RAPTOR, a new statistical plus-minus method developed by FiveThirtyEight, tries to reflect how NBA players are evaluated by the front-offices in the era of player tracking.
CARMELO was the 538’s first projection system, which has been replaced with RAPTOR. RAPTOR takes qualities such as height, age and draft position, awards given by the association into account.
RAPTOR stands for “Robust Algorithm (using) Player Tracking (and) On/Off Ratings” and measures the number of points a player contributes to team offense and team defense per 100 possessions, relative to a league-average player.
IE – a player with an “Offensive RAPTOR Rating” of +1.5 would mean: He improves his team’s offense by 1.5 points per 100 offensive possessions while he is on the floor.
A player with a “Defensive RAPTOR Rating” of +2.4 would mean: He improves his team’s defense by 2.4 points per 100 possessions while he is on the court.