ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM) provides a way to understand the contributions of NBA players to winning -- on each end of the floor. Using both box-score and play-by-play data, RPM estimates each player's on-court impact on team performance, measured in net point differential per 100 offensive and defensive possessions.
RPM was developed to be an improvement over standard plus-minus stats. That's in part because, unlike standard plus-minus stats, RPM takes into account teammates, opponents and additional factors, such as the score of each game. It also uses individual stats to create a Bayesian prior for each player.
Midway through the 2018-19 season, we are publishing a team-by-team list of the RPM leaders so far, showing which players have made the greatest impact. We are also including each player's predictive rating going forward.
To see RPM for past seasons, go here. To learn more about RPM, go here.
