How Important is +/- in the light of Tonight

[HuskyNan]

I have to believe that a consistancy in plus/minus performance over a large number of games has to have prohibitive value so having access to such numbers for each player over as many games as possible does have import.

If anyone knows where such results are available, I am sure many BYers would appreciate knowing.

Thanks....

Here is your grid showing +/- by player by game. I'm not going to do the math for +/- for year to date because it means analyzing the boxes for every game.

I just want to be sure you're clear on what the +/- means. If a player has a +10, it means her team scored 10 more points than the other team while she's on the court. I don't know how useful this info is in a compilation. A player could be on the court for 10 minutes, have 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists and steals and have 10 turnovers and 4 fouls but if her team goes on a 20-0 run while she's on the court, she would have a +20 +/- score. However, if she scores 30 points with 10 rebounds but her team is outscored by 1 in the time she's on the court, her +/- will be -1. What does that tell you about the player?

 

[msf22b]

What does that tell you about the player?

Nan:

I started looking into the questions that I initially raised....
and the answer to your question is:

At least: somewhat more than you are accounting for:

The following two articles were informative:

What Does +/- Mean in Basketball? | Hoops Addict

Have you ever scoured a box score and noticed something in the far right column that says +/-? This post can help you understand what this stat means.

www.hoopsaddict.com

I was blown away by the 2nd...with the increased use of analytics in sports
+/- is being broken down into different categories:

NBA Plus-Minus & Impact Metrics in Basketball Explained

NBA Plus-minus and all derived +/- player impact metrics explained. Plus/minus basically tracks the net changes in the score when a player is on or off

www.nbastuffer.com

 

[Zarathustra]

Basketball is such a game of matchups, too. A Husky guard might be +30 against a team with poor guard play but be -5 against a team with strong guards. Without analyzing the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, the +/- is meaningless

Stats are 'Stats" (numbers)... Context is "everything". Needless to
say I agree with HuskyNan. N.B. I have looked at +/- ratings for
a long time...they are interesting... for one game.

 

[CL82]

Basketball is such a game of matchups, too. A Husky guard might be +30 against a team with poor guard play but be -5 against a team with strong guards. Without analyzing the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, the +/- is meaningless

Yep, and you also have to analyze the sub pattern. Who did she come in with? Who was on the floor while she was on the floor? It's not something that you can look at in isolation, but over the course of the season it does give useful information.

The flipside of +/- is the "eye test" where you just look at a player and get a sense of how they looked on the floor. Did they seem to be in sync on offense and defense? Did the opposing team single them out as an opportunity for isolation matchups? In my opinion, Morgan passed the eye test as well. She looked good out there, entirely confident and not overwhelmed by the moment. That's a great sign for the rest of the season.

 

[Rowdy831]

This was absolutely Chen's worst game, and they would not start KK over Chen since she's always had a higher +/- then KK. The offense usually flows better with her on the floor (Although I really don't know why she doesn't take more shots when she can make them). I've wondered since they basically share the PG role. Same on the positive side for Morgan. She had a couple of solid games but she has to perform consistently.

Against poor competition maybe but whe the lights are the brightest you see why UConn recruited KK.

 

[maple]

Yep, and you also have to analyze the sub pattern. Who did she come in with? Who was on the floor while she was on the floor? It's not something that you can look at in isolation, but over the course of the season it does give useful information.

The flipside of +/- is the "eye test" where you just look at a player and get a sense of how they looked on the floor. Did they seem to be in sync on offense and defense? Did the opposing team single them out as an opportunity for isolation matchups? In my opinion, Morgan passed the eye test as well. She looked good out there, entirely confident and not overwhelmed by the moment. That's a great sign for the rest of the season.

Agreed.

If someone is on the floor and getting 0 pts/rbs/asts, but every time they're on the floor with a set group that always goes +10, then I would say they are contributing something to the chemistry of the team. So I would always want that player out there (with that other group of 4). I think this in particular is something that can sometimes be accurately judge by the "eye test".

If they are always scoring, say, 10pts/10 rbs/10 asts every time with a specific group of people that is always going -1, then I would assume that this player specifically is not the problem with that combo, but rather the players around them.

It really starts getting into the analytical of it all, which I find very interesting.

 

[AJay11]

Against poor competition maybe but whe the lights are the brightest you see why UConn recruited KK.

I agree with you. I am not saying KK is bad (I think the opposite actually), but Chen has had a higher plus/minus. Both of them played well in the Notre Dame game with Chen having a higher plus/minus. If you can look at the stats, Chen performs better offensively. She is the offensive spark vs KK the defensive one. Unpopular opinion and maybe I am extremely wrong, but I thought Chen was great in the 4th (barring the misses). I also thought KK brought a lot of energy and brought us back in the game. So far I haven't seen a logical reason why KK should start except she's a defensive spark, she played better last year and she was good in this game. Personally I like her coming of the bench especially when she's aggressive. Would love for someone to give me the dummy explanation, although I have the sneaking suspicion that fans are being hyperbolic and slightly bias.