Everyone understands points per game. It's the first number people check, the one that appears under a player's name on highlight reels, the stat that settles arguments at halftime. But it doesn't tell you how a player got those points — and in basketball, how matters as much as how many.
Three stats answer the efficiency question better than scoring average. They're related, they build on each other, and understanding all three changes how you watch the game.
eFG% — Effective Field Goal Percentage
Regular field goal percentage treats every made basket the same. A two-pointer and a three-pointer are both recorded as one make from one attempt. But a made three is worth 50% more than a made two — so treating them equally gives you a distorted picture.
Effective Field Goal Percentage fixes this by weighting three-pointers correctly. A player shooting 45% on twos and 38% on threes is performing at roughly the same efficiency level — eFG% tells you that at a glance.
It's the first upgrade from raw shooting percentage. Simple, useful, and immediately more honest.
TS% — True Shooting Percentage
eFG% still ignores free throws. True Shooting Percentage brings them into the picture — it measures how many points a player scored relative to every scoring opportunity they used, including trips to the line. Think of it as: out of everything this player did to try to score, how much did they actually get?
This matters because getting to the free throw line is a real skill. A player who scores 18 points per game but draws fouls constantly is more valuable than their eFG% suggests. TS% shows that.
Nikola Milutinov finished this season with a TS% of 73.8% — among the league leaders. That number captures something eFG% alone wouldn't: he scores efficiently at the rim, draws contact regularly, and converts when he gets there.
PPP — Points Per Possession
eFG% and TS% measure shooting efficiency. Points Per Possession measures something slightly different: how many points a player or team generates per possession used. It's the broadest of the three — it accounts for turnovers, which the other two ignore entirely.
A turnover is a possession that produced zero points. A player who shoots 55% TS% but turns the ball over frequently is less efficient than that number suggests. PPP captures the full picture.
Milutinov's PPP was 1.33 this season — every possession that ran through him produced 1.33 points on average. Elite. And it makes sense: he doesn't take shots outside his range, he gets to the line, and he rarely turns it over.
How to use them together
These three stats work best as a set. eFG% is the quickest read — glance at it to understand a player's shooting quality. TS% adds the free throw dimension — check it when a player's scoring volume surprises you. PPP is the full picture — use it when you want to understand how a player affects a possession from start to finish.
A player with great eFG% but poor PPP is probably turning the ball over. A player with great TS% but modest eFG% is probably living at the free throw line. The gaps between the three numbers tell stories that any single number hides.
Points per game tells you what happened. These three tell you why.
