Points Per Possession
How many points a team or player produces on a single possession. At team level it is just Offensive Rating divided by 100. In play-type analysis it measures efficiency in one situation, like pick-and-roll or transition.
What Points Per Possession measures
Offensive Rating measures a team's efficiency across every possession. Points per possession zooms in. It measures efficiency in a specific context, so coaches and analysts can see exactly where an offense produces and where it stalls. A team can own a great overall rating and still be poor in pick-and-roll. This is the number that shows it, and the bridge between team stats and play-type work.
How Points Per Possession is calculated
PPP = Points Scored ÷ Possessions Used (in a given situation)
One possession ends in a field-goal attempt, a trip to the line, or a turnover.
PPP: Points Per Possession / Poss: Possessions
The catch
PPP alone says nothing about shot quality
A team can post 1.20 in pick-and-roll because it is generating great looks, or because it is hitting an unusual number of tough shots in a small sample. High points per possession on poor shots does not last. Always ask what shots produced the number, not just the number.
The number depends on how a possession is defined
Different data providers classify plays differently. A pick-and-roll that ends in a pull-up three might be filed as pick-and-roll by one system and a jump shot by another. That is why play-type figures do not always match across sources. The number is only as clean as the classification behind it.
Seen in a game
Olympiacos in 2025–26 can be read entirely through this number. They scored 1.20 points a possession and allowed just 1.09, a gap no other team came close to and the source of their +10.8 net rating. This was not a team carrying one weak end. They ranked first in offense and first in defense at the same time. Real Madrid, the nearest challenger, scored 1.18 and allowed 1.12. When you win every trip down the floor by that much, a 30-12 record is not a surprise.
Common questions
- What is points per possession?
Points per possession (PPP) is how many points a team or player scores for each possession they use. It strips out pace, so a fast team and a slow team can be compared fairly on how efficient they are, not how many shots they take.
- How is points per possession calculated?
Divide points scored by the number of possessions used. A team that scores 80 points on 72 possessions has a PPP of about 1.11.
- What is a good points per possession?
Around 1.10 is roughly league average in the EuroLeague. Above 1.15 is a strong, efficient offense; below 1.05 is a struggling one.
- What is the difference between points per possession and offensive rating?
They are the same thing on different scales. Offensive rating is simply points per possession multiplied by 100, so a PPP of 1.12 is an offensive rating of 112.
