Structural Analysis of Assists in Top Men`s Basketball Teams

In basketball, an assist is defined as a pass that leads directly to a teammate scoring. Most studies to date have only considered assists as a statistical variable. We decided to take a closer look at the structure of assists using a sample of the top 16 European national teams participating in the 2022 European Championship. We used Synergy Sports technology to collect the data. In a total of 16 matches, 192 players made 640 assists. The data showed that point guards made 40.5% of all assists, while tall players received the most. Additionally, 57.3% of assists were given from the area above the free throw line and 24.3% from the paint. Assists on the move or off the dribble outnumbered assists while standing. Only slightly more than half (53.8%) of the assists were made with both hands, while there were clear differences between air and bounce passes (80.6% compared to 19.4%). The direct involvement of a third player in scoring a basket after an assist was only 12.5%. Surprisingly, winning teams made on average only one more assist than losing teams, which is probably due to the great equality of the competing teams.