36.85% usage rate for Jaylen, shockingly higher than I thought it would be

29/7/5 , 98 TS+

those 8 guys ahead have done it multiple times, so Jaylen is 14th on the list

just their highest usage seasons, can you guess who they are

!Russ - !< 41.7% - 32/11/10 , 100 TS+

!Harden -!< 40.5% - 36/7/8, 110 TS+

!Giannis -!< 39% - 31/12/6, 104 TS+

!Kobe - !< 39% - 35/5/5, 104 TS+

!Jordan - !< 38% - 37/5/5, 104 TS+

!Luka (This year)!< 38% - 33/8/9, 106 TS+

! Iverson 38% !< - 31/5/5, 94 TS+

! Embiid** 37% !<- 31/12/4, 109 TS+

traebucketsfor3 | Hawks

61 | 4 hours ago

I woulda guessed Trae young but guess not

shanmustafa

54 | 3 hours ago

interestingly enough

he has the 6th highest usage rate in history

but for single season his highest is 42nd

traebucketsfor3 | Hawks

6 | 3 hours ago

That is interesting, why do you think that is? I couldn’t tell

Maverick_1991 | Hawks

3 | 2 hours ago

He hasnt declined much yet and always been the #1 option.

pokexchespin | BOS

1 | 21 minutes ago

he’s probably so high all time because he’s never had a time where he took more of a back seat, like kobe did with shaq and even with pau later on, jordan with pippen, harden outside of houston, and russ outside of oklahoma city.

Kiriegloom | Bulls

-7 | 3 hours ago

I think it’s his rebounding. The lowest rebounding stat out of all these guys on the list is 5, while Trae averages only 3.5 for his career. Cumulatively he’s high usage, but many guys have put up crazier stat lines in just a single season

theboyqueen

6 | an hour ago

What does rebounding have to do with usage?

Blutarg | Pistons

3 | an hour ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox

WhiteHeterosexualGuy | Hawks

12 | an hour ago

Probably because you didn’t know usage % doesn’t include assists (I say this as someone who just learned recently). It’s just a normalized FGA and turnover calculation. It’s not actually a great representation of how people intuitively think of usage, which is who has the ball in their hands the most.

traebucketsfor3 | Hawks

2 | an hour ago

Ah then yeah that makes sense

Normal-Original420

1 | an hour ago

Trae also has the advantage of being early in his career. So while he may not have any individual season that sticks out as being high, he also doesn’t have the end of career seasons with his usage rate down a lot of the high usage stars of the past have affecting their career average usage rates. It would be more interesting to see where he ranks out of all players at the same point in their career.

Blutarg | Pistons

2 | an hour ago

Wow, I didn’t know that.

FreshStartFeelsGood

31 | 3 hours ago

Not one of those seasons resulted in a chip.

shanmustafa

45 | 3 hours ago

the highest on the list to win a chip is Shai last year, 34.8%

he was 46th

A320neo | Celtics

9 | 2 hours ago

Celtics odds of title contention depend entirely on if Tatum comes back and how he looks when he does. This team has completely blown away expectations but I don’t think JB, Derrick, and friends will be enough to carry them to a chip.

juicejug | Celtics

1 | an hour ago

Agreed, the team is awesome but still has a big weakness in the front court. Teams with size, great defense, and a strong offense that can utilize their size (e.g. Thunder, Pistons) will be really tough matchups for the Celtics. If you can pack the paint and close out hard to shooters you force the Cs to make tough shots and they can definitely go cold when that happens.

NegativesPositives

4 | 3 hours ago

I think every coach that isn’t Mike D’Antoni would tell you if they could’ve gotten away with not using one guy that much they happily would’ve.

Glittering-Craft-161

20 | 4 hours ago

I’d say luka is up there twice at least

shanmustafa

21 | 3 hours ago

couple of them are on multiple times, but i only used their highest % seasons

clonemusic | Mavericks

0 | an hour ago

Bill Simmons cries constantly about high usage players but has acted like Brown is bball jesus this year.. even tho he’s higher usage than those people with much worse efficiency

Ok_Possible_5702

11 | 3 hours ago

What is TS+?

RCM88x | Cavaliers

23 | 3 hours ago

True shooting % scaled to the league average that season.

So 100 is league average, anything above that is above average, anything below is below average. So 98 TS+ is slightly below average.

Zealousideal-Leek666

6 | 3 hours ago

Harden is up there somewhere

Blutarg | Pistons

1 | an hour ago

Ding ding!

Turrible_basketball

5 | 3 hours ago

Harden and Luka have to be on the list.

Blutarg | Pistons

1 | an hour ago

Correctamundo.

DirkNowitzkisWife | Mavericks

6 | 3 hours ago

Man Iverson was inefficient. People talk like he would magically shoot 40% from 3 in 2025 but damn.

GregEgg4President | Wizards

3 | 36 minutes ago

Serious people don’t talk like that.

AI was a one man show for the bulk of his career during a very low scoring period of the NBA. The inefficiency was expected and he still made the Sixers go.

Awanderingleaf

4 | 3 hours ago

I knew the lowest TS+ was Iverson. He makes Westbrook look like Steph Curry at his peak efficiency wise.

