Lenovo Stat
From Hoopedia
The Lenovo Stat is a metric developed by the NBA to measure the power of teamwork. It's a way of determining the best combination of players on the court. The Lenovo Stat is a plus/minus statistic that looks at the point differential when players are both in and out of the game, to see how the team performs with various combinations. It also measures the effectiveness of an individual regardless of whether he is a scorer.
More specifically, the Lenovo Stat is based on a plus/minus algorithm, and is applied to every event in a given game to determine the effectiveness of various combinations of players on the court. In any game there are constant substitutions which create different combinations of players on court. For example, during the 2006 finals, the Miami Heat used 37 different combinations of 5-man roster from the 12 available players. The algorithm looks at all scoring events to assess the relative productivity of each combination.
Simply put: When any of the players on court scores, these points are credited to that particular 5-man combination. Whenever the opposing team scores, these points are subtracted. Therefore, a positive number is good and a negative number is bad. The higher the Lenovo stat, the better the performance of the player, or combination of players. Conversely, the lower the Lenovo stat, the worse the performance of the player or combination.
The algorithm is also applied to single, 2-, 3- and 4-man combinations.
2006-07 Regular Season
In the 2006-07 regular season, the five-man combination with the highest Lenovo stat was the Houston Rocket's Tracy McGrady, Rafer Alston, Shane Battier, Yao Ming, and Chuck Hayes. This quintet outscored their opponents by 269 points in 526 minutes of play.
Individuals with the top Lenovo scores were:
- Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs, 760
- Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks, 626
- Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns, 609
- Shawn Marion, Phoenix Suns, 600
- Bruce Bowen, San Antonio Spurs, 588
2006 Finals
In the 2006 finals, the most effective 5-man combination for Miami consisted of Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker, James Posey and Dwyane Wade, who together outscored whoever they faced by 16 points over the 6 games. The worst combination was Shaquille O'Neal, Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem, who came out 12 points behind.
The algorithm is also applied to 1,2,3 and 4 man combinations, so that the best 2-man tandem for the Heat consisted of James Posey & Dwyane Wade. There are many combinations and many interesting stories to be told based on the data.
