Dolphin Ratings - Women's National Basketball Association

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and its ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Expected Losses For college teams, this number is the number of losses an average ranked (top 15 hockey; otherwise top 25) team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. For pro teams, this is the number of losses an average team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. Unlike the schedule ranking, this value can be used to rank schedules.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.

In order to increase early-season stability, the three main rankings, the improved RPI, and the college pseudopoll include priors based on the previous season final predictive ratings and occasionally incorporating preseason predictions of various major publications. The other rankings for college sports do not include priors, and thus can be wildly unstable early in the year. A team whose rankings are affected by this prior is noted with a P following its rankings.

Full Ranking

                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
PHOENIX     30 15 4181 3997 -0.008 22.095    1  0.144    1  0.120    1  0.104    1 0.5380    1  3.907    1  1.599   13 -1.392
INDIANA     28 16 3448 3353  0.020 22.244    2  0.114    2  0.103    3  0.040    2 0.5343   10  3.510   10 -0.257    4  0.337
SEATTLE     21 16 2746 2695 -0.010 18.385    3  0.037    3  0.033    6  0.004    3 0.5134   13  3.416   13 -0.669    1  0.678
DETROIT     21 18 3054 3019  0.016 19.834    4  0.027    4  0.020    4  0.037    4 0.5109    7  3.551    5 -0.091    5  0.165
LOS ANGELES 21 19 3019 2972  0.035 20.534    5  0.024    5  0.016    2  0.048    5 0.5093   12  3.465   11 -0.432    2  0.528
ATLANTA     18 18 3026 2987 -0.011 17.935    6 -0.001    6 -0.018    5  0.008    6 0.4979    2  3.714    2  0.589   12 -0.572
CONNECTICUT 16 18 2651 2654 -0.008 17.091    7 -0.016    8 -0.033    7 -0.030    7 0.4918    6  3.555    7 -0.140    7  0.081
CHICAGO     16 18 2573 2690 -0.015 17.373    8 -0.019    7 -0.030   12 -0.076    8 0.4915    4  3.587    4 -0.053   10 -0.099
WASHINGTON  16 20 2738 2791 -0.007 18.265    9 -0.030    9 -0.049   11 -0.056    9 0.4871    8  3.549    8 -0.190    8  0.078
SAN ANTONIO 16 21 2877 2958  0.020 19.238   10 -0.034   10 -0.054   10 -0.052   10 0.4868    9  3.547    9 -0.195    6  0.091
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
MINNESOTA   14 20 2733 2827 -0.009 17.384   11 -0.054   11 -0.069   13 -0.092   11 0.4785    3  3.673    3  0.306   11 -0.489
NEW YORK    13 21 2512 2535 -0.025 16.942   12 -0.085   12 -0.097    8 -0.030   12 0.4704   11  3.469   12 -0.492    3  0.432
SACRAMENTO  12 22 2601 2681 -0.010 17.331   13 -0.105   13 -0.110    9 -0.049   13 0.4653    5  3.567    6 -0.111    9  0.012

WESTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
PHOENIX     30 15 4181 3997 -0.008 22.095    1  0.144    1  0.120    1  0.104    1 0.5380    1  3.907    1  1.599   13 -1.392
SEATTLE     21 16 2746 2695 -0.010 18.385    3  0.037    3  0.033    6  0.004    3 0.5134   13  3.416   13 -0.669    1  0.678
LOS ANGELES 21 19 3019 2972  0.035 20.534    5  0.024    5  0.016    2  0.048    5 0.5093   12  3.465   11 -0.432    2  0.528
SAN ANTONIO 16 21 2877 2958  0.020 19.238   10 -0.034   10 -0.054   10 -0.052   10 0.4868    9  3.547    9 -0.195    6  0.091
MINNESOTA   14 20 2733 2827 -0.009 17.384   11 -0.054   11 -0.069   13 -0.092   11 0.4785    3  3.673    3  0.306   11 -0.489
SACRAMENTO  12 22 2601 2681 -0.010 17.331   13 -0.105   13 -0.110    9 -0.049   13 0.4653    5  3.567    6 -0.111    9  0.012

EASTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
INDIANA     28 16 3448 3353  0.020 22.244    2  0.114    2  0.103    3  0.040    2 0.5343   10  3.510   10 -0.257    4  0.337
DETROIT     21 18 3054 3019  0.016 19.834    4  0.027    4  0.020    4  0.037    4 0.5109    7  3.551    5 -0.091    5  0.165
ATLANTA     18 18 3026 2987 -0.011 17.935    6 -0.001    6 -0.018    5  0.008    6 0.4979    2  3.714    2  0.589   12 -0.572
CONNECTICUT 16 18 2651 2654 -0.008 17.091    7 -0.016    8 -0.033    7 -0.030    7 0.4918    6  3.555    7 -0.140    7  0.081
CHICAGO     16 18 2573 2690 -0.015 17.373    8 -0.019    7 -0.030   12 -0.076    8 0.4915    4  3.587    4 -0.053   10 -0.099
WASHINGTON  16 20 2738 2791 -0.007 18.265    9 -0.030    9 -0.049   11 -0.056    9 0.4871    8  3.549    8 -0.190    8  0.078
NEW YORK    13 21 2512 2535 -0.025 16.942   12 -0.085   12 -0.097    8 -0.030   12 0.4704   11  3.469   12 -0.492    3  0.432

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 114 113 0.502    1 -0.009
EASTERN CONFERENCE 128 129 0.498    2 -0.021

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.349 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.035 points in improved RPI (0.023 for semineutral)
Average of 2.15 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Sat Jan  4 12:47:17 2020
games through: Fri Oct  9 2009

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.