Dillon Brooks and Nickeil Alexander-Walker have seen some of the biggest usage rate increases in 2025-26.
A new season brings new roles, with many players asked to do more (or less) for their teams than they’ve done in the past.
Season-to-season changes in role are often driven by trades or free agency, either the player in question moving teams, making room for a new teammate, or making up for the absence of an old one. That’s the case for many of the players who’ve seen the league’s biggest jumps or drops in usage rate or time of possession …
1. Usage rate jumps
Biggest jumps in usage rate, 2024-25 to 2025-26
| 2024-25 | 2025-26 | Diff. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | USG% | TS% | USG% | TS% | USG% | TS% |
| Dillon Brooks | PHX | 17.6 | 55.5 | 27.2 | 58.2 | +9.6 | +2.7 |
| Nickeil Alexander-Walker | ATL | 15.5 | 57.9 | 24.7 | 56.9 | +9.2 | -1.0 |
| Andrew Nembhard | IND | 16.3 | 54.5 | 25.2 | 54.9 | +8.9 | +0.4 |
| Ajay Mitchell | OKC | 15.9 | 58.7 | 24.3 | 54.7 | +8.4 | -4.0 |
| Michael Porter Jr. | BKN | 19.7 | 61.7 | 27.7 | 60.4 | +8.0 | -1.3 |
| Jalen Duren | DET | 16.1 | 70.3 | 23.1 | 72.1 | +7.0 | +1.8 |
| Kyshawn George | WAS | 15.6 | 50.3 | 22.5 | 62.7 | +6.9 | +12.4 |
| Shaedon Sharpe | POR | 25.0 | 55.1 | 31.6 | 53.5 | +6.6 | -1.6 |
| Jaylen Brown | BOS | 28.2 | 55.5 | 34.6 | 58.9 | +6.4 | +3.4 |
| Isaiah Stewart | DET | 12.1 | 61.6 | 18.5 | 59.7 | +6.4 | -1.9 |
TS% = PTS / (2 * (FGA + (0.44 * FTA)))
Minimum 250 minutes played last season and 100 minutes played this season (289 players)
Usage rate is the percentage of his team’s possessions that a player ends (via field goal attempts, turnovers and trips to the line) while he’s on the floor. The league leader through Wednesday is Luka Dončić at 36.4%.
True shooting percentage measures scoring efficiency (Harrison Barnes is the current leader among players with at least 75 field goal attempts), and can often go down when a player sees a jump in usage rate.
A couple of notes…
- Dillon Brooks has seen a huge jump in usage rate from his two seasons in Houston and has been assisted on a career-low 50.7% of his field goals. But he’s registering the highest true shooting percentage of his career by a healthy margin. His 3-point percentage (32.4%) is actually way down from last season (39.7%), but he’s shot 57.7% inside the arc, having never made half of his 2-point attempts in any of his other eight seasons.
- Kyshawn George has made a huge leap in his second season, seeing a big jump in true shooting percentage as he’s taken on a much bigger role with the Wizards. His biggest improvement has come beyond the arc, where he’s shot 45.5%, the 12th best mark among 147 players with at least 50 attempts and up from 32.2% last season.
2. Usage rate drops
Here’s the other end of the list …
Biggest drops in usage rate, 2024-25 to 2025-26
| 2024-25 | 2025-26 | Diff. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | USG | TS% | USG | TS% | USG | TS% |
| Cameron Johnson | DEN | 22.4 | 63.2 | 13.8 | 52.4 | -8.6 | -10.8 |
| Amir Coffey | MIL | 15.0 | 61.4 | 7.0 | 51.7 | -8.0 | -9.7 |
| Svi Mykhailiuk | UTA | 19.8 | 52.6 | 11.9 | 63.2 | -7.9 | +10.6 |
| Kevin Love | UTA | 23.0 | 48.8 | 15.2 | 52.7 | -7.8 | +3.9 |
| Tyus Jones | ORL | 16.0 | 58.5 | 9.2 | 36.8 | -6.8 | -21.7 |
| Trendon Watford | PHI | 22.6 | 55.7 | 16.1 | 61.8 | -6.5 | +6.1 |
| Baylor Scheierman | BOS | 14.3 | 49.0 | 8.0 | 78.3 | -6.3 | +29.3 |
| Josh Okogie | HOU | 18.5 | 56.7 | 12.3 | 64.3 | -6.2 | +7.6 |
| Adem Bona | PHI | 13.5 | 71.4 | 7.5 | 48.1 | -6.0 | -23.3 |
| Paolo Banchero | ORL | 33.0 | 55.1 | 27.1 | 57.3 | -5.9 | +2.2 |
- Cam Johnson swapped places with Michael Porter Jr. (on the list above) and is eighth on the Nuggets in usage rate. He was struggling to adjust, but may now be finding his rhythm, having shot 12-for-20 (including 6-for-10 from 3-point range, over Denver’s last two games.
3. Time of possession jumps
Usage rate looks at the end of a possession, while time of possession (via tracking data) tells us how much a player has the ball in his hands.
Here are the players who’ve seen the biggest jumps in time of possession from last season, as a percentage of the minutes that they’ve been on the floor.
Biggest jumps in time of possession, 2024-25 to 2025-26
| 2024-25 | 2025-26 | Diff. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | Per game | TOP% | Per game | TOP% | Per game | TOP% |
| Andrew Nembhard | IND | 3.2 | 11.1% | 6.0 | 20.5% | +2.8 | +9.4% |
| Vince Williams Jr. | MEM | 1.4 | 7.8% | 3.0 | 14.8% | +1.6 | +7.0% |
| Amen Thompson | HOU | 3.2 | 10.1% | 6.0 | 16.7% | +2.8 | +6.7% |
| Kyshawn George | WAS | 1.9 | 7.2% | 4.2 | 13.2% | +2.3 | +6.0% |
| Jrue Holiday | POR | 2.5 | 8.2% | 4.8 | 14.2% | +2.3 | +6.0% |
| Caris LeVert | DET | 2.0 | 7.8% | 2.7 | 13.6% | +0.7 | +5.8% |
| Terance Mann | BKN | 1.3 | 6.4% | 3.1 | 11.6% | +1.8 | +5.2% |
| Stephon Castle | SAS | 3.7 | 13.8% | 6.0 | 18.8% | +2.3 | +5.0% |
| Ausar Thompson | DET | 1.6 | 7.2% | 3.5 | 12.1% | +1.8 | +4.9% |
| Bogdan Bogdanović | LAC | 1.9 | 7.6% | 3.1 | 12.0% | +1.2 | +4.4% |
Per game = Time of possession per game
TOP% = Time of possession / total minutes on the floor
Minimum 250 minutes in 2024-25 and 100 minutes in 2025-26 (289 players)
- Ty Jerome and Scotty Pippen Jr. haven’t played, leaving Vince Williams Jr. (who’s not a point guard) as the backup point guard in Memphis. And with Ja Morant out, Williams has started two of the last three games. Not surprisingly, the Grizzlies have a bottom-five offense and have seen the league’s biggest drop in shot quality, according to tracking data.
- The Rockets added Kevin Durant, but with Fred VanVleet out, Amen Thompson is the de facto point guard in Houston, leading the team in time of possession at 6.0 minutes per game. It’s working well enough; While the Rockets rank 15th in (initial) halfcourt efficiency according to Synergy tracking, their offense ranks first overall, thanks to a strong transition game and the highest offensive rebounding percentage in the 30 seasons for which we have play-by-play data.
4. Time of possession drops
Franz Wagner and several other Magic players have seen their time of possession falter in 2025-26.
Here are the players who are handling the ball less this season …
Biggest drops in time of possession, 2024-25 to 2025-26
| 2024-25 | 2025-26 | Diff. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | Per game | TOP% | Per game | TOP% | Per game | TOP% |
| Malik Monk | SAC | 4.3 | 13.5% | 1.8 | 7.5% | -2.4 | -6.0% |
| Brandon Ingram | TOR | 4.6 | 13.8% | 2.7 | 8.2% | -1.8 | -5.6% |
| Franz Wagner | ORL | 4.7 | 14.0% | 3.3 | 9.1% | -1.5 | -4.9% |
| Scottie Barnes | TOR | 4.3 | 13.0% | 2.8 | 8.6% | -1.5 | -4.4% |
| Anthony Black | ORL | 3.8 | 15.6% | 3.0 | 11.2% | -0.8 | -4.4% |
| Jordan Clarkson | NYK | 3.1 | 11.9% | 1.4 | 7.5% | -1.7 | -4.4% |
| Khris Middleton | WAS | 2.3 | 10.1% | 1.5 | 5.8% | -0.8 | -4.3% |
| Bradley Beal | LAC | 3.7 | 11.5% | 1.5 | 7.4% | -2.2 | -4.1% |
| RJ Barrett | TOR | 3.7 | 11.5% | 2.4 | 7.6% | -1.3 | -3.9% |
| Zach LaVine | SAC | 4.3 | 12.3% | 2.8 | 8.4% | -1.5 | -3.9% |
- Franz Wagner has seen a jump in time of possession with Paolo Banchero out the last three games, but with the addition of Desmond Bane, there are a lot of Magic players near the bottom of this list. Bane himself has seen the 13th biggest drop, from 4.1 minutes per game last season in Memphis to 3.2 per game this year.
- Another team where a lot of guys are handling the ball less is Sacramento, where new additions Dennis Schröder and Russell Westbrook lead the team in time of possession. Malik Monk (first), Zach LaVine (10th), DeMar DeRozan (11th) and Domantas Sabonis (36th) have all seen big drops in the percentage of their minutes in which they’ve had the ball. The Kings have seen the league’s fourth biggest drop in points scored per 100 possessions (-7.0), though it should be noted that eight of their 15 games have come against teams that rank in the top eight defensively.
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John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
