Per 40 Minutes

One core tenet of APBRmetrics is that per-minute statistics are more useful for evaluating players than per-game statistics. From John Hollinger's Pro Basketball Forecast:

"It's a pretty simple concept, but one that has largely escaped most NBA front offices: The idea that what a player does on a per-minute basis is far more important than his per-game stats. The latter tend to be influenced more by playing time than by quality of play, yet remain the most common metric of player performance."

Hollinger's assertion has been borne out by the fact that, in most cases, players who receive increases in playing time continue to play with the same effectiveness that they did in fewer minutes. To wit: based on their per-minute numbers, Hollinger accurately projected Michael Redd and Zach Randolph (among others) to become stars when they finally received significant minutes from their teams.

Points/40 Minutes is by far the most significant Per-40 stat, as it is the truest measure of pure scoring ability. While Rebounds/40 and Assists/40 are still better than their per-game cousins, Rebound Rate and Assist Ratio have proven to be better metrics.

Any per-40-minute statistic (e.g., assists) is simply calculated by taking the category in question, dividing by minutes played, and multiplying by 40.

Glossary

• P/40 - Points per 40 minutes

• R/40 - Rebounds per 40 minutes

• A/40 - Assists per 40 minutes

• B/40 - Blocks per 40 minutes

• TO/40 - Turnovers per 40 minutes

• SB/40 - (Steals + Blocks) per 40 minutes