The Plus/Minus determines how well the team performs when an individual player is on the court. It is determined by calculating the difference in the score when the player enters the game and when he comes out. Since players freely come in and out of the game, all of the differences during the period are added over the entirety of the game.

As a benchmark, most players have a plus/minus between -10 and +10 in a given game. Over an entire season against varied competition, the league leaders are generally in the +7 to +10 range. Meanwhile, the lowest impact players who hurt their team‘s performance can have totals around -5 or worse.