Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry fell in the MVP talk after a tough midseason shootout, but he continues to make a more positive impression on the court than any other player in the NBA.
There are several ways to measure a player’s individual impact on a basketball game, and none of them is perfect. However, one of the most universal and easy to understand methods is the plus-minus (PM) statistic. PM numbers are counted by adding the number of points scored by a team when the player in question is on the ground, and then subtracting the number of points scored against that team in the same period. The final number is presented as either a positive or negative number and provides a rudimentary measure of a player’s influence on the field.
Tim Kawakami von The Athletic took to Twitter on Sunday, February 27th to present the best PM scores in the NBA ahead of the day’s games. At the top of that list, which was littered with All Stars and MVP nominees, was Curry with a PM total of +491.
Nobody else in the league was particularly close to the dub guard. Forward Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics was second at +422, point guard Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns was third at +419, and reigning MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets was fifth at +379.
The only name on the list that casual NBA fans might not be very familiar with was Mikal Bridges, Paul’s teammate in Phoenix, who came in fourth with a +416 PM tally for the year.
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The talent at the top of the PM list is proof enough of the stats being right, but when advanced metrics dig deeper into the analysis, Curry remains close to the top of the league.
The main flaw in the PM statistic is that individual players’ ratings are significantly influenced by the play of their fellow players, potentially inflating one player’s influence while another’s decreases in quite ambiguous ways. The real plus-minus (RPM) statistic attempts to address these concerns by adjusting for the other nine players on the court at any given time, both teammates and opponents.
Stephen Ilardi posted a statement on RPM on ESPN.com in April 2014 which reads as follows:
Curry has remained outstanding this season as he adapts to the play of his teammates and opponents. According to ESPN’s tally through February 27, Curry was second in the league with an overall revs of 9.88 per game behind only Jokic’s 11.34. Third place went to Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks was fourth.
Those other three players rank as the front-runners for this season’s league MVP, according to a straw poll of media members conducted Feb. 17 by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. Embiid took first place in this poll, closely followed by Jokic in second and Antetokounmpo in third place. Curry finished fourth in the MVP straw poll.
For reference, Tatum was fifth on ESPN’s advanced revs list, while Paul was fifth in the most recent MVP straw poll. Both players made it into the top 5 list of standard PM lists given in the Kawakami tweet above.
Unfortunately for Dubs fans, Curry’s standard PM took a hit Sunday night when the Warriors called off a game against the visiting Dallas Mavericks. The Golden State point guard posted a -4:00 tally in a whopping 38 minutes of play.
The Warriors went into the fourth quarter 14 points ahead in which Luka Doncic and the Mavs outscored the home team by 20 points to win by a score of 107-101. Curry had 27 points, 10 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals without Splash brother Klay Thompson by his side, who was ruled out of the game due to a “general illness”. Anthony Slater von The Athletic.
The Warriors fell to 43-18 in the season with the loss and remain the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference, six games behind the Suns and 1.5 games ahead of the third-ranked Memphis Grizzlies. Golden State will line up alongside Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves on Tuesday, March 1st.
