Luke Babbit has been great in his limited minutes for the Pelicans, but RPM tells us he has played below average. Look at data below

In just about any combination Luke helps a lot, so why is his RPM negative?

ESPN’s RPM has Bogut well above average. I just do not buy this.  Look at following

1. AI, Curry and Thompson on court with Bogut: 1174 minutes GSW plays 14 ppg better than average
2. AI, Curry, Thompson in Bogut out”" 512 min GSW plays at +23 level!
3. Curry Thompson in AI out Bogut in: 424 min GSW plays at +3 level
4. Curry Thompson in, AI and Bogut out GSW plays at +8 level

In the immortal words of Arnold of the Book of Mormon, I hope someone at ESPN will “Man Up” and explain how Bogut is above average (Our Adjusted + - has him below average)

RPM handed down from ESPN.com has DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin pretty close in ability. Our Adjusted +- has Griffin much better. Take a look below how the Clippers play per 48 minutes (adjusted for opponent strength) for combination of players involving these two.

For example. Griffin in and Jordan out Clips play at +12 but with Jordan in and Griffin out Clips play at only +4.  With Jordan out and CP3 in Clips play at +24 With CP3 in and Griffin out CLips play at +12. With Jordan out and Redick in Clips are much better than with Redick and Jordan both in. With Griffin out and Redick in Clips are much worse. So how are these two guys equal in the “Real” + -?

My colleague Jeff Sagarin and I have been doing Adjusted + -  since 2000. Therefore I was interested to see the “Real Plus-Minus appear last week. I don’t know  how the numbers are crunched but many don’t make any sense. Let’s take Hollins and Redick of the Clippers. On April 15 RPM has Hollins above average and  Redick below average. we have Redick way above average and Hollins way above average. Take a look below at how the Clippers have played (points per 48 better or worse than average ,adjusted for strength of opponent with) Redick and Hollins on and off the court with combination of other Clippers. Minutes are also listed. You can see Redick usually makes things better and Hollins usually makes things worse. Would love to see Dean Oliver post an explanation for why  the “real” numbers have Hollins better. I am waiting.

Here are ratings based on equal weight for all games.

Here are ratings with game 1 of season given weight of .5 current game weight of 1, with the weight increasing linearly till the current game.