True Shooting Percentage Calculator
True Shooting Percentage Calculator
True shooting percentage in basketball — points over twice the true shooting attempts, where a free throw counts 0.44 of an attempt. Why it beats field goal percentage, and where the 0.44 comes from.
True shooting percentage from points and attempts
Points ÷ 2 × true shooting attemptsThe NBA’s 2023-24 league average per game: 114.2 points from 88.9 field goal attempts and 21.7 free throw attempts
Formula, and where every number in it comes from
True shooting percentage = PTS ÷ (2 × TSA) × 100
- the published definition
- the NBA’s own stats glossary gives “Points/ [2*(Field Goals Attempted+0.44*Free Throws Attempted)]”, and Basketball-Reference’s “PTS / (2 * TSA)” with TSA as “FGA + 0.44 * FTA”. The two agree exactly, worth saying because they do not agree about the possession estimate
- why the 2 is there
- to put the answer on the scale of a field goal percentage. A two-point basket is two points from one attempt, so dividing points by twice the attempts gives 100% for one who makes every two — and 150% for one who makes every three, which is correct rather than a bug
- why 0.44 and not 1
- because a free throw attempt is not a possession. The value is a fit to how often a free throw is a possession’s last event, attributed to Kubatko and colleagues on 2003-06 NBA data; the paragraphs below set out the four other published values and what choosing between them costs
- what it does not contain
- turnovers, rebounds, fouls, defence, or who created the shot. For the version that ignores free throws entirely, see the effective field goal percentage calculator
Worked example
The NBA's 2023-24 league average per game: 114.2 points from 88.9 field goal attempts and 21.7 free throw attempts
True shooting attempts: 88.9 + 0.44 × 21.7 = 98.45, so 114.2 ÷ (2 × 98.45) = 58.0%, or 1.160 points per true shooting attempt
At 0.40 the same line gives 58.5% and at 0.475 it gives 57.6% — the coefficient alone is worth 0.96 percentage points. At 0.5 it falls to 57.2%, the check that this page's 0.44 is the published value and has not been rounded by a later edit
The same line has an effective field goal percentage of 54.7% and a plain field goal percentage of 47.5%. All three are correct and measure different things
Double all three inputs and the answer does not move, because it is a rate; set them all to 0 and the panel shows nothing, because a percentage with no attempts does not exist
The same NBA 2023-24 league-average line, three ways
| Figure | Value | Its denominator | What it misses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Field goal percentage | 47.5% | Field goal attempts; every make counts 1 | That a three is worth more than a two, and free throws entirely |
| Effective field goal percentage | 54.7% | Field goal attempts; a made three counts 1.5 | Free throws entirely |
| True shooting percentage | 58.0% | Twice the field goal attempts plus 0.44 of each free throw attempt | Turnovers, who created the shot, and defence |
Five published values for the same coefficient
| Value | Where it was read | What it is fitted to | This line’s TS% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.40 | Oliver, Basketball on Paper (2004), via Burnt Orange Nation | Oliver’s own estimate | 58.5% |
| 0.42 | arXiv:2305.13032 | A refit on 2022-23 NBA data | 58.3% |
| 0.436 | The NBA’s own points-per-possession page, via Squared Statistics | “approximately 43.6% of all free throws are possession-ending” | 58.1% |
| 0.44 | The NBA stats glossary and Basketball-Reference’s | Kubatko and colleagues (2007), on 2003-06 data | 58.0% |
| 0.475 | Zimmermann (2016), via arXiv:2305.13032 | NCAA basketball | 57.6% |
Why field goal percentage is the wrong question, and what the 0.44 is doing
This page is about basketball, the five-a-side game played to a basket ten feet above the floor. It has no single rule-maker: the Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) publishes the Official Basketball Rules used by most of the world, the NBA publishes its own rulebook for its own competition, and the NCAA publishes separate rules for United States college play. Where a number on this page is one of theirs rather than plain arithmetic, the body and the edition are named beside it.
A field goal percentage treats every make as one success and every attempt as one trial, which described basketball reasonably before the three-point arc and has never described a player who gets to the free throw line. Two players making half their shots, one from three feet and one from twenty-five, have not had the same night. True shooting percentage changes what is counted: points in the numerator rather than makes, and a weighted attempt total in the denominator rather than a count of shots.
Field goal attempts go into the denominator whole and free throw attempts at 0.44 each. The 0.44 is an empirical fit, not a rule of basketball. It stands for the proportion of free throws that end a possession, which is not 1 — a trip to the line is usually two shots, the and-one adds a throw to a possession that already ended in a basket, and a technical foul ends nobody’s. The value is attributed to Kubatko and colleagues (2007) fitting 2003-06 data, and it is the figure the NBA’s own glossary uses.
That matters, because the coefficient is not settled: five published values are set out in the second table below, from Oliver’s 0.40 to the 0.475 used for college basketball. The NBA’s own points-per-possession page, which uses 0.436, says the weight “may change from year to year”, and a 2023 refit called the older figure “no longer accurate in 2023”. On this page’s opening line that range moves the answer from 58.5% to 57.6%, so the two extra rows in the result panel are the uncertainty in the figure rather than decoration. This page implements 0.44, the value in both glossaries.
