Sports Reference Blog

Box Plus Minus/VORP for the Playoffs

Posted by sean on February 9, 2015

 

Playoff Box Plus/Minus (BPM)

We're now able to calculate Box Plus/Minus (BPM) and Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) for the playoffs, by extending the methodology used for the regular season, and calculating a team efficiency rating based on performance in the playoffs, adjusted for strength of playoff lineups (by using playoffs minute distributions and regular season BPM ratings). These ratings are interesting in themselves, and reflect some of the great playoffs runs - the 1996 Bulls' rating was +19.3, and the 2001 Lakers were +20.1.

The BPM figures themselves reflect the best individual playoff performances. LeBron's 2009 BPM of 18.2 is tops by a large margin, followed by Kareem's 1977 run and then the Jordan playoffs from 1989-1991.

(For a detailed explanation and further discussion see the "Playoff Box Plus/Minus and VORP" section of the write-up.)

 

Playoff VORP (and Pro-Rating the Regular Season)

As well as BPM, we can now calculate VORP for the playoff season. (If you need a refresher on VORP as a concept, please visit the original write-up when we introduced it to Basketball Reference). We calculate VORP for the playoffs similarly to the regular season - that is, [BPM - (-2.0)] * (% of minutes played) - and it should be interpreted identically. Again, that's as the number of points the player has produced over a replacement player, per 100 team possessions.  The significance of VORP compared to BPM is that it's accumulative, rather than a rate stat, and thus accounts more literally for value provided, weighted as it is by minutes played, and expressed on a per-82 game basis*.

(* - Yes, this is new. We are now pro-rating VORP based on the number of games that a team has played during the regular season, and doing the same for the playoffs. One point of VORP is one point of full season team efficiency differential. This affects partial seasons, strike-shortened seasons, and the playoffs.  This has significance for the playoffs, in particular - players on teams that go further or play in 7-game series will accumulate more because they have more opportunities.)

 

Some Minor Changes to the Equation

Please note that we've also updated the methodology, such that some players will have a slight variation in the BPM and associated stats. These were technical fixes to the regression methodology, which had the result of slightly changing the relative value of component stats. For example, blocks and shooting efficiency are two factors that are more highly favored by the revision and thus Anthony Davis saw the largest increase in BPM (+0.8), however most changes were of a much smaller magnitude. Please see the details of this revision in the write-up, under the "Updates" section.

 

Again, Basketball Reference extends its thanks to Daniel Myers, whose research the above represents. Also, please see the revised 'About BPM' write-up that details the methodology and is generally extremely useful for understanding the context of BPM and VORP, and the best ways to think about and use these stats.

 

 

 

2 Responses to “Box Plus Minus/VORP for the Playoffs”

  1. someone Says:

    When are we going to see it on "leaders" page?

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