basketball Success"; please see the article Four Factors for more information.

G

Games

GB

Games Behind; the formula is ((first W - W) + (L - first L)) / 2, where first W and first L stand for wins and losses by the first place team, respectively.

GmSc

Game Score; the formula is PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV. Game Score was created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game. The scale is similar to that of points scored, i.e., 40 is an outstanding performance, 10 is an average performance, etc.

GS

Games Started (available since the 1982 season)

L

Losses

L Pyth

Pythagorean Losses; the formula is G - W Pyth.

Lg

League

MVP

Most Valuable Player

Most Similar at Age

The player who had the most similar season at a given age (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA). Please read the full description of the method.

MP

Minutes Played (available since the 1951-52 season)

ORtg

Offensive Rating (available since the 1977-78 season in the NBA); for players it is points produced per 100 posessions, while for teams it is points scored per 100 possessions. This rating was developed by Dean Oliver, author of Basketball on Paper. I will point you to Dean's book for complete details.

Opp

Opponent

ORB

Offensive Rebounds (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA)

ORB%

Offensive Rebound Percentage (available since the 1970-71 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (ORB * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm ORB + Opp DRB)). Offensive rebound percentage is an estimate of the percentage of available offensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor.

OWS

Offensive Win Shares (available since the 1951-52 season in the NBA); please see the article Calculating Win Shares for more information.

Pace

Pace Factor (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 48 * ((Tm Poss + Opp Poss) / (2 * (Tm MP / 5))). Pace factor is an estimate of the number of possessions per 48 minutes by a team.

PER

Player Efficiency Rating (available since the 1951-52 season); PER is a rating developed by ESPN.com columnist John Hollinger. In John's words, "The PER sums up all a player's positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative accomplishments, and returns a per-minute rating of a player's performance." Please see the article Calculating PER for more information. Also see VAA and VAR.

Per 40 Minutes

A statistic (e.g., assists) divided by minutes played, multiplied by 40.

Per Game

A statistic (e.g., assists) divided by games.

PF

Personal Fouls

Poss

Possessions (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula for teams is 0.5 * ((Tm FGA + 0.4 * Tm FTA - 1.07 * (Tm ORB / (Tm ORB + Opp DRB)) * (Tm FGA - Tm FG) + Tm TOV) + (Opp FGA + 0.4 * Opp FTA - 1.07 * (Opp ORB / (Opp ORB + Tm DRB)) * (Opp FGA - Opp FG) + Opp TOV)). This formula estimates possessions based on both the team's statistics and their opponent's statistics, then averages them to provide a more stable estimate. The formula for players is rather lengthy and can be found in Dean Oliver's book.

PProd

Points Produced; Dean Oliver's measure of offensive points produced. Please see Dean's book for details.

PTS

Points

ROY

Rookie of the Year

SMOY

Sixth Man of the Year

STL

Steals (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA)

STL%

Steal Percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (STL * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * Opp Poss). Steal Percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent possessions that end with a steal by the player while he was on the floor.

SRS

Simple Rating System; my colleague Doug Drinen of Pro-Football-Reference.com has written a great explanation of this method.

Stops

Stops; Dean Oliver's measure of individual defensive stops. Please see Dean's book for details.

Tm

Team

TOV

Turnovers (available since the 1977-78 season in the NBA)

TOV%

Turnover Percentage (available since the 1977-78 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * TOV / (FGA + 0.44 * FTA + TOV). Turnover percentage is an estimate of turnovers per 100 plays.

TRB

Total Rebounds (available since the 1950-51 season)

TRB%

Total Rebound Percentage (available since the 1970-71 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (TRB * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm TRB + Opp TRB)). Total rebound percentage is an estimate of the percentage of available rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor.

TS%

True Shooting Percentage; the formula is PTS / (2 * (FGA + 0.44 * FTA)). True shooting percentage is a measure of shooting efficiency that takes into account field goals, 3-point field goals, and free throws.

Usg%

Usage Percentage (available since the 1977-78 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * ((FGA + 0.44 * FTA + TOV) * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm FGA + 0.44 * Tm FTA + Tm TOV)). Usage percentage is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor.

VAA

Value Above Average (available since the 1950-51 season); the formula is (PER - 15) / 15 * MP. By definition, the league average PER in a given season is 15, so this measure computes the player's value above the league average taking playing time into consideration. Please note that defensive specialists (e.g., Bruce Bowen) will be drastically underrated using this method.

VAR

Value Above Replacement (available since the 1950-51 season); the formula is (PER - 9) / 15 * MP. Replacement-level PER is estimated to be about 9, so this measure computes the player's value above the league replacement level taking playing time into consideration. Please note that defensive specialists (e.g., T.R. Dunn) will be drastically underrated using this method.

W

Wins

W > .500

Wins Over .500; the formula is (W - L) / 2.

W Pyth

Pythagorean Wins; the formula is G * (Tm PTS¹⁴ / (Tm PTS¹⁴ + Opp PTS¹⁴)). The formula was obtained by fitting a logistic regression model with log(Tm PTS / Opp PTS) as the explanatory variable. Using this formula for all BAA, NBA, and ABA seasons, the root mean-square error (rmse) is 3.14 wins. Using an exponent of 16.5 (a common choice), the rmse is 3.48 wins.

W-L%

Won-Lost Percentage; the formula is W / (W + L).

WS

Win Shares (available since the 1951-52 season in the NBA); an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player. Please see the article Calculating Win Shares for more information.

WS/48

Win Shares Per 48 Minutes (available since the 1951-52 season in the NBA); an estimate of the number of wins contributed by the player per 48 minutes (league average is approximately 0.100). Please see the article Calculating Win Shares for more information.

Win Probability

The estimated probability that Team A will defeat Team B in a given matchup.

Year

Year that the season occurred. Since the NBA season is split over two calendar years, the year given is the last year for that season. For example, the year for the 1999-00 season would be 2000.

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