Maybe I'm not the most intuitive fantasy player, but I'm not sure what this new +/- stat is in the Yahoo leagues.

It shows how the team does with that specific player in the game.. like if there winning by 5 points, losing by 5 points or its a tie game. Idk its really wierd haha

its how the score changes when theyre in the game. its a category used in your league? i thought it was just the boxscores

Its the latest stat to be used by Yahoo and follows hockey's style. People said that it might become a stat that can be used next year like in hockey. I personally find this stat useless in basketball because the score can change quickly while in hockey, its pretty much stable.

It would be stupid as a fantasy stat, but it's a pretty solid indication to see if coaches actually know what they're doing out there. If you see a player from the bench have like a +10 in only 15 minutes, while the rest of the players are -'s, then something's is wrong there.

Okay, but does that take into account the amount their team is up or down when they're put in the game (if they come off the bench), or is it purely how many points the team scores or loses when they are playing?

Oh, okay. It's not a factor in my fantasy league, but I was curious about it.

its stupid only cuz players on bad teams would be penalized cuz their team sucks. the best players on the worst teams will always have a minus in that column.

I think it is calculated by how much the team is up or down when a player enters a game.

no, thats wrong. its strictly based on how the score changes when hes in the game.

it's lame!

its lame for fantasy purposes but its not lame for analyzing players in real-life. there's an adjusted +/- that i think takes into account players on bad teams. thats the better stat and one i wouldnt mind using in fantasy. that stat seperates the players that put up "empty" stats (like zach randolph) from the players that have a more impactful game.

It's misleading to be used for basketball because each team scores anywhere from 80-120 points a game. In hockey the scores are so much lower, around 5-6 goals total between two teams.

The best way to get any useful analysis out of +/- in NBA is to "adjust" it to a certain amount minutes. The +/- figures you see in boxscores are only a "raw" value.

Check out these two sites:

http://basketballvalue.com/index.php
http://82games.com/ilardi1.htm

Wow, i never knew that, also what is ba?

It is how many times that player has had his shot blocked.

and ba stands for what then?

Blocks Against

k, ty!

no. it's block attempt

so whiuch one is it? at 1st thats what i thought but anything can be a Block attempt so i dunno now!

It's not block attempts. Kirghiz provided the correct definition.

ok i am wrong

so is it Blocks Against?

Yes it's blocks against and it's a pretty meaningless stat. Getting blocked isn't any worse that any other type of missed field goal.

It can tell you if someone has bad shot selection, but blocks are so few that it is hard to pick up on a trend. Besides, if a guy is shooting 40% from the field that is as good of an indicator of bad shot selection as you are going to find.