Basketball Stats Explained - From Basic to Advanced

Basketball has come a long way since James Naismith invented the game in 1891 with a simple peach basket and a soccer ball and a rambunctious group of students confined indoors. Over the decades, legends like John Wooden, Phil Jackson, and Pat Summitt have transformed the sport, emphasizing not just skill mastery and strategy, but the critical importance of detailed statistics to chart growth and identify opportunities. Today, SportsVisio takes this evolution a step further by revolutionizing basketball analytics with the use of AI and Computer Vision. By providing cutting-edge tools and insights, SportsVisio empowers players, coaches, and parents to delve deeper into the game’s intricacies, enhancing both performance and strategy.

Basketball is also a complex sport. Teams play a lot of games. Games have a lot of sequences where actions lead to points. Turnovers happen. Fouls happen, sometimes a lot. We put together a comprehensive set of statistics which teams and players can track.  Most of these are available in our app today. Others are coming in future releases that cater to the coaches with more advanced analytics. And, some others are so advanced that they can only be calculated for the NBA.

Here you go: 

Offensive Stats

• 2PA (2 Point Attempts) – the total number of 2-point shot attempts
• 2P (2 Point Makes) - the number of 2-point field goals made
• ‍2P% (2 Point Percentage) – the percentage of 2-point field goals, shots within the three-point arc made
• ‍3PA (3 Points Attempts) – the total number of 3-point shot attempts beyond the arc‍
• 3P (3 Point Makes) - the number of 3-point field goals made beyond the arc‍
• 3P% (3 Point Percentage) – the percentage of 3-point field goals made beyond the arc
• ‍FGA (Field Goal Attempts) – the total number of field goals attempted, combining both 2P and 3P‍
• FG (Field Goals) – the total number of field goals made, combining 2P and 3P‍
• FG% (Field Goal Percentage) – the percentage of field goals made, combining both 2P and 3P‍
• EFG% (Effective Field Goal percentage) - this gives more credit to made 3-point field goals due to the fact that they count for 1.5 times the score of a 2-point field goals
• ‍FTA (Free Throws Attempted) – the total number of free throw attempts from the foul line‍
• FT (Free Throw Makes) – the total number of free throws made from the foul line
• FT% (Free Throw Percentage) – the percentage of free throws made from the foul line‍
• Pts (Points) – the total number of points scored, combining 2P, 3P, and FT‍
• Ast (Assist) – the total number of assists, or passes that directly lead to either a 2 or 3 point made basket‍
• OReb (Offensive Rebounds) – the total number of offensive rebounds, or a rebound when the players team is in possession.
• TO (Turnover) – the total number of turnovers committed by a team or individual player‍
• FTr (Free Throw Rate) - the number of free throw attempts per field goal attempt (Coming soon)
• AST% (Assist Percentage) - percentage of teammate field goals that a player assisted while they were on the floor (Coming soon)
• 3PAr (3 Point Attempt Rate) - the percentage of field goals from 3 point range (Coming soon)
• OReb% – the percentage of offensive rebounds a team is able to secure (Coming soon) 
• Bench Pt (Bench Points) – the total number of points scored by non-starters (Coming soon) 
• Pt/Posses (Points per Possession) – the average number of points scored per offensive possession (Coming soon) 
• Paint Pt (Paint Points) – the total number of points scored in the paint or inside the box. (Coming soon)
• TOV% (Turnover Percentage) - an estimate of the number of turnovers per 100 possessions (Coming soon) 

