NBA executives weigh in on best advanced statistic.

[colincb]

An interesting read for those who care about advanced stats. REAL +/-  takes some heat (I've read that Defensive BOX +/-  is useless too elsewhere.)

I use PER as a quick and dirty offensive stat, knowing its faults, and RAPTOR, for its potential. I distrust any strictly plus/minus stat, no matter how you massage it, and single-game +/- stats are meaningless.

RAPTOR was 4th, LEBRON 3rd, EPM 2nd, and DPM was the top-ranked all-in-one stat.


https://hoopshype.com/lists/advanced-stats-nba-real-plus-minus-rapm-win-shares-analytics/

[Roy H.]

These guys get it:

Some felt that as a whole, catch-all stats are flawed and do not very accurately measure talent or performance.

“I don’t really use any,” said one executive, who is the president of basketball operations for a team in the Eastern Conference. “They are all pretty bad.”

Others were less critical but felt that while all-in-one composite metrics are constantly getting better, the future of analytics is headed away from these measurements altogether.

“If I could add a wrinkle to your story, it would be that all-in-one stats are overused – that the next phase of basketball analytics is all about context-dependent numbers,” said another front office member from the Western Conference. “That would be the most honest quote I could give.”

The real answer is tracking data, mixed with context and common sense.  There’s no formula that captures that.