About True Shooting Percentage (TS%)
True Shooting Percentage is a basketball efficiency statistic that measures how many points a player produces per scoring attempt while accounting for the different values of two-pointers, three-pointers, and free throws. Unlike raw field goal percentage, TS% rewards a player for the extra point on a made three and for getting to the free throw line, so it gives a fairer single-number picture of scoring efficiency.
The formula
TS% = PTS / (2 × (FGA + 0.44 × FTA))
- PTS — total points scored (from field goals and free throws combined).
- FGA — field goal attempts, counting both 2-point and 3-point tries. Free throws are not field goals and are excluded here.
- FTA — free throw attempts.
- The denominator estimates the number of scoring possessions used. Multiplying by 2 sets a "100% TS" baseline at 2 points per possession, so a value like 0.60 means the player scored at 120% of that baseline.
Why the 0.44 free throw factor
Not every free throw attempt uses a full possession. Most shooting fouls send a player to the line for two shots, but and-1 plays and technical fouls give only one shot, three-shot fouls give three, and free throws that follow a made basket don't end the possession that produced them. Analysts studying NBA play-by-play data settled on 0.44 as the multiplier that best converts free throw attempts into an estimate of true possessions, which is why it replaced the older, simpler 0.5.
Common reference points
- A league-average NBA season sits around 0.560–0.580 TS%.
- 0.60+ is very good, and elite scorers and efficient big men often reach 0.63–0.70.
- Below ~0.50 indicates inefficient scoring for a modern perimeter player.
- A perfect free-throw-only line (all points from the line) approaches but never reaches high efficiency because free throws still consume 0.44 possessions each; a pure dunk line (2 points on 1 FGA, 0 FTA) is exactly 1.000, or 100%.