Question regarding calculating pace and possessions

[colts18]

I can't seem to figure out how to calculate possessions for a player using pace numbers.

For example, here is some Jordan 1998 data

http://stats.nba.com/playerStats.html?P ... ode=Totals

He played 3182 minutes, 91.9 pace, and was +598 on court. Isn't pace the number of possessions a player plays per 48 minutes? So it would be 91.9*3182 minutes/48 minutes. I get 6092.204 possessions on court. When I divide +598/6092.204 possessions*100, I get +9.82 per 100 possessions. Yet when I look at the NBA.com page, it has MJ at +8.5 per 100 possessions. Am I doing something wrong with the calculation?

[deepak]

I can't seem to figure out how to calculate possessions for a player using pace numbers.

For example, here is some Jordan 1998 data

http://stats.nba.com/playerStats.html?P ... ode=Totals

He played 3182 minutes, 91.9 pace, and was +598 on court. Isn't pace the number of possessions a player plays per 48 minutes? So it would be 91.9*3182 minutes/48 minutes. I get 6092.204 possessions on court. When I divide +598/6092.204 possessions*100, I get +9.82 per 100 possessions. Yet when I look at the NBA.com page, it has MJ at +8.5 per 100 possessions. Am I doing something wrong with the calculation?

Looks like you're doing it right. Maybe they aren't defining NetRtg to be +/- per 100 possessions.

[colts18]

I can't seem to figure out how to calculate possessions for a player using pace numbers.

For example, here is some Jordan 1998 data

http://stats.nba.com/playerStats.html?P ... ode=Totals

He played 3182 minutes, 91.9 pace, and was +598 on court. Isn't pace the number of possessions a player plays per 48 minutes? So it would be 91.9*3182 minutes/48 minutes. I get 6092.204 possessions on court. When I divide +598/6092.204 possessions*100, I get +9.82 per 100 possessions. Yet when I look at the NBA.com page, it has MJ at +8.5 per 100 possessions. Am I doing something wrong with the calculation?

Looks like you're doing it right. Maybe they aren't defining NetRtg to be +/- per 100 possessions.

Possibly that or they are using different possessions numbers for NetRtg. a poster on Realgm pointed that NBA.com using the exact same possession numbers that Hollinger uses.

What I don't understand is how for a few instances, nba.com has a player at a positive +/- per 100 yet their net rating is negative. That doesn't make sense at all. That is impossible assuming you are using the positive value total +/- for Net Rating. I guess it could be possible if a player has significantly different possession numbers. For example.

2 examples for a +2 overall player:
100 possessions
100 points on
98 points against
100 O rating, 98 D rating, +2 overall per 100

example 2:
100 points on for 100 offensive possessions
98 points for 96 defensive possessions
100 O rating, 102 D rating, -2 overall per 100

In both examples, the player is positive overall but in example 2, he is a negative player despite having a +2 total.

But the problem with that is I don't find any evidence that nba.com is using different possession numbers for offense and defense for Net Rating. Plus some of the results have huge discrepancies which can't simply be explained by a few possession difference on offense/defense.