GingerDweeb27 | Celtics

3 | 4 hours ago

Was sure 07 LeBron would be here

RCM88x | Cavaliers

13 | 3 hours ago

People massively overestimate how heliocentric LeBron was especially in this younger years. I think they remember things like the 2015 or 2018 playoffs and assume he always played like that when it’s not the case at all.

nowhathappenedwas | NBA

11 | 3 hours ago

People also tend to think that usage includes assists.

But every basket a player assists actually reduces his usage.

theboyqueen

11 | 3 hours ago

It’s because of this I don’t really understand what usage is supposed to communicate. It’s certainly not “ball-dominance” or “heliocentrism” or whatever. It’s mixing up good outcomes (free throws), neutral outcomes (shots in general, telling you nothing about the quality of these shots) and bad outcomes (turnovers) and ignoring other outcomes (passing). Just knowing a usage percentage doesn’t tell you anything about what the player actually did. A player who got fouled on every possession and a player who turned the ball over on every possession both have usg% of 100. A guy who holds the ball for 23 seconds and tosses grenades on every posession has a usg% of 0. What am I supposed to do with that?

Even something like “offensive time of possession” (as a percentage I guess?) would be much more descriptive of what people think “usage” means.

EightBlocked | NBA

5 | an hour ago

yes, time of possession is a better stat. usage is just flawed in many ways, but its a good stat when it helps me push my bad faithed narratives on the players i dont like.

shanmustafa

3 | 3 hours ago

his highest is 65th

most of his seasons are below 150 all time

Blutarg | Pistons

1 | an hour ago

I thought so, too, but remember that assists don’t count toward it.

finchdad | Suns

0 | 3 hours ago

Yeah, I was very surprised that pre-Miami LeBron didn’t have that high of usage…I guess because he’s always been a passer. I also expected Nowitski to be on there.

demmellers

3 | 3 hours ago

Im guesss kobe 35/5/5.

TripleSingleHOF | Bulls [CHI] Alex Caruso

3 | 3 hours ago

The 3 that immediately popped in my head were Jordan, Kobe, and Iverson.

What about Dominique Wilkins? I bet I wouldn’t have to scroll too far down this list to find him.

pokexchespin | BOS

1 | 29 minutes ago

nique led the league in usage% twice, but peaked at 35.2%

Jack_The_Sparrow_ | Warriors

1 | 3 hours ago

Thank you for the spoiler warning! I’m still not caught up to the current season yet

EntertainmentFit3288 | Clippers

1 | 3 hours ago

That Harden MVP season was 🤯

FootballPizzaMan

1 | 3 hours ago

Celtics fans really want Jaylen Brown to be MVP even though he would be the worst MVP of all time

pokexchespin | BOS

1 | 24 minutes ago

yeah, i love jaylen, he and the team as a whole have been way better than i expected going into the season, but he’s been inefficient all year and isn’t generally on the level of a guy like sga. a first team selection, sure, but not MVP

semizurdo

1 | 3 hours ago

I got 5 out of 8, missed Kobe, Embiid and AI. I really thought Jokic was gonna be there

Maleficent_Union_653

1 | 2 hours ago

Westbrook, Kobe, Harden, MJ, Luka, LeBron, maybe Oscar and Wilt if they count

Arkaimia | Celtics

1 | an hour ago

Any chance you could provide the number of touches each guy averaged for each of these seasons? I’d do it myself but I’m not sure which season the usg% is tied to on each player you list.

Both Payton and Derrick are averaging more touches per game this season than Jaylen, who is averaging 69, so I’m wondering what the numbers look like for everyone else on this list.

Thick_Duck | Thunder

1 | an hour ago

I just love threads where I get to reveal spoilers answers. Feels like a little treat

Blutarg | Pistons

1 | an hour ago

LeBron has to be one.

Edit: now that I know assists don’t factor in, I want to change my answer :D

crunkdegaulle | Bulls

1 | 43 minutes ago

I can tell the top two are Westbrook ‘17 and Harden ‘19. recognize Kobe ‘06 and Jordan ‘87 as well. others are harder. Guessing Iverson somewhere here. Don’t think Melo ever averaged 31.

WelcomeToOuterHeaven | NYK

1 | 40 minutes ago

I got everyone other than Giannis, I thought LeBron would be on there

LarBrd33

1 | 8 minutes ago

Since his 50 point game he’s still been good but in the last 19 he’s shot 43%/31% and he’s gunning for 30+ points every night (24+ shots nightly) so he can stay in the mvp conversation.

I would guess Iverson and Kobe are on that list. To Brown’s credit I came into this season thinking of those guys because for most of Iverson’s career and the few Kobe years between Shaq and Pau, they were high usage low efficiency scorers who struggled to crack 50 wins (Iverson only cracked 50 wins once)… so I figured like Kobe in 2005 we’d see brown lead this team to 34 wins and have a dip in efficiency, but it’s been far better than expected.

lambopanda | Rockets

0 | 3 hours ago

I’m guessing Jordan, LeBron, Jokic, AI, Kobe

Only 8 players in NBA History have had higher usage rates than Jaylen Brown this year, can you guess who they are