Advanced Statistics for the New NBA Fan

With all of the new advanced statistics being used in the NBA today, it can all get a bit confusing. Here’s a breakdown using the Charlotte Hornets.

In sport, there has been a proliferation of data in the last decade. Not only are we looking at numbers more closely and more often than in the past, but the ways in which data is gathered have diversified and multiplied as well. As an NBA fan, the usage of advanced statistics has really opened up people’s eyes to facets of the game that they may not have known existed.

Thanks to data gathering systems, we are now able to quantify the effect that players have on a game based on the flow of the ball during the time that player is on the court. Or we can see how good a player is at shooting contested shots by knowing the average distance between him and his defender at the time of a shot. The possibilities have very quickly become endless.

But, this begs the question: As a non-professional NBA fan, what statistics should I know as a fan? What stats are important to my team, or important to the conversations I have with my coworkers in the break room? I would like to introduce an advanced statistic, or advanced statistics gathering methods, that are cool to know about, and definitely make you seem like an analytics expert in casual conversation.