Questions answered in this guide:
1. What is the TIQ?
2. Why do guards have a lower TIQ than forwards and centers?
3. What’s the difference between a player’s total points scored and points scored when a player shoots the ball?
4. How do you figure out the points scored from assists?
5. How do you figure out the points scored on extra possessions generated by offensive rebounds?
6. How do you figure out the points prevented from steals?
7. How do you figure out the points prevented from blocks?
8. How do you figure out the points prevented from defensive rebounds?
9. How do you figure out the points lost from turnovers?
10. How do you figure out the opportunity cost of a player shooting?
11. What is the Position Differential Percentage?
12. What is the Position Rank?
1. What is the TIQ?
The TIQ, or Total Impact Quotient, is a rating system that determines a player’s impact on his team per 40 minutes. The number represents the total points contributed or prevented by a player based on several factors. Those factors are:
- Points scored when a player shoots the ball.
- Points scored when a player registers an assist.
- Points scored on extended possessions created by a player grabbing offensive rebounds.
- Points prevented when a player steals the ball.
- Points prevented when a player blocks the ball.
- Points prevented by denying opponents an extended possession by a player grabbing defensive rebounds.
- Points lost when a player turns over the ball.
- Points that could have been scored if any other player on the team shot the ball.
2. Why do guards have a lower TIQ than forwards and centers?
Rebounds are the primary culprit. Big men are around the basket more often and have a height advantage in collecting offensive and defensive rebounds, which are two of the eight factors.
3. Why don’t you just use a player’s total points scored instead of calling it points scored when a player shoots the ball?
The former just counts points scored by a player. The latter counts those points plus the points scored by anyone else on the team when a player’s missed shot leads to an offensive rebound. Yes, that can be misleading when another player makes an exceptional play to grab the loose ball. However, in many instances, a player’s good shot selection puts his teammates in the best position possible to at least compete for an offensive rebound. We take that into account with this factor.
4. How do you figure out the points scored from assists?
We subtract the player’s shooting totals from two-point and three-point range from the rest of his team’s. Then we figure out what percentage of the rest of the team’s shots come from two-point and three-point territory. That allows us to figure out a pretty close approximate of the points a team scores off a player’s assists.
5. How do you figure out the points scored on extra possessions generated by offensive rebounds?
We get some help from Ken Pomeroy’s excellent efficiency ratings here. We simply multiply a player’s offensive rebounds with a team’s offensive scoring efficiency per possession. Pomeroy’s offensive efficiency rating determines the number of points a team scores per possession. So if a team has a 1.0 offensive efficiency rating and a player grabs 10 offensive rebounds, we would expect the team to score 10 points off those offensive rebounds.
6. How do you figure out the points prevented from steals?
Like offensive rebounds, we turn to Ken Pomeroy for efficiency ratings. In this case, we multiply a player’s steals by a team’s defensive scoring efficiency.
7. How do you figure out the points prevented from blocks?
This one is slightly more complicated than steals because not every blocked shot results in a change of possession. Fortunately, smarter people than us have figured out that 57% of blocked shots lead to a change in possession. So you take a player’s blocked shots, multiply that by 0.57, then multiply that product by a team’s defensive efficiency.
8. How do you figure out the points prevented from defensive rebounds?
We multiply a player’s defensive rebounds by a team’s defensive scoring efficiency, as determined by Ken Pomeroy. The idea here is that by grabbing a defensive rebound, a player denies an opponent an opportunity to extend a possession and then score at a rate based on the defensive scoring efficiency of the player’s team.
9. How do you figure out the points lost from turnovers?
We multiply a player’s turnovers by a team’s offensive scoring efficiency, as determined by Ken Pomeroy.
10. How do you figure out the opportunity cost of a player shooting?
This one is complicated. First, we subtract a player’s shooting percentages from three-point range, two-point range and the free throw line from the rest of the team’s. Then we figure out the rate that the rest of the team would attempt shots from three-point range, two-point range and the free throw line. We multiply the number of shots from those ranges by the rest of the team’s shooting percentages from those respective ranges and add the total points scored. We also figure out how many offensive rebounds the team would grab from their misses and how many points they would score from those extended possessions. Microsoft Excel doesn’t like working on this calculation.
11. What is the Position Differential Percentage?
Because TIQ expectations differ for guards, forwards and centers, we average the TIQs of all players at those respective positions. Then we figure out how much better or worse a given player is compared to his position average.
12. What is the Position Rank?
This is a player’s rank at his specific position based on TIQ.
