Touches counts the total number of times a player handles the ball during the season, including all possessions where they receive a pass or pick up the ball. Available via NBA.com tracking data since approximately 2013-14.
Directly measures ball-handling centrality — how much a player is involved in the offense's flow beyond what shot attempts or assists capture.
High touches indicate ball-dominant role, which can be positive (high-usage star) or negative (ball-stopper who doesn't create efficiently). Must be combined with efficiency metrics to be interpretable.
Not used in APEX. USG% (Usage Rate) captures a closely related concept — the share of team possessions used — in a more analytically tractable form, and is already included in the Scoring pillar. Touches would be partially redundant with USG% and is only available for recent seasons.