Stats explained

Possession

A possession is simply one turn with the ball. It starts when a team gets the ball and ends when they score or the other team gets it back. A clean layup is one possession; so is a trip with five misses and five offensive rebounds before the ball finally goes in.

Grouping a game this way lets us answer one plain question: what does a team do each time it has the ball? It's one way of slicing a game, not the only one. Our shot charts, for example, only look at the shots and don't care about possessions.

We count possessions from the play-by-play instead of estimating them from the box score: Possessions, counted, not estimated.

Play and completed play

A play is one try at scoring inside a possession. It ends with a shot, a trip to the free-throw line, a foul drawn or a turnover. Grab an offensive rebound and a new play starts, in the same possession. Here are three possessions, split into their plays:

1. Possession 1 · Team AEnds: Team B gets the ball
   1. Play 1 Team A draws a foul away from the shot and keeps the ball.
   2. Play 2 Team A misses a three and grabs the offensive rebound. Completed play
   3. Play 3 Team A misses a two. Team B grabs the defensive rebound. Completed play
2. Possession 2 · Team BEnds: Team B scores
   1. Play 1 Team B makes a two, is fouled on the shot and makes the free throw. Completed play
3. Possession 3 · Team AEnds: Team B gets the ball
   1. Play 1 Team A loses the ball: a turnover. Completed play

Three possessions, five plays, four of them completed.

We also count completed plays: only the plays that end with a shot attempt (free throws included) or a turnover. A foul drawn away from the shot is a play, but not a completed one: Team A's first possession has three plays, two of them completed. Usage and turnover percentage are built on completed plays.

ORTG, DRTG and NETRTG

Offensive, defensive and net rating

Points scored and allowed per 100 possessions, and the difference between the two. On a player's page they are the team's numbers while that player is on the floor.

ORTG = 100 × points scored / possessions

DRTG = 100 × points allowed / possessions

NETRTG = ORTG − DRTG

Why per possession? Points per game go up in overtime and in fast games, and shooting percentages leave out offensive rebounds and turnovers. A rating asks one simple question: how many points does a team score each time it has the ball? It doesn't matter how they got them. See them for every team in the league charts.

Percentile

A quick bit of maths, not basketball. Line up every player of the league this season by one stat, from the lowest number to the highest. A player's percentile is the share of players at or below them: 80 means that 80% of the league has the same number or a lower one.

Higher doesn't always mean better: a high usage rate only says the player finishes many of the team's completed plays. In our 3Steps ratings, where a lower number is the good one (like the opponents' points), we flip the order, so there a higher rating is always better. They add up the percentiles of their parts, then take the percentile of the total.

Overall player rating

The player's headline number, in the middle of the percentile profile. It adds up the player's percentiles in scoring, shooting efficiency, teamwork, defense, ball handling and rebounding; rebounding counts half.

3Steps rating = percentile(PPG + TS% + MTW + MTD + BH + ½ × TRB)

Every term inside is a percentile.

Mixed teamwork

How much better the team does with the player on the floor. It mixes four views of the same idea:

• On-off: the team's point margin with the player on the floor, minus the margin with the player off, over the season
• The same on-off, per game
• The games in which the team outscored the opponent during the player's minutes
• The share of games in which it did

MTW = percentile(sum of the four percentiles)

Ball handling

How well a player takes care of the ball and sets up teammates.

BH = percentile(2 × AST − TOV), per game

An assist is worth about two points to the team, a turnover costs about one, so assists count double. We don't use the assist-to-turnover ratio: it hides how often a player passes, and it breaks for a player with no turnovers.

Mixed team defense

Defense as a team and on your own. It mixes two percentiles:

• Team: the opponents' points per possession while the player is on the floor (fewer is better)
• Individual: steals, blocks and defensive rebounds per game

MTD = percentile(team percentile + individual percentile)

Total rebounding

Rebounds per game, plus the share of the available rebounds the player grabs at both ends. The first rewards volume, the other two reward a player who rebounds well in fewer minutes.

TRB = percentile(RPG + OREB% + DREB%)

PPG

Points per game

The player's average points per game. The Scoring rating on a player's page is the PPG percentile.

RPG

Rebounds per game

The player's average rebounds per game, offensive and defensive.

eFG%

Effective field goal percentage

Field goal percentage that gives a made three its extra point: a three is worth one and a half twos.

eFG% = 100 × (FGM + 0.5 × 3FGM) / FGA

How it compares with TS%, step by step: eFG% and TS%: points per attempt.

TS%

True shooting percentage

Scoring efficiency, free throws included. Scoring attempts are the field goal attempts plus the trips to the free-throw line, counted from the play-by-play instead of estimated: True shooting, counted, not estimated.

TS% = 100 × PTS / (2 × scoring attempts)

AST%

Assist percentage

The share of the teammates' made field goals the player assisted while on the floor.

AST% = 100 × AST / (team FGM − player FGM)

Team FGM counts only the player's minutes on the floor.

pAST

Points assisted

The points scored from the player's assists.

TOV%

Turnover percentage

Turnovers per 100 of the player's completed plays (scoring attempts and turnovers). Lower is better.

TOV% = 100 × TOV / (scoring attempts + TOV)

OREB%

Offensive rebound percentage

The share of the available offensive rebounds the player grabbed while on the floor.

OREB% = 100 × OREB / (team OREB + opponents' DREB)

Team and opponents' rebounds count only the player's minutes on the floor.

DREB%

Defensive rebound percentage

The share of the available defensive rebounds the player grabbed while on the floor.

DREB% = 100 × DREB / (team DREB + opponents' OREB)

Team and opponents' rebounds count only the player's minutes on the floor.

USG%

Usage rate

The share of the team's completed plays that ended in the player's hands, with a scoring attempt or a turnover, while the player was on the floor.

USG% = 100 × (scoring attempts + TOV) / (team scoring attempts + team TOV)

Pace

Possessions per team in a full game: 40 minutes in Europe, 48 in the NBA. The higher the pace, the more chances both teams get.

Team rating

The stamp on a team's page. It ranks the teams of the league by their record and their average point margin; one win more than losses counts as much as 10 points of margin.

Team rating = percentile(10 × (W − L) + PPG − opponents' PPG)

Team AST%

The share of the team's made field goals that came from an assist.

AST% = 100 × AST / FGM

Team TOV%

Turnovers per 100 possessions. Lower is better.

TOV% = 100 × TOV / possessions

Roster roles

A team's page groups the roster by what each player does best. Each player gets one role, and each role goes to up to two players: those in the league's top 10% for it, or down to the top 20% when the team has fewer.

Best players

The team's two highest 3Steps ratings.

Floor chief

Ball handling (BH).

Shooting good

Made threes per game.

Easy baskets

Made twos, with the misses counted against: 4 × 2FGM − 2FGA.

Defense first

Defense (MTD).

Team first

Teamwork (MTW).

Bench

The fewest minutes: the league's bottom 10%, or down to the bottom 20%.

Crew

Everyone else: rotation players with no standout area.