Plus/Minus
The scoreboard change while a player is on the court. If your team outscores the opponent by 8 in your 28 minutes, your plus/minus is +8. If they outscore you by 3, it is -3.
What Plus/Minus measures
Every other basic stat measures what a player does with the ball. Plus/minus measures what happens to the game while he is out there, whether he touches the ball or not. It is the box score's one attempt at total impact instead of individual actions.
How Plus/Minus is calculated
+/- = your team's points minus the opponent's, while you are on the floor
Read from the substitution log. A season figure adds up every game.
+/-: Plus/Minus / NRtg: Net Rating
The catch
Plus/minus rewards good teammates, not only good players
A role player who only plays next to stars posts strong numbers almost by default. A star carrying a weak roster can post negative ones while playing well. The number reflects lineup quality as much as the individual.
One game of plus/minus is close to noise
A player can finish -15 because a teammate fell apart while he was on the floor, or +18 because he happened to be out there during a hot streak. Only season-long and multi-season plus/minus carry real signal.
Seen in a game
Plus/minus is hard to trust one player at a time, so the cleanest read is at the team level, where it becomes net rating: points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions. In 2025–26 Olympiacos had the league's best mark at +10.8, the gap between a title contender and the field. For an individual the number is noisier. A role player who only shares the floor with stars looks great, and a star stuck on a weak roster can look poor, no matter how he plays.
Common questions
- What is plus-minus in basketball?
Plus-minus is the point difference while a player is on the floor — the team's points scored minus points allowed during his minutes.
- What does +/- mean on a box score?
It is the running scoreboard margin for a player's time on court. A +12 means the team outscored the opponent by twelve while he played; a negative number means it was outscored.
- Is plus-minus reliable for a single game?
Not really. In one game it swings on teammates, matchups and luck. It becomes meaningful over a full season and is best read alongside on/off and box plus-minus.