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‍Defensive Stats

• Stl (Steals) – the total number of steals, or gaining possession from the other team without a shot being attempted‍
• Blk (Blocks) – the total number of blocks, or a defender deflecting the ball as a shot is being attempted‍
• PF (Personal Foul)– the total number of personal or team fouls‍
• DReb (Defensive Rebound) – the total number of defensive rebounds‍
• ‍‍Dflc (Deflections) – the total number of deflections by a team or individual player (Coming soon)
• Chrg (Charge) – the total number of times a defensive team or individual player draws a charge, or an offensive foul while the player in possession is moving (Coming soon)
• Recov (Recovery) – the accumulation steals, blocks and charges taken by a team or individual player (Coming soon)
• DReb% (Defensive Rebound Percentage) – the percentage of defensive rebounds a team is able to secure (Coming soon)
• STL % (Steal Percentage) - percentage of opponents possessions that ended in a steal while player was on the floor (Coming soon)
• BLK % (Block Percentage) - an estimate of the number of opponent field goals that are blocked while a player is on the floor (Coming soon) 

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Other Stats

• TF (Technical foul) - a significant fouls that results in an extra shot and possession for the opponent. Two technical fouls in one game result in an ejection. (Coming soon)
• IF (Intentional foul) - a foul that was committed intentionally or outside of the normal flow of action, usually cynically. (Coming soon)
• Min (Minutes) – the total number of minutes played in a game or season (Coming soon)
• +/- (Plus Minus) – the point differential a player accumulates while they are in the game. Determined by how many points their team scores and allows during their time on the floor (Coming soon)
• EFF (Efficiency) – the measure of a player’s efficiency with this formula (Points + Rebounders + Assists + Steals + Blocks – Turnovers + FG Misses + FT Misses) (Coming soon)
• PIE (Player Impact Estimate) - a complete rating of overall performance with this formula: (Points + Field Goals Made + Free Throws Made – Field Goal Attempts – Free Throw Attemps + Defensive Rebounds + Offensive Rebounds/2 + Assists + Steals + Blocks/2 – Personal Fouls – Turnovers) / (Total Game Points + Total Game Field Goals Made + Total Game Free Throws Made – Total Game Field Goals Attempted – Total Game Free Throws Attempted + Total Defensive Rebounds + Total Offensive Rebounds/2 + Total Game Assists + Total Game Steals + Total Game Blocks/2 – Total Game Fouls – Total Game Turnovers) (Coming soon)

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Pro Level Stats

‍There are a large number of very advanced pro level statistics. We have no timeline for these, but we plan to integrate some of these in the future. Here are a few:

• PER (Player Efficiency Rating) - a complex formula with Efficiency adjusted for various styles of play and other factors
• DPR (Defensive Player Rating) -  shows the Defensive prowess of a player. This is the formula: ( (Steals + Blocks) / team minutes played )-( times blown by * Pace of Players Era ) * Total Average of Possessions + ( Players DRTG * Team Pace ) / Total number of years played.
• PIR (Player Index Rating) - another measure of efficiency used in European leagues (Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks + Fouls Drawn) - (Missed Field Goals + Missed Free Throws + Turnovers + Shots Rejected + Fouls Committed).
• TSP (True Shooting Percentage) - measuring shooting efficiency. Points/(2(Field Goal Attempts + (.44 x Free Throw Attempts)))
• APM (Adjusted Plus Minus) - similar to Plus Minus in calculating the player impact while on the court compared to when the are off, but adjusted for possessions instead of minutes.
• BPM (Box Plus Minus) - an estimate of points per 100 possessions that a player contributed above a league average player, translated to an average team.
• VORP (Value over Replacement Player) - estimate of points per 100 team possessions, that a player contributed above a replacement level player, translated to average team, and prorate to a full season.
• OPR (Offensive proficiency rating) - a measure of a teams offensive performance. The formula is: (Players Points*Total FG%) + Opponents Differential= 1/5 of possessions - Times Fouled+ FTM* FT% * Official Adjusted Players Offensive Withstand.
• Similarity Score - an advanced sabremetric developed with the intent of discovering who the most similar historical players are to a certain player.
• PECOTA (Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm) - another sabremetric for forecasting player performance, initially developed by Nate Silver for baseball, and adapted for the NBA as CARMELO.

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It's not just points, assists and rebounds. There's a whole world of data that we are providing now and will provide in the future to enhance coaches ability to increase performance and give players benchmarks to measure their games and progression.

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