Read the formula for what it leaves out. There is no turnover term, so a player who loses the ball before shooting is not charged for it; no term for who created the shot, so an open lay-up fed by someone else and a contested fadeaway off the dribble count identically; and nothing about defence at either end. It is a shooting-efficiency figure and nothing wider, which is why it is reliable at the thing it does measure. No governing body publishes a good-or-bad threshold for this figure, and none is invented here. It is interpretable only against a position, a competition and a season, so the honest use of it is comparing players in the same role in the same competition, from one source. For the weighting that ignores free throws entirely, use the effective field goal percentage calculator; for the rate that divides by playing time, the per game and per 36 minutes calculator; and for the same 0.44 inside a possession count, the possessions and pace calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate true shooting percentage?
Divide the points by twice the true shooting attempts — the field goal attempts plus 0.44 of the free throw attempts. For 114.2 points from 88.9 and 21.7: 88.9 + 0.44 × 21.7 = 98.45, and 114.2 ÷ (2 × 98.45) = 58.0%. The NBA’s own glossary gives the same formula.
Why is a free throw worth 0.44 of an attempt?
It estimates how often a free throw is the last event of a possession, which is not always: two usually arrive together and only the second ends it, and an and-one follows a made basket. The 0.44 is attributed to Kubatko and colleagues fitting 2003-06 NBA data — an empirical fit, not a rule of basketball.
Can true shooting percentage be above 100%?
Yes, and it is not a fault. A player who makes every three scores three points per attempt where the scale’s 100% is two, so they come out at 150%. It is a points-per-attempt measure wearing a percentage sign.
What is the difference between true shooting and effective field goal percentage?
Effective field goal percentage weights a made three at 1.5 and ignores free throws. True shooting adds them at 0.44 each and counts the points they produce. On the NBA’s 2023-24 league average they are 54.7% and 58.0%, equal only for a player attempting neither a three nor a free throw.
What counts as a good true shooting percentage?
No governing body publishes a threshold and none is invented here. By this page’s arithmetic on Basketball-Reference’s published league-average row the NBA’s 2023-24 average was 58.0%, and a centre and a guard at that figure have done different jobs.
Related calculators
References
- National Basketball Association. Stats Glossary, nba.com, read 12 Oct 2026. The source for this site’s true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage and offensive, defensive and net rating formulas, each quoted verbatim on the page that uses it. Possessions and pace are defined in WORDS with NO FORMULA at all. Usage percentage is “(FGA + Possession Ending FTA + TO) / POSS” and turnover ratio “(TO * 100) / (POSS)” — neither the 0.44 form.
- Sports Reference LLC. Basketball-Reference.com Glossary, read 12 Oct 2026. True shooting attempts “FGA + 0.44 * FTA”, eFG% “(FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA”, TOV% “100 * TOV / (FGA + 0.44 * FTA + TOV)”, Pace “48 * ((Tm Poss + Opp Poss) / (2 * (Tm MP / 5)))”. Its team Possessions entry instead uses 0.4 on free throw attempts and 1.07 on an estimated offensive-rebound term, and averages both teams’ estimates — so one page carries 0.4 and 0.44 for the same quantity. Offensive and defensive rating carry no formula here.
- “Dean Oliver’s Four Factors Revisited”, arXiv:2305.13032, read 12 Oct 2026. States Oliver’s approximation as POSS = FGA + TOV − ORB + μ·FTA, with μ “the proportion of free throws that end the possession of the ball”; attributes μ = 0.44 to Kubatko et al. (2007) on 2003-06 data; refits μ = 0.42 for 2022-23, “no longer accurate in 2023”; cites Zimmermann (2016) using 0.475 for the NCAA; and states that “the exact number of possessions can not be deduced” from a box score. Quotes Oliver’s four-factor weights of 40/25/20/15%, calling them “somewhat ad hoc”. Cites Oliver D, Basketball on Paper, Potomac Books, 2004. Its figures are image-only.
- Squared Statistics. “Analyzing NBA Possession Models.” squared2020.com, 10 July 2017, read 12 Oct 2026. Quotes the NBA’s own estimator with its .436 coefficient and the NBA’s stated basis for it — “approximately 43.6% of all free throws are possession-ending”, which “may change from year to year”. Counts 2016-17 possessions from play-by-play and scores both formulas against the count; the figures and the refitted 0.4328 and 1.2228 are quoted on this site’s possessions page. Its per-team tables are images, so no row here comes from one.
- Burnt Orange Nation. “Advanced basketball statistics: understanding possession estimation.” 19 October 2011. A secondary source, cited for two attributions and nothing else: “Oliver estimates that Y should be .4” while “John Hollinger in Pro Basketball Prospectus estimates it to be .44”, and for the reason a coefficient is needed at all — “We don’t know how many possesions are used up by free throws, that’s why”. Read 12 Oct 2026.
- Sports Reference LLC. 2023-24 NBA Season Summary, read 12 Oct 2026. The Per Game Stats table’s League Average row, used as this page’s default inputs so no worked example rests on an invented box score: FG 42.2, FGA 88.9, 3P 12.8, FTA 21.7, ORB 10.6, DRB 33.0, TOV 13.6, PTS 114.2. Its own Advanced table was absent from the fetched text, so every Pace, rating or percentage figure here is this site’s own arithmetic on that row.