True Shooting Percentage, Explained
After reading this you can turn any box score line into true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage and per-36-minute stats, and you will know exactly what each number does and does not tell you.
What true shooting percentage measures
Raw field goal percentage treats every made shot the same and ignores free throws. That is a problem. A player who shoots 9 of 19 from the field looks like a 47.4% shooter, but if three of those makes were threes and he also hit six free throws, he scored far more points per attempt than the raw number suggests.
True shooting percentage (TS%) fixes this by asking a single question: how many points did you score per scoring possession, counting free throws as fractional possessions? A league-average NBA player sits near 57% true shooting. Anything above 60% is excellent, and elite high-volume scorers occasionally reach the mid-60s.
The hook: two players each score 27 points. One takes 19 shots and 7 free throws. The other takes 27 shots and no free throws. Their raw scoring is identical, but their efficiency is not close. TS% is the number that separates them.
When to use it, and when not to
Use TS% to compare scoring efficiency across players with different shot profiles: a slasher who lives at the line versus a spot-up three-point shooter. It rewards both fairly. Use effective field goal percentage (eFG%) when you want to grade shot selection from the floor alone, ignoring free throws.
Do not use either one to judge a player on a handful of attempts. Over 5 shots, a single make swings your eFG% by 10 to 20 points. These metrics stabilize over dozens of attempts, not a quarter of play.
TS% and eFG% say nothing about defense, playmaking or turnovers. A 65% true shooter who never passes and fouls constantly is not automatically a good player. Read these numbers as one column in a wider table.
The formulas and the intuition behind them
True shooting percentage is total points divided by two times the estimated number of scoring possessions:
Here PTS is total points, FGA is field goals attempted, and FTA is free throws attempted. The 0.44 converts free throw attempts into an estimate of the possessions they used. A trip to the line is usually two shots, so a naive factor would be 0.5. But and-ones (one shot after a make), technical free throws and three-shot fouls pull the average trip below two shots per possession, and league data lands the factor near 0.44.
The 2\times in the denominator scales the result so that scoring exactly two points per possession gives 100%. That is why TS% can exceed 100% in theory (imagine hitting only threes with no misses), though in practice it never does over real volume.
Effective field goal percentage credits a made three as 1.5 made twos, because it is worth 3 points instead of 2:
FGM is field goals made and 3PM is three-pointers made. The 0.5 \times 3PM term adds half a make for each three, which is exactly the extra 50% of value a three carries over a two.
A worked example with the demo line
27 points on 9-of-19 shooting
Use the demo data: 27 points, 9 field goals made, 19 attempted, 3 threes, 7 free throw attempts, 34 minutes, 7 rebounds, 5 assists.
- Estimate scoring possessions: FGA + 0.44 \times FTA = 19 + 0.44 \times 7 = 19 + 3.08 = 22.08.
- Double it: 2 \times 22.08 = 44.16.
- Divide points by that total: 27 / 44.16 = 0.6114, so TS% is
61.1%. - For eFG%, credit the threes: FGM + 0.5 \times 3PM = 9 + 0.5 \times 3 = 10.5.
- Divide by attempts: 10.5 / 19 = 0.5526, so eFG% is
55.3%.
Compare that to plain field goal percentage of 9 / 19 = 47.4\%. The player looks below average on the raw number and clearly above average once you account for the threes and free throws.
Per-36-minute projections
Counting stats depend on playing time, so comparing a starter's 34 minutes to a reserve's 18 is unfair. Per-36 rescales everything to a common 36-minute baseline:
For the demo line at 34 minutes, the multiplier is 36 / 34 = 1.0588. Points become 27 \times 1.0588 = 28.6, rebounds become 7 \times 1.0588 = 7.4, and assists become 5 \times 1.0588 = 5.3.
Per-36 assumes a player would keep producing at the same rate if given more minutes. That flatters bench players, whose bursts against tired second units rarely hold up over a full workload. Treat a 12-minute player's per-36 line as a ceiling, not a forecast.
Reading and interpreting the results
Anchor your reading with a few reference points. The table below shows rough NBA benchmarks for guards and wings over a full season.
| Tier | TS% | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Poor | Below 52% | Below replacement on offense |
| Average | 56 to 58% | Around league mean |
| Good | 59 to 61% | Clearly positive scorer |
| Elite | 62% and up | Star-level efficiency |
The demo player at 61.1% lands in the good tier. The gap between eFG% (55.3%) and TS% (61.1%) tells you free throws did meaningful work: a 5.8-point lift. When those two numbers sit close together, the player scores mostly from the field. When TS% runs well above eFG%, the player earns and hits free throws.
Common mistakes
The errors below distort the numbers more than people expect.
- Counting threes inside twos, then again
- Field goals made already includes threes. Do not add threes to FGM. The eFG% formula adds only 0.5 \times 3PM, the bonus half-make, not the whole thing.
- Using free throws made instead of attempted
- TS% uses free throws attempted in the possession estimate, because a missed free throw still consumes part of a possession. Points already reflect the makes.
- Dropping the 0.44 factor
- Using 0.5 instead of 0.44 inflates the denominator and understates TS%. For the demo line, 0.5 gives 27 / (2 \times 22.5) = 60.0\% instead of 61.1%, a 1.1-point difference.
- Trusting tiny samples
- One game of
5attempts tells you almost nothing. Wait for 100-plus attempts before treating a TS% as real.
See how free throws move the number
The single most instructive lever in TS% is free throw volume. Hold points and field goal attempts fixed, then watch how drawing more fouls raises efficiency because free throws are cheaper possessions than field goals.
Related tools
If you grade players with rate stats, these companions cover other sports. For team-level win projection from points scored and allowed, use the Pythagorean Expectation Calculator, which supports an NBA exponent. Baseball hitters get the same efficiency treatment in the Batting Average & OPS Calculator, and pitchers in the ERA & WHIP Calculator. For a football rate stat built from raw counts much like TS%, see the Passer Rating Calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the free throw factor 0.44 and not 0.5?
A standard shooting foul gives two shots, which would be 0.5 possessions per attempt. But and-ones (one bonus shot), technical fouls and three-shot fouls change the mix. Averaging real play across a league lands the factor near 0.44. It is an estimate, not an exact constant.
Can true shooting percentage go above 100%?
In principle yes, if a player scored more than 2 points per possession, for example by only hitting threes with zero misses and no free throws. Over any real volume it never happens. Single-game figures above 80% are already rare.
What is the difference between eFG% and TS%?
eFG% grades only field goals and credits threes their extra value. TS% adds free throws into the picture. A player who draws many fouls will have a TS% well above his eFG%, as in the demo line where the gap is 5.8 points.
Do per-36 numbers predict what a player would do with more minutes?
No. They only rescale current production to a 36-minute baseline. A player who thrives in 15 minutes against reserves will usually not sustain that rate across 36 minutes against starters, so read per-36 as a comparison tool, not a projection.
Should I use makes or attempts for free throws in TS%?
Attempts. The possession estimate 0.44 \times FTA counts trips to the line whether or not the shots fall, while the makes are already inside the points total in the numerator.
Related tools
Darts Checkout Calculator
Best checkout routes for any score from 2 to 170, finishing on a double.
Golf Handicap Calculator (WHS)
World Handicap System index from your last rounds, plus course handicap.
Batting Average & OPS Calculator
AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS from a baseball batting line.
Bowling Score Calculator
Ten-pin score from frame notation with strikes, spares and the tenth frame.
Cricket Run Rate Calculator
Current and required run rate, projected score and the chase equation.
Decathlon & Heptathlon Points Calculator
World Athletics combined-events points from your marks in all ten (or seven) events.