True Shooting %
One number for how efficiently a player scores. It counts twos, threes and free throws, and weighs each by what it is actually worth.
What True Shooting measures
Field goal percentage lies to you twice. It ignores free throws completely, and it treats a two and a three as the same shot. Both matter. A guard who lives at the line is worth more than his field goal percentage admits. A big who only dunks can top the team in FG% while a three-point shooter quietly scores more per shot. True Shooting fixes both. It measures the points you produce for every shot you take, free throws included.
How True Shooting is calculated
TS% = Points / (2 × (FGA + 0.44 × FTA))
The 0.44 is not arbitrary. It is the league's estimate of how many possessions the average trip to the line actually costs, once and-ones and technical fouls are counted.
TS%: True Shooting Percentage / FGA: Field Goal Attempts / FTA: Free Throw Attempts
The catch
A high TS% can hide low volume
A player who takes three careful shots a night can top the team in True Shooting while barely touching the game. Efficiency with no volume is easy, and it does not create offence. Always read TS% next to how many possessions a player actually uses.
Free throw rate inflates TS% for some players
Players who draw fouls all night post elite True Shooting even when their shooting from the floor is ordinary. Getting to the line is a real skill, so this is not a trick. But two players with the same TS% can be very different shooters, and only the free-throw column tells you which is which.
Seen in a game
Efficiency and winning are not the same thing. In 2025–26 Baskonia scored efficiently, a top-five True Shooting mark in the league at 59.9%, and still finished 13–25. The problem was the other end of the floor: they gave up more points per possession than anyone, a league-worst defensive rating of 121.5. True Shooting tells you how well a team puts the ball in the basket. It says nothing about whether they can stop you from doing the same.
Common questions
- What is true shooting percentage?
True shooting percentage (TS%) measures scoring efficiency by counting two-pointers, three-pointers and free throws together in one number. It answers a simple question. For everything a player put up, how efficiently did he score?
- Does true shooting percentage include free throws?
Yes. That is the whole point of it. Unlike field-goal percentage, true shooting counts free throws and gives extra weight to three-pointers, so a player who draws fouls and shoots from deep is valued correctly.
- How is true shooting percentage calculated?
TS% = points divided by (2 times (field-goal attempts plus 0.44 times free-throw attempts)). The 0.44 estimates how many possessions the free-throw attempts really used.
- What is a good true shooting percentage?
Around 56 percent is roughly average in the EuroLeague. Above 60 percent is very good, and the most efficient high-volume scorers push into the low-to-mid 60s.
