And why do I see it all over the place now, especially nba.com. Thanks stat nerds in advance.
NBA.com/stats has developed a new rating called the Player Impact Estimate, or PIE, that calculates a player’s impact on each individual game they play. Because the formula accounts for a player’s influence relative to each specific game, it eliminates statistical biases created by league, style of play or even era.
And now, thanks to PIE, we can make a definitive link between Catchings and James.
The PIE formula compiles everything a single player does in a game -- points scored, rebounds, blocks, missed free throws etc. -- and weighs that number against the same stats generated by everyone in that same game. For the mathematically-minded, the individual player’s stats are the numerator (top) of this equation and the cumulative stats of everyone in the game are the denominator (bottom). The formula then computes a percent value for each player which gives us, in laymen’s terms, the percentage of positive things attributable to that player in that game. Below is the PIE equation.