What Does The Term "Empty Stats" Mean In Basketball?

Baseball was one of the sports that wholeheartedly adopted statistical analysis into the pros, and basketball followed suit. Everyone can see this in the media's coverage of professional basketball tournament, like the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Indicators like effective field goal percentage, plus/minus, player efficiency rating are being used to compare players to each other. Players performed at high levels to show everyone that they are important and not just an icon of "empty stats". Focusing on the last point, what exactly does it mean to have empty stats? To take it one step further, what do statistics in basketball really mean?

In sports, "empty stats" is loosely defined as statistical achievements or numbers that do not accurately reflect a player's true impact or value to their team. These are statistics that may look impressive on paper, but do not translate to meaningful contributions to winning games.

Some examples of empty stats include:

• High scoring totals on a losing team - A player may score a lot of points, but if their team consistently loses, those scoring numbers don't necessarily help the team win.
• Inflated rebounding or assist numbers - A player may rack up a lot of rebounds or assists, but if those stats are not accompanied by winning games, they don't carry as much weight.
• Impressive individual stats in blowout losses - A player may put up big numbers in games where their team is getting blown out, but those stats are less meaningful than if they occurred in close, competitive games.

The key idea behind empty stats is that raw numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Stats need to be considered in the context of a player's overall impact on winning and losing. Empty stats are often seen as superficial accomplishments that do not truly reflect a player's value to their team.

Let us take the NBA for instance. When Demar DeRozan was on the Raptors, he was considered an empty stat player. His numbers were above average and he was a phenomenal mid range player, but everything he did on that team meant nothing with the losses.

Fans started looking at his numbers and realized that the stats he was getting was not as appealing as it seemed because of one thing, the team record.

This is why the term is a dead end. It is based on team record. Even when Carmelo Anthony was playing with the Knicks, he started being labeled an empty stat player because his numbers just didn’t matter, the team was horrible. Look at him when he joined the Blazers later in his career.

When you have players like this but on a winning team, they are considered as role players or even mid-level stars.

Another example is Arvin Tolentino in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). He is an exceptional basketball player for the NorthPort Batang Pier. He even scored a new career-high of 51 points in a 135–109 victory against the Converge FiberXers last 29 August 2024 to become the first local player since 2018 to have scored 50 or more points in a PBA game.

When he was with Barangay Ginebra, suddenly his numbers don’t mean a thing. It is highly doubtful that he can score more than 30 points in a game if he was not traded to NorthPort. He may not even get a starting position because he will be one of the role players supporting Scottie Thompson, Stephen Holt and Japeth Aguilar. This is what people have given the term "Empty Stat" to. It’s the fans being fans. Of course fans will point out the negatives above the positives, it’s what they do.

The next time you hear someone say "he’s an empty stat player" they are really acknowledging the fact that he isn’t bad but rostered on a bad team even though they really want to mean that the player isn’t as good as their favorite player.