To see the dashboard featuring adjusted true shooting percentage, scroll down to the bottom of the turnover percentage section.
True shooting percentage on NBA.com and Basketball-Reference considers the value of not just 3- and 3-point attempts, but free throws as well. It’s calculated as follows:
PTS / (2 * (FGA + (0.44 * FTA))
While estimated free throw possessions for teams were usually only slightly off from their actual totals, players were affected a bit more.
The lowest coefficient, minimum 1000 minutes, was from Kyle Korver in 2016 at .204. This was because most players like Korver, low-usage sharpshooters who aren’t drawing a ton of fouls except late in close games, are chosen to shoot technical free throws. Of Korver’s 54 free throw attempts, 25 came from technical fouls with an extra 11 from either and-1s or three-attempt situations.
Below is a look at how using exact free throw possessions instead of estimated ones changes Korver’s true shooting marks since 2004:
Korver’s changes aren’t too big since he’s almost always been a low-usage scorer, but they’re certainly enough to move up in rankings. In particular, using actual free throw possessions pushed his 2015 season past Tyson Chandler’s 2012 campaign as the highest true shooting percentage for a player who logged over 1,000 minutes.
The largest increase went to John Stockton in 2001, from 61 to 64 percent. From 1997 to 2003, the Jazz had the six-highest technical free throws attempted per game and seven of the top eight, averaging 1.3 to 1.8 per game. Stockton himself was selected for 84 technical free throws in 2001. That tied for the highest from a player with teammate Jeff Hornacek, who attempted just as many in 1998.
As for bigs, lob threats are similar in usage and efficiency as spot-up shooters, but they’re rarely spectacular free throw shooters. They’ll neither pad their point totals on technical free throws nor draw the occasional foul on three-point attempts. Those who saw increases in true shooting had a high portion of their total free throws originating from fouled shot attempts, plus a well above-average amount of and-1s. That’s where Harrell’s outlier-ish season comes in for the Rockets. His true shooting went up 1.75 percentage points, the highest jump from last season, while Jonathon Simmons saw the largest drop, though it was only 0.6 percent. More on both players in a bit.