BA and +/- are two new stats categories introduced by NBA.com in the boxscore. Kudos to them. Other major NBA stats sites like ESPN, SI, and Yahoo etc. don't have them yet. LOL @ the Kobe b****ing pic
They should add offensive fouls drawn. That would be far more interesting. I never understood why the NBA doesn't officially track charges in the boxscore.
If they keep track of offensive fouls drawn, they will need to sub-categorize personal fouls as well. Just like BS and BA, you have offensive fouls drawn and committed. But here is the thing. Unlike in BS and BA, where the sum of BS for one team equals the sum of BA of the other team, offensive fouls are not always caused by the charges taken by your opponents, i.e. # charges <= # offensive fouls committed . Let say Shaq bullies his way to the basket in the low post by slamming his shoulder into a defender, Shaq may be whistled for the offensive foul but the defender did not really take the charge.
I don't think it really matters if it's a classic drawn "charge" or not. If a player is drawing an offensive foul, no matter how its done, that helps the team and he should be credited for it somehow. And I think it would be a good idea to split up PF into defensive and offensive fouls, as well. How much his team outscored the other team while he was on the court.
Everyone begins the game at zero - because the score is even. If a player enters the game with his team down two and exits with his team up 6, then he gets a +8. There are some surprising results that I've seen from the first few days. Sorry for the self-link - but I don't feel like finding new examples: http://hoopsblogging.com/2007/11/01/does-plusminus-even-matter/
