APEX (Advanced Plus-Minus Experience) measures how much a player actually moves the scoreboard — adjusted for teammates, opponents, game leverage, and recency.
Most advanced stats either hide their methodology or rely heavily on box-score inputs that miss half the game. APEX takes a different approach:
No box-score shortcuts. APEX uses only on-court stint data — who was playing and what happened to the score.
See every adjustment step: raw +/-, leverage, recency, and teammate/opponent effects. Nothing hidden.
Ratings recalculate every morning during the season with the latest game data.
Raw plus-minus can't answer that question. Role players on great teams look like superstars, and stars on bad teams look average. APEX isolates individual impact from context by adjusting for every teammate and opponent sharing the court.
APEX starts with raw plus-minus data and applies three adjustments to isolate true player value:
Points scored minus points allowed, per 36 minutes
Normalizes for playing time so starters and bench players can be compared fairly.
Close games count more
A +10 in a 2-point game matters more than a +10 in a 30-point blowout. APEX weights every possession by how much the game outcome was still in doubt — rewarding clutch play over garbage-time stats.
Current form weighted over historical peaks
A player's 2025 performance tells us more about their ability today than their 2018 numbers. APEX applies per-player recency weighting so recent seasons count more.
Isolating individual impact from lineup context
The core of APEX. Using an iterative solver across every lineup combination in the dataset, APEX mathematically separates each player's contribution from their teammates and opponents. That Warriors bench player's +8.0? Their true impact is closer to +1.5.
True individual impact per 36 minutes
Positive means the player helps their team outscore opponents. Negative means the opposite. The higher the number, the greater the impact.
Tier cutoffs are computed dynamically from 325 qualified active players with 2,000+ career minutes. Players with fewer than 2,000 minutes at a given position render in italic gray as — shown for context but not ranked alongside qualified players.
Box scores miss defense and reward volume over efficiency. A player can score 25 points while hurting their team overall.
PER is box-score based and heavily favors usage. It can't capture defense, spacing, or off-ball contributions.
Raw +/- is plagued by lineup noise. APEX removes that noise by controlling for every teammate and opponent.
These metrics blend box-score priors into their models. APEX uses pure stint-level data with leverage and recency adjustments — no box-score shortcuts.
What data does APEX use?
Stint-level data from every regular season game since 2003-04 — over 20 years of play-by-play data, millions of possessions, and thousands of unique lineup combinations. Players are tracked at each position they've played.
How often is it updated?
Daily. The pipeline runs every morning during the season, collecting new game data and recalculating all ratings.
What's the difference between “By Position” and “Per Player”?
“By Position” shows a player's APEX at each position they've played (e.g., Draymond Green at F vs. C). “Per Player” shows a single minutes-weighted career rating using only positions where the player has 2,000+ minutes. If no position meets this threshold, only the highest-minutes position is used.
How does APEX differ from EPM, LEBRON, or RAPTOR?
Those metrics incorporate box-score priors into their models. APEX focuses purely on stint-level plus-minus with leverage weighting and per-player recency adjustments — making it more reactive to current performance while keeping the methodology fully transparent.
Explore every player's APEX rating for free. Upgrade to Pro for the full bridge-metric breakdown showing each adjustment step.
