Usage Rate (USG%)(USG%)

Usage rate measures a player's offensive load: out of all team possessions while they're on the court, how many end with an action where they personally had the ball?

A team has 5 players, so by construction the average USG% is 20% per player. In practice, stars sit between 28% and 35%. Some MVP seasons have cleared 38% (Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Luka Doncic).

USG% is crucial for reading other stats in context. A player averaging 18 PPG with an 18% USG% is actually much more efficient than a player scoring 22 PPG with a 32% USG%, because they use fewer possessions to produce their points.

It's often paired with TS% to evaluate a player's offensive signature: high volume + high efficiency = superstar.