You wrote: "If a pass is made and the player is then fouled in the act of shooting, and makes his free-throw.  Does the passer get an assist?"

For our eBA System Basketball Statistics Analysis, which the principal address of the work is the COACH, the answer is absolutely: YES ! But there are two systems on considering the assist or not:

There are some stats-men that gives the passer  an assist ONLY if the fouled player converts the first free throw, but cancels the assist if he misses it, no matter what happens with the other.

eBA System registers the assist if the fouled player converts both (or the three) throws or one of them. But in this case, in our rate - see the eBA System - we give the assist a qualification of one point for each free throw made.

   Sandra Mirsov - eBA Stats Team - The Basketball Statistics Analysis

In my opinion, and in this manner works the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System, we must be able to give two assists - like in hockey - on one play. As said in the last post, "many times, a point guard gives a great pass, and another player makes a pass that leads to the basket". The first pass should get some credit , because it can be more important than the second pass.
On the other hand, a great pass that leads to the shooter being fouled is not generally credited as an assist, and it should be, or no?

     Louis C. Sierra - eBA Stats Team - The Basketball Statistics Analysis

This post RESUMES the topic


We can define the best passing team to be the team that can best make the difficult passes that produce points. By means of the assist percentage - the percentage of a team's field goals that were assisted on – the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System tells us more about a team's style than their substance. Another obvious element is that this metric is somewhat dependent on how often a team made three-pointers, because the circumstantial numerical evidence that so many three-pointers are assisted.

It is not surprising at all that three-pointers tend to get more assists, having a portion of two-pointers which are "un-assistable", the result of put-backs and tip-ins, while few threes are shot off of the dribble. Another evidence in our assist analysis maybe a good shooting team that doesn't score often on put-backs, so there were more two-point assist opportunities.

The eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System, is able to give two assists - like in hockey - on one play. Many times, a point guard gives a great pass, and another player makes a pass that leads to the basket. The first pass gets a credit, because it can be more important than the second pass. On the other hand, a great pass that leads to the shooter being fouled is credited as an assist.

In the case of free throws, eBA System register the assist if the fouled player makes both (or the three) throws or one of them. But in this case, in our rate we give the assist a qualification of one point for each free throw made.

The eBA System registers the following stats about Assists, in addition to the Made and Received ones:

Assists in the paint, Assists outside of paint, within each, assists leading to jump shots, assists leading to lay-ups, assists leading to foul shots, and within each of these, are they part of fast break or not.

Before a number of proposal about the assists formulas, it is a good moment to review one of the “Staticians’ Manual” with respect to what an assist means:

A player is credited with an assist when the player makes, in the judgment of the statistician, the principal pass contributing directly to a field goal (or an awarded score of two or three points). Only one assist is to be credited on any field goal and only when the pass was a major part of the play. Such a pass should be either:  a.- a pass that finds a player free after he or she has maneuvered without the ball for a positional advantage, or:   b.- a pass that gives the receiving player a positional advantage,  he or she otherwise would not have had.
Philosophy. An assist should be more than a routine pass that just happens to be followed by a field goal. It should be a conscious effort to find the open player or to help a player work free.  There should not be a limit on the number of dribbles by the receiver. It is not even necessary that the assist be given on the last pass. There is no restraint on the distance or type of shot made, for these are not the crucial factors in determining whether an assist should be credited. [NCAA Basketball Statisticians' Manual, 2005]

1st. Assists Rating Proposal: Assume that the average team gets assists on 80% of its successful threes and 47% on its twos. For each team you can compute their expected assists:

.8 x successful threes + .47 x successful twos
Then compare this number to their actual assists.

2nd. Assists Rating Proposal: It’s a good way to identify good passers and bad ones.

If we have two players with identical assist/turnover ratios but one of them has twice as many assists and turnovers, that player is still the better passer/ballhandler. So:

multiply assist/turnover ratio times assist rate (assists/minute), and then multiply by ten to give a more easily understood final number.

This summary resumes this topic and will be completed at the "Assists" chapter of the eBA Basketball Statistics Analysis System.  Another Basketball stats topics you'll find at the Basketball Stats Discussions section of our eBA Stats.com site.

   Jean Louis Trezeguet - eBA Stats Team - The Basketball Statistics Analysis