True shooting percentage calculator
Turn a shooting line into TS%, eFG% and points per shot, so threes and free throws count for what they are worth.
Threes made are already part of field goals made, as in a box score.
Example: Stephen Curry, 2015-16 regular season (Basketball-Reference).
Field goal percentage treats a three and a two as the same made basket and ignores free throws entirely, which makes it a poor tool for comparing a spot-up shooter with a post player who lives at the line. True shooting fixes that by turning every shooting possession into points per shot. All that is needed is five counts from a box score or a season total: field goals made and attempted, threes made, and free throws made and attempted.
What is true shooting percentage?
True shooting percentage (TS%) is points divided by twice the number of shots a player used, where a shot is a field goal attempt or about 0.44 of a free throw attempt: TS% = PTS ÷ (2 × (FGA + 0.44 × FTA)). It is the one shooting percentage that credits threes and free throws, so two players with different shot mixes can be compared on the same scale. The definition is from the Basketball-Reference glossary.
What is the difference between FG%, eFG% and TS%?
FG% counts every made basket the same. Effective field goal percentage adds half a made field goal for each three: eFG% = (FG + 0.5 × 3P) ÷ FGA, which says what a two-point shooter would need to shoot to score as many points. TS% goes one step further and brings in free throws. In the example below the same season is 50.4% FG%, 63.0% eFG% and 66.9% TS%. With no threes and no free throws all three are the same: 50.0% FG, 50.0% eFG and 50.0% TS.
Where does the 0.44 come from?
The Basketball-Reference glossary gives 0.44 inside the formula for true shooting attempts and does not explain it. Our reading, not a quote from the glossary: a free throw attempt does not always use up a possession, because a made basket plus the foul often ends in one free throw, and a two-shot trip often ends the possession on its last attempt, so a full attempt would overcount. 0.44 is an average weight, and a particular player's real share can differ a little from it.
What is a good true shooting percentage?
It depends on the league and the season, and we do not store league averages here because they change every year and would need a citation with a season. Look up the league average for the season on Basketball-Reference's league pages and compare against that. As a general check on how the stat behaves: a player who makes half of ten two-point shots has a TS% of 50%, and one who makes four of ten threes has 60.0%, the same points per shot as a 60% two-point shooter.
Can true shooting percentage be above 100%?
Yes. If every attempt were a made three, TS% would be 150.0% (3 points per shot ÷ 2). A player who only shoots free throws and makes all of them gets 113.6%, because each attempt is weighted at only 0.44 of a shot. Such numbers happen over small samples; over a full season they are far lower.
How do I get points from a box score line?
Points = 2 × field goals made + 3-pointers made + free throws made. The 3-pointers are counted in field goals made once, and the extra point for each three is added by the 3P term. So 5 field goals of which 2 were threes, plus 3 free throws, is 2 × 5 + 2 + 3 = 15 points. The calculator does this for you from the five counts; it does not need a points field.
Worked example: Stephen Curry, 2015-16
Curry made 805 of 1,598 field goals, 402 threes, and 363 of 400 free throws. Points: 2 × 805 + 402 + 363 = 2,375. True shooting attempts: 1,598 + 0.44 × 400 = 1,774. TS% = 2,375 ÷ (2 × 1,774) = 66.9%. Effective field goal percentage: (805 + 0.5 × 402) ÷ 1,598 = 63.0%. His plain field goal percentage was 50.4%, so the gap between FG% and TS% is the value of his threes and free throws. Basketball-Reference lists the same season as .630 eFG% and .669 TS%. He scored 1.49 points per field goal attempt, and 1.34 per true shooting attempt.
Limits of the stat
No context. TS% says nothing about difficulty: a catch-and-shoot player on a team of passers and a creator who takes every contested late-clock shot can post the same number. No volume. A 70% TS% on 20 shots a season is not comparable with 60% on 1,500; compare shooters of similar usage. Only shooting. Turnovers, offensive rebounds and assists that make shots for others are not in it, so it is not a rating of overall impact. Era effects. The glossary lists threes in the NBA from the 1979-80 season, so for earlier seasons eFG% is simply FG%. The 0.44 is an average, so TS% for one game can be off slightly.
See also the baseball stats calculator, the passer rating calculator and the average calculator.
Sources: Basketball-Reference, “Glossary” (definitions of Effective Field Goal Percentage, True Shooting Percentage and True Shooting Attempts, including the 0.44 weight and the 1979-80 three-point note), and Stephen Curry’s player page for the 2015-16 totals. Points per shot figures and the maximum values are our arithmetic from those definitions. How we check our calculators.