Glossary / Usage Rate (USG%)

What Is Usage Rate (USG%)?

Usage percentage is a metric that shows how many team possessions you are responsible for ending when you are on the court. It counts field goal attempts, free throw attempts, and turnovers, the three ways a possession can end with a specific player attached to it, as a share of the team's total possessions while that player is on the floor.

Formula

USG% = 100 ×(FGA + 0.44 × FTA + TOV) × (Tm MP / 5)MP × (Tm FGA + 0.44 × Tm FTA + Tm TOV)
FGA, FTA, TOVThe player's own field goal attempts, free throw attempts, and turnovers
MPMinutes played by the player
Tm MP, Tm FGA, Tm FTA, Tm TOVThe team's totals in those same categories while that player is on the floor

Worked Example

A player has 18 FGA, 4 FTA, and 3 TOV in 34 minutes, on a team that posts 90 FGA, 22 FTA, and 14 TOV as a team over 240 total minutes.
USG% = 100 × [(18 + 0.44 × 4 + 3) × (240 / 5)] / [34 × (90 + 0.44 × 22 + 14)]
USG% = 100 × [22.76 × 48] / [34 × 113.68]
USG% ≈ 28.3%

Typical USG% by Position

There's no such thing as a "good" usage rate. USG% just shows how much of the offense runs through a player, not how well they use those possessions. These bars are typical ranges, not a good-to-bad scale.

PG
22.0%
SF
20.1%
PF
18.7%
SG
18.6%
C
17.8%
USG% Leaders

Top 5 in the NBA this season, min. 20 games played.

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USG% FAQ

Is there such a thing as a good Usage Rate?

Usage rate doesn't show skill at all. There's no such thing as a good usage rate, it just shows how many team possessions a player uses while on the court.

Does a high USG% mean a player is good?

Not necessarily. High-usage players just take up a lot of team possessions. Whether that usage is efficient or valuable is a completely separate question from how much of it there is.

Does USG% capture everything a player contributes on offense?

No. Usage only accounts for field goal attempts, free throw attempts, and turnovers. There are a lot of other ways to add value on the basketball court, like passing, screening, and off-ball movement, that usage doesn't capture at all.

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See It Live

Every player's USG% this season is on the Player Stats page, alongside shooting splits, shot zones, and role-adjusted efficiency.

Related Stats

Often discussed alongside USG%: TS%, AST%.

See how USG% compares against a player's specific role on Role Stats, or browse the rest of the Glossary for more stat breakdowns.