The Four Factors: Shooting, Turnovers, Rebounding, Free Throws

Basketball analyst Dean Oliver showed that a possession's outcome comes down to four things, on offence and defence. Every team page on HoopVantage lists them.

1. Shooting: effective field-goal percentage

eFG% = (FGM + 0.5 × 3PM) / FGA. It credits threes for being worth more. Shooting is the most important factor by a distance.

2. Turnovers: turnover rate

Turnovers per possession. A turnover ends a possession with no shot at all.

3. Rebounding: offensive rebound rate

The share of available offensive rebounds a team collects; its defensive mirror is defensive rebound rate.

4. Free throws: free-throw rate

Free-throw attempts per field-goal attempt: how often a team gets to the line.

Reading them together

A team can win with elite shooting and poor rebounding, or the reverse. Comparing both teams' offensive factors with the opponent's defensive factors shows where a matchup is decided. True shooting percentage, three-point attempt rate and opponent three-point percentage are listed alongside for context on every team page and game preview.

📚 More Articles