“Basketball isn’t played on a spreadsheet.” That’s a common refrain heard when discussing advanced statistics in the NBA. To an extent, this is true; just because Player A has the best Points-Times-Assists-Divided-By-Vowels-In-His-Last-Name in the league doesn’t mean anything.
That said, players can’t just be judged by the “eye test,” either. Sometimes the best way to understand a player’s impact is through the numbers. This is especially true when it comes to efficiency-related stats.
There are a few metrics I want to focus on today: Usage Percentage, True Shooting Percentage and Net Rating. I’ll give a quick rundown here of what these mean if you’re unfamiliar, and there’s also this excellent glossary from Basketball-Reference if you want exact formulae or just a reference.