I tend to look for the Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%). This statistic adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal.
Personally speaking, I prefer eFG% from TS%.
The formula for TS% is the following
where
PTS = Total points scored
FGA = Field Goals Attempted (2pt + 3pt)
FTA = Free Throws Attempted
There are 2 potential problems here:
1. The coefficient 0.44 is related to ratio in FTAs from 2 point or 3 point possessions in NBA and and-1 attempts. If all FTAs are from 2 point shooting foul possessions, the coefficient should be 0.5, 0.333 for all 3 point shooting foul possessions, and 0 for all and-1 possessions. For different leagues or in different era, the FTAs ratio is different. It is questionable to use same true shooting percentage formula on those leagues unless the coefficient 0.44 is being adjusted. This raises another question that the true shooting percentage is not comparable for different leagues, age, gender, etc, even for different era.
2. The formula doesn't differentiate between 3-point shots and 2-point shots.
The two (eFG & TS) are measuring two very different things.
eFG = effective shooting efficiency from the floor. I.E., how well the player puts the ball in the basket on field goal attempts, weighted to account for both the increased difficulty and value of 3PT shots.
TS = scoring efficiency. How efficiently the player converts scoring attempts into points. This takes into account the ability to get to the FT line, which is a critically important, but completely different skill from shooting efficiency.
I see no reason to "prefer" one over the other. Both are very, very important measures. They just tell us very different things about a player.
As to the ".44" number being an approximation, it actually so far still correlates well with actual reality. It is most certainly at least close enough to not really worry about it. The expression "FGA+.44*FTA" is simply an approximation of the number of true scoring attempts. A "true scoring attempt" is either a FGA or an attempt to score the resulted in the player getting to the line (with no FGA charged due to a foul being called). The .44 coefficient is simple a first-order approximation based on studying the data and is useful since the majority of box scores give you FGA & FTA but do not give actually observed TSA.
I do anticipate now that we have better and better data tracking that at some points most sites will start to report actual "true scoring attempts" which will convert the TS equation to just
TS = points/TSA
, which is what it is actually conceptually measuring. Yes, that does not distinguish between 2PT & 3PT shots because it is not measuring skill at shooting either. It is measuring scoring efficiency.