Player On/Off impact. What is it and how can it help?

What is a player’s impact on the team when they are on the court? That’s what we are looking to measure with On/Off ratings not just for points but also for every other statistic.

At Pivot Analysis we can look at different categories where a player can make an impact on their team even if they aren’t contributing directly to that category.

As an example, let’s take a look at Luka Garza’s shot profile from 2020/21 we can see that he is a player that takes 65% of his shots at the rim where he converts 63% of those shots.

Luka Garza Shot Profile 2020/21

With this shot profile we’d assume that the team takes more shots at the rim when he’s on the court.

However when we take a look at the types of shots the team is taking when he is playing we actually spot an interesting statistic. The team is shooting more 3 pointers and making more of them.

Now let’s look at the team’s shot profiles when he is on the court and when he is on the bench.

Team shot profile with Luka Garza on the court

As we noted before the shots at the rim are converted at a high percentage because of Luka’s ability to make a high percentage of his shots there.

Now let’s look at the shot profile of the team when he is on the bench.

Team shot profile with Luka Garza off the court

While the team converts 2.4% of their shots less at the rim when Luka Garza is on the bench the team takes a higher percentage of their shots at the rim at 51.6% compared to 46.1%.

The statistic that changes a lot is 3-point percentage and the percent of shots that are taken from 3. This is not a guess we would make when it comes to such a proficient inside scorer like Luka.

Using our player On/Off view we can see the impact on offense that Luka has this year.

What jumps out is that FG3% jumps by 7.3% when he’s playing as well as the rate of attempts of 3 pointers increases by 4.1% as well.

Because of this better shooting on the court the team can expect 1.20 points per shot from 3 points when he’s on the court versus only 1.03 when he’s off it. This is big difference can really help when analyzing the impact of a player’s talents has on the team.

Some of these numbers may not be visible at first glance but Pivot Analysis is tracking them to give coaches the opportunity to spot and track throughout the season. Utilizing any edge helps give teams a competitive advantage and we’re here to help provide them with useful data on their teams and opponents as well. If you’d like to learn more about our tools, we’d love to get in touch to help your team right away.