The +/- stat is very interesting.

[Hoophound]

I noticed that Ray played 30 minutes tonight and scored 14 points. Lebron played 36 minutes and scored 35.

Ray was +21 and Lebron was +3. How is that even possible?

Anyway, the value of Ray is very apparent in the +/-. He consistently puts up a great +/- because he opens up the floor for everyone else.

 

[Gurleyman]

In small sample sizes it is really sort of an anecdotal stat. Today, the Raptors jumped out to a 20-12 lead before Ray first came in. So from then on, the Heat were +19 (making a +21 logical). LeBron was also coincidentally on the bench late 3rd/early 4th when the Heat went on a little run.

In the finals last year, Ray's +/- was ridiculous. Some of it was coincidence (the Heat went on something like a 30-2 run in Game 2 while he was out there, even though he didn't score much in that run) and some of it was not (the Heat had much better floor spacing for LeBron with Ray out there, to the point that people thought Wade was becoming a liability - but Game 7 erased that meme).

Over a seven-game series, though, it was more a more telling stat than just one game. It became pretty clear that the paint was less clogged with him out there and that Miami's efficiency improved, even if he was just a decoy.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Did anyone keep +/- for UConn for last season?

Giffey seemed to have a big +/-, but I don't remember a lot of games.

 

[partial]

I think even in the long run +/- is not a very telling statistic there's just too many random factors that go into it. I know that there are now more readily available statistics on so called adjusted +/- statistics for the nba which is probably the better way to measure the impact of certain players on team success. http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/entry/a_treatise_on_plus_minus

 

[Hoophound]

Did anyone keep +/- for UConn for last season?

Giffey seemed to have a big +/-, but I don't remember a lot of games.

I was going to mention the exact same thing in my original post but got lazy.

While I realize +/- doesn't mean much in many instances, Ray seems to crush it almost every game. Teams are just better with him on the floor, old or not.

 

[partial]

I think your instincts are correct. A google search reveals this analysis based on adjusted plus/minus http://godismyjudgeok.com/DStats/2012/nba-stats/overrated-and-underrated-via-rapm-part-2/ for data from the last decade showing the Ray Allen is **thick russian accent** credit to team **thick russian accent**.