Assist %
The share of a team's made baskets that were assisted. At player level, the share of teammates' baskets a player set up while on the floor.
What Assist measures
Raw assist totals reward big minutes and teammates who finish. A guard on a poor-shooting team can create just as many open looks as one on an elite team and get credited with far fewer assists. Assist % takes minutes and finishing out, so it reads playmaking and ball movement more cleanly than the raw count.
How Assist is calculated
AST% = (Player Assists × Team FGM) ÷ (Player Minutes × (Team FGM ÷ Team Minutes) − Player FGM) × 100
AST%: Assist Percentage / AST: Assists / FGM: Field Goals Made
The catch
The assist is the last link, not the whole play
A good possession often starts two or three passes before the assist. The skip pass that sets up the drive that draws help that frees the corner three, none of those show up. Assist % credits the final pass. The best playmakers create more than the number gives them.
A high rate can mean different things
A team assisting 70% of its baskets might be running a beautiful motion offense, or simple pick-and-rolls that produce assisted layups almost mechanically. The number tells you the ball moved before the shot. It does not tell you how clever the movement was.
Seen in a game
Olympiacos assisted 68.8% of their baskets in 2025–26, the highest share in the league, a team built on ball movement. That passing fed the EuroLeague's best offense (a 120.1 rating) on the way to 30-12. The counter-case is Fenerbahçe, who assisted far fewer of their baskets and won a different way, through the league's second-best defense (109.6) and one-on-one shot creation. A high assist share is one route to a good offense, not the only one.
Common questions
- What is assist percentage?
Assist percentage estimates the share of a team's made baskets a player assisted while he was on the floor. It captures how much of the team's scoring he set up.
- How is assist percentage calculated?
It divides a player's assists by the field goals his teammates made during his minutes. The higher the figure, the more of the offense ran through his passing.
- What is a good assist percentage?
Primary playmakers post the highest figures, often well above 30 percent. Wings and bigs sit lower. Read it by role rather than against one universal cutoff.
