Stat Sat – The statistics you should be using to evaluate your basketball game. Today’s stat is True Shooting Percentage.
True Shooting Percentage is meant to account for how well a player or team shoots when considering the difficulty of the shot attempted and all the shots attempted including field goals, 3-point field goals and free throws. Typically you will see some type of modifier to indicate difficulty. John Hollinger from ESPN includes a modifier for free throws when calculating the statistic. Basketball-Reference does not include a modifier but does include all of the shots attempted.
Basketball-Reference True Shooting Percentage Formula:
True Shooting Percentage = Total Points / (2 * Total Shot Attempts)
John Hollinger from ESPN True Shooting Percentage Formula:
True Shooting Percentage = Total points / [(Field Goal Attempts + (0.44 x Free Throws Attempts)]
The true shooting percentage is a cool stat because it accounts for the difficulty of shots attempted by a player. When you look at the leaders in the NBA last year right at the top were the Spurs and the Heat. The two teams that played in the finals. So what can you infer about this number?
1) It tells us about the teams that take and make good shots for them. 8 of the teams in the top 10 are also in the top 10 in points per game. Essentially they are putting their players in the right position to be able to score.
2) Also by including Free Throws it tells you if your shots from the stripe are an asset or a liability. If it is a liability then finding a way to improve free throw shooting would be a good idea.
Points per game
Por, LAC, Min, hou, OKC, PHX, Dallas, Mia, San, Mia
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/team/_/stat/offense-per-game
True Shooting %
Mia, San, Hou, Dal, OKC, LAC, ATL, PHX, Por, GS
All of these teams are playoff bound as of today as well, which tells us that they are also winning games. Winning is the ultimate measure and it is clear these teams are getting Ws by taking and making the right shots. When it comes to evaluating your team it is important to know whether you are putting people in the position to score. True Shooting Percentage indicates if your team is in the right position.
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Coach Thomas Wilkins
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