Basketball stats for beginners: what are PER, true shooting and plus-minus?

Basketball is one of the most measurable team sports. Alongside the traditional points-rebounds-assists trio, a few more advanced metrics are worth knowing.

True shooting percentage

Field goal percentage on its own is misleading, because it does not distinguish between two- and three-point attempts and ignores free throws. True shooting condenses all of that into a single number, showing how efficiently a player converts his attempts into points. A three-point specialist can be highly efficient even with a modest field goal percentage.

PER

The player efficiency rating converts all of a player's positive and negative statistical events into a single per-minute value. Its advantage is quick comparison across different roles; its weakness is that it simply cannot see most of what happens defensively.

Plus-minus and its refined versions

Basic plus-minus shows how much better a team's point differential is while a player is on the floor. It depends heavily on team-mates, which is why refined versions were developed that estimate a player's contribution using several seasons of data and adjusting for opponent strength.

How to use them

None of these is a ranking. Statistics are useful when they raise a question: why has someone's efficiency dropped, which line-ups work, whose presence improves the defence. The answer always comes together with watching the games.