The term PPG in basketball is used in reference to the number of points per game that a player scored. PPG is a statistic term and for recording keeping purposes all of the points that a player has made in a particular set of games, like in a season, will be tallied, then divided by the number of games they played in.
When these numbers are tallied together, they provide you with the average number of points per game that a player makes. By adding the points and dividing them by the number of games it eliminates the one-time games where a player scores an excessive amount of points and lets you see what they typically score in a regular game.
There are a lot of other statistics that are kept so that you can tell what kind of player a person is, and where their strengths lie in the game.
A Glossary of Statistic Terminology
PTS – refers to the points scored.
PF – refers to the personal fouls the player has accumulated during the course of game play. College basketball includes the number of technical fouls a player has in their PF numbers but in the NBA technical fouls are not tallied like this.
SPG – refers to the steal per game. The term steal is applied each time a player takes the ball that is play away from another player through legal moves and maneuvers. Like the PPG this number is an accumulation of all of the steals a player makes in a set number of games. Then that number is divided by the number of games to get an accurate average.
FGA – refers to the number of field goal shots a player took.
FG% -refers to the percentage of field goals the player successfully made compared to the number that they tried to make.
FT% – refers to the percentage of free throws a player was successful at compared to the number of free throw shots they attempted.
GS – refers to the number of games the player has been a starting player in.
MIN – refers to the number of minutes a player has actively played in a game.
MPG – this is in reference to the minutes per game. Anytime the per game is included in the statistic, like PPG, the combination of minutes in a set of games is considered and then the number is divided by the actual number of games to create an average number.
3PT% – tells you the percentage of times that a player successfully made a three-point shot. To derive this number, they take the number of total three-point attempts and compare it to the number of three-point scores the player had.
3PTM – tells you the exact number of three-point shots that a player was successful at making.
A – refers to an assist which is the passing of the ball to another player that successfully leads to the other player completing a goal basket and scoring.
APG – tells you how many assists a player makes on average per game that they play in.
TF – tells you the total number of fouls a player made.
TECHF – tells you the number of technical fouls a player made
TO – tells you the number of turnovers that happened by a player allowing the possession of the ball to taken from them because they were charging, traveling, or committing another violation. This includes balls that are simply thrown away during the course of game play.
TOPG – this is a per game total of turn overs that shows the average number of times a player does something that results in a turnover each game. Just like the other per game statistics a specific set of games, like all the games in one season are considered when the statistic is being calculated.
TR – tells you the number of rebounds a player makes during a game.
These statistics are very useful tools to coaches and recruiters who are looking to improve the play action of their team. The statistics tell the coaches what strengths a player holds during the games, and it prepares them when their team is about to face that player as an opponent. If the statistics show that a player is great at stealing balls, or very successful at making three-point shots the coaching staff can prepare their team to prevent the player form being put into a position where they can use their strength.
It seems like basketball is very complicated, but it really is not. It is just that statistics are the only way to assure that a players’ strengths are recognized by other players and by other teams. It is hard to say a player is the best at something if you do not have statistics that back up your claim.