Have you ever wondered how many points a player adds to his team outside of just the normal PPG? There are so many advanced NBA statistics available now, but that creates a problem. There are too many. I have created a consolidated look at these stats to generate a player’s impact per 36 minutes of playing, from a total points added and saved perspective.

Methodology

PointFactor starts off easy, points per game adjusted for efficiency both from a PPS and True Shooting perspective. Added to this number is what I call “Points Added” which is a combination of assists, offensive rebounds, and turnovers. Assists are multiplied by the expected points made per shot (2.21 in this case) and offensive rebounds are adjusted accordingly as well. Turnovers then negatively affect this total. 

“Points Saved” is the third part of the equation. Defensive rebounds, steals, blocks, and personal fouls are combined using adjusting coefficients and added to my own created variable to adjust for man defense.

Judging a player’s ability to defend shots is difficult because it’s hard to quantify that impact in the box score. However, using advanced stats of a player’s defended field goal percentage and weighting the difference of that versus the expected field goal percentage and amplifying it by the amount of shots defended per game gives us a decent look at a player’s impact from a purely man defense standpoint.

Therefore, a PointFactor = Points (adjusted for efficiency) + Points Added + Points Saved + ManDefense Variable. PointFactor is then adjusted for pace and average NBA game totals to come up with a number that correlates to how many points a player adds to his team, both offensively and defensively, per 36 minutes of play time.

2018’s NBA Top 100 Players based off PointFactor

It should come as no surprise that reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo checks in at number one. Our (Sixers fans) very own Joel Embiid is 3rd with a PointFactor of 39.45. What this number means is that per 36 minutes, Joel affects the point total of a game by 39.45 points. 

PointFactor aims to create a useful, singular, statistic to consolidate the many advanced statistics available today. Hopefully, this sheds some light on player value throughout the season.

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