Effective field goal percentage

In basketball, effective field goal percentage (abbreviated eFG%) is a statistic that adjusts field goal percentage to account for the fact that three-point field goals count for three points, while all other field goals only count for two points.^[1] Its goal is to show what field goal percentage a two-point shooter would have to shoot at to match the output of a player who also shoots three-pointers.^[2]

It is calculated by:

${\displaystyle eFG\%={\frac {FG+(0.5*3P)}{FGA}}}$

where:

• FG = field goals (both 2-point and 3-point) made
• 3P = 3-point field goals made
• FGA = field goal attempts

^[3]

An alternate form of the formula is:

${\displaystyle eFG\%={\frac {2FG+(1.5*3FG)}{FGA}}}$

where:

• 2FG = 2-point field goals made
• 3FG = 3-point field goals made
• FGA = field goal attempts

^[4]

A common criticism of this formula is that shooters with very high percentage success rates, which favor 3 point shots, would arrive at an eFG% above 100%.^[5]

It can also be calculated by:

${\displaystyle eFG\%={\frac {\frac {PPG-FT}{2}}{FGA}}}$

where:

• PPG = points per game
• FT = free throws made
• FGA = field goal attempts

The advantage of this second formula is that it highlights the aforementioned logic behind the statistic, where it is pretended that a player only shot two-point shots (hence the division of non-free-throw points by 2).