Possession Length
Meaning
Average length of a possession
Possession length without Offensive Rebounds: The time after offensive rebounds is not taken into account
Calculation
Possession Length = sum of the duration of all possessions / number of possessions
Possession Length without Offensive Rebounds = sum of the duration of all possessions without the time after offensive rebounds / number of possessions
The time runs as soon as the opponent is no longer in possession of the ball, e.g. directly after a shot or turnover.
Interpretation
Shows whether a team’s style of play is fast or slow or if their defence allows short possessions or forces long possessions.
The difference between pure Possession Length and Possession Length without Offensive Rebounds is that the former looks at how long the total attack time is, while the latter only looks at the time until the first completion/loss of the ball in the attack, which can more accurately represent the actual tactical intention.
In general, it is not possible to draw conclusions about the quality of the team. There are successful as well as unsuccessful teams that play fast and vice versa. However, when there is a big difference in skill between two teams, the better one has usually very short possession time while the worse team has very long possessions.