The performance of NBA players tends to be about more than just ability. The opportunities a player receives and the fit between their skills and those situational factors have a great deal of influence. In other words, guys need the right role to play. “Role” can be an amorphous concept, with varied and somewhat squishy definitions. One way of describing role, at least on offense, is via usage, and even more so by a set of metrics I’ve decided to call “Total Usage” to better encompass and describe a player’s contributions to playmaking as well as describe the degree to which they play on or off ball.
To partially rehash, I described these measures by way of introducing the concept of “heliocentrism” for players around the league:
• Scoring Usage: True shooting attempts (defined as FGA + 0.44 FTA) divided by total chances for which the player is on the floor. Over time, 0.44 has been shown to be a reasonable…
