Turnovers aren't necessaily as bad as they are perceived to be, it really depends on WHY the turnovers are happening. Sloppiness/laziness doesn't tell the whole story either. If a player is carelessly dribbling, and dribbless off his foot, or gets his pocket picked, that's obviously a BAD turnover. Double dribble, travelling, stepping out of bounds, are also bad turnovers. But there are also "good" turnovers - moving the ball around making extra passes, etc. Each time you pass the ball there is a chance it will be intercepted. But if players are cutting and passing and looking for the open man, those are turnovers you can live with. Offensive fouls/charging are also annoying but they still show aggression and effort so you live with those. Even a 24 second violation isn't so terribad, because it shows patience in looking for a good shot instead of chucking up a trash shot with 17 seconds remaining. Bad turnovers are like free points to the opponent. "Good" turnovers are