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Field goal percentage

As explained in Statistics Slam Dunk

Field goal percentage is the proportion of non-free-throw basketball shot attempts that result in made field goals, expressed as a percentage.

Field goal percentage measures the share of field-goal attempts that become made shots. Exclude free throws, count shots and misses, divide shots by their total, and multiply by 100. section 8.5.1

Comparing shooting by possession time

For the 2019–20 Atlanta Hawks, shots taken seven seconds into a possession produced a 49.18% field goal percentage, their highest reported value in the displayed table. The same analysis compares this measure with average points scored. section 8.5.2

League-level interpretation

Applied across all 30 teams, field goal percentage helps test whether teams shoot more successfully earlier or later in a half-court possession. The 2019–20 analysis concludes that teams generally scored more and posted higher percentages with more time remaining. section 8.5.4

How Statistics Slam Dunk covers it

How deep it goes
Defines the ratio, demonstrates grouped data preparation and visualization, and stops short of broader causal conclusions.
Examples
Uses Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, and all 30 NBA teams during the 2019–20 regular season.
What it assumes
Assumes play-by-play records contain event type and possession-time fields, while demonstrating the required filtering and tabulation.
What you can do after
Apply it via R, dplyr, janitor, and ggplot2 to calculate, compare, and visualize shooting percentages.
How it connects
Connects field goal percentage with shot attempts, missed shots, points scored, possession time, trendlines, and optimal stopping.
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Related concepts

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Statistics Slam Dunk. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.