Adapting the NBA’s “Usage Rate” Stat for Football

In the NBA, usage rate measures how often a player ends a possession — shooting, assisting, or turning the ball over. It’s a key way to understand a player’s role and offensive load.

Football doesn’t have an equivalent metric. I wanted to see if we could create one.

Here’s what I cover in the video:

• How usage rate works in basketball
• How I adapted it for football using possession data
• Which Premier League players dominate their team’s usage
• Why this could change how we evaluate footballers beyond goals/assists

Video link: https://youtu.be/iydcB3OM6EE

Would love to hear your thoughts on how you’d refine the football version of usage rate — especially how I define a “possession-ending event.”

Credit to Kieran Doyle from Statford Bridge (Chelsea podcast) for the idea.