What are Possessions?
Possessions estimate the total number of individual offensive possessions a player uses during a season. The NBA does not track individual possessions directly, so they are calculated in two steps. First, team possessions per game are computed using the standard formula: FGA + 0.44 × FTA − OREB + TOV. Then each player's share is estimated by prorating team possessions by their minutes: Player Possessions = Team Possessions × (Player Minutes / Team Minutes). For example, if a team has 100 possessions in a game and a guard plays 36 of the team's 240 total minutes, that player is credited with roughly 15 possessions. Because a player is either on the floor for a possession or they are not, the final total is rounded to the nearest whole number. This NBA player stat is fundamental in NBA possessions stats for measuring volume and workload.