+/-Plus-Minus

Formula

+/- = team points scored − team points allowed (while player is on court)

Example

A starter on the floor for a 82–74 win is +8 if they played all 40 minutes; partial minutes scale proportionally.

Why it matters

Plus-minus is the only stat that directly answers "did the team play better with this player on the court?" Imperfect, but uniquely team-aware.

In depth

Raw plus-minus is noisy at the player level over small samples — a bench player on a great team can post a high +/- without driving it. Useful in aggregate over a full season, less useful in a single game.

ArcStat ships per-game plus-minus on every line. Net rating (per-100-possession plus-minus) is more rigorous and ships on Pro+.