Effective field goal percentage (eFG%)

Effective field goal percentage adjusts basketball's standard field-goal percentage so that three-point shots get proper credit for being worth more than two-point shots. A player who makes 4 of 10 three-pointers scores more points than one who makes 4 of 10 two-pointers, but plain field-goal percentage would show them as identical.

The formula is eFG% = (FGM + 0.5 × 3PM) / FGA: each three-point make effectively counts as 1.5 field goals. This differs from true shooting percentage, which extends the same idea to also fold in free throws; eFG% looks only at field-goal attempts, making it the standard efficiency measure when free-throw rate is not the focus, such as evaluating a player's shot selection or a team's shooting profile by zone.

Coaches and analysts use eFG% to compare shooters and lineups fairly across an era where three-point volume varies enormously by role, and to evaluate shot quality trends, since a team taking more shots at the rim and from three, and fewer long twos, will tend to post a higher eFG% for the same raw accuracy. The pitfall is reading eFG% as a complete efficiency picture: it ignores free throws entirely, so two players with identical eFG% can have very different overall scoring efficiency once trips to the line are counted.