Random Stat: the different types of Turnovers

A: we do post detailed turnover information for players and teams (eg see the Steve Nash in depth stats page), but let's do a little leaderboard look!

Most Offensive Fouls Player Team Off. Fouls Poss%  Curry NYK 45  8.4%   Anthony DEN 33  2.7%   Bryant LAL 33  2.1%   Pachulia ATL 32  5.7%   Magloire MIL 27  5.1%   Ilgauskas CLE 27  4.0%   Arenas WAS 27  2.2%   Dampier DAL 26  9.0%   Simmons MIL 25  4.6%   Odom LAL 25  3.9%   Howard HOU 23  4.0%   Harrington ATL 23  2.7%   Butler WAS 23  3.0%   O'Neal MIA 23  3.9%   Pierce BOS 23  2.0%   James CLE 23  1.7%   Sweetney CHI 22  5.3%   Ming HOU 22  4.0%   Cassell LAC 22  2.7%   Howard ORL 22  3.2%

Yes the Knicks do have a league leader in something: Eddy Curry has a hefty margin in offensive fouls committed. Indeed on a percentage basis he's right up there too, with only Erick Dampier higher among the top 20 shown. Of course if we loosen the minimum to only say 10 fouls committed, then your rankings are as follows: - Fortson 15.0% - Arajuo 10.8% - Dampier 9.0% - Harrison 8.8% - Curry 8.4% - Chandler 8.2% On the other hand, if you sort by players with at least 300 possessions (FGA, FT, T/O) the lowest rate of getting nailed for the "O-Foul" is: - Rasheed Wallace 0.1% - Knight 0.2% - Duhon 0.3% - Marion 0.4% - McGrady 0.5%

Ah, but if you are delving into turnovers, perhaps the most appealing one to look at is passing turnovers, and in conjunction of course with the assists recorded! Now it's pretty silly to sort on sheer number, since doing so would give you 1. Steve Nash (129), 2. Andre Miller (96), 3. Jason Kidd (85), 4. Baron Davis (83)...and no one is going to claim these guys are bad passers! So instead, we'll be more constructive:

Assist-Passing T/O Ratio (Min: 100 ast) Player Team Ast Pass T/O Ratio  Arroyo DET 154  18  8.6   Paul NOK 364  46  7.9   Cassell LAC 316  50  6.3   Rose TOR 113  18  6.3   Blake POR 154  26  5.9   Billups DET 425  72  5.9   Hudson MIN 106  18  5.9   Daniels WAS 140  24  5.8   Knight CHA 389  67  5.8   Duhon CHI 259  45  5.8   Claxton NOK 221  39  5.7   Salmons PHI 124  23  5.4   Wade MIA 334  62  5.4   Bryant LAL 210  39  5.4   Ridnour SEA 322  60  5.4   Davis GSW 443  83  5.3   Hinrich CHI 313  60  5.2   Abdur-Rahim SAC 106  21  5.0   Palacio UTA 155  31  5.0   Diaw PHO 292  59  4.9

Rookie sensation Chris Paul is right up there, along with stars like Cassell and Billups. Still the lack of Nash, Kidd and other notables points out that this look rewards the players who make the safe pass most of the time, whereas the great ones are pushing it with some high risk/high reward passes that can really wreak havoc on a defense and have long lasting (read: ensuing possessions) effects. Now you're probably wondering who the worst passers are in terms of the assist:pass t/o ratio, right? Oh, New York fans rejoice! - Curry 0.5 - Carroll 0.8 - Swift 0.9 - Dalembert 0.9 - Mourning 1.0 - Nesterovic 1.2 - McCants 1.3 - Josh Smith 1.3 - Camby 1.3

Still as we pointed out, the ratio doesn't fairly reflect the guys looking to thread a pass through defenders for an easy dunk, as opposed to the safe and steady perimeter pass to a catch and shoot where the assist value is considerably lower in terms of the passer's contribution to the made bucket. So, let's do a quick recap of the current 82games "Passer Ratings".

Best Miller (Den) 18.7 Arroyo 17.7 Davis (Gs) 16.6 Nash 16.3 Knight 15.5 Paul 14.6 Billups 13.3 Kidd 13.0 Wade 11.4 Iverson 11.2

Worst Carroll -1.0 Andersen (Nok) -0.9 Curry -0.7 Harrison -0.7 Dalembert -0.7 Davis (Ny) -0.4 Petro -0.4 Nesterovic -0.4 Scalabrine -0.2 Swift -0.1

The other major class of turnovers is ball handling, and this is arguably the area where there isn't enough focus -- in today's NBA with the new perimeter foul rules, the guys who are excellent off the dribble are turning the league upside down!

Most Ballhandling Turnovers Player Team Ball T/O %  Anthony DEN 79  5.5%   Bryant LAL 79  4.4%   Howard ORL 70  8.7%   Pierce BOS 70  5.0%   Arenas WAS 69  4.5%   James CLE 68  4.0%   Wade MIA 68  4.4%   Francis ORL 67  7.0%   Johnson ATL 67  5.4%   Parker SAS 65  5.5%   Bosh TOR 64  5.5%   Gasol MEM 64  5.5%   Nash PHO 58  4.1%   Jackson IND 57  6.3%   Pachulia ATL 56  8.4%   Duncan SAS 56  5.1%   Ilgauskas CLE 55  7.2%   Claxton NOK 54  6.2%   Magloire MIL 53  9.1%   Iverson PHI 53  2.9%

Sorting by sheer number is again not a very revealing way of doing things since the guys with the ball in their hands for a huge proportion of the time are clearly going to have a few more turnovers along the way. By looking more at the % though (based on ball handling turnovers per FGA+FT Poss+Assist) you get a better idea of who is adept off the dribble, or at the least, knowing their limitations! A number in the 4% range for heavy possession users seems very, very good with the likes of Nash, LeBron, Kobe, Wade and Arenas showing up well...which makes Allen Iverson's 2.9% number all the more impressive. On the other hand, when you get up into the 7%, 8% and 9% range then you are dealing with guys who are probably better off passing it back out before they try anything too fancy! If you sort on percentage: Worst: Haywood 11.0%, Dalembert 10.7%, Magloire 9.1%, D.Howard 8.7%, Kaman 8.5% Best: R.Wallace 1.6%, Bonner 1.7%, Jones (Pho) 1.9%, Jones (Cle) 2.0%, Billups 2.3%

Some readers may have noticed the "ball handling" rating on the player stats pages, but frankly that's pretty much a placeholder until we produce our more sophisticated metric...and the "best" list above shows one of the issues with looking at things on a possesional kind of basis -- some kinds are largely catch and shoot, and while they are admirable for taking care of the ball, that's not the same as a guy like Billups who is truly handling it and dribbling it for extended periods of time while committing few turnovers.

We didn't get to Aurelino's query about half court turnovers versus transition turnovers, etc and turnovers are of course an interesting thing to look at on a team by team basis, so we'll pop this idea back in line for another random stat appearance one day.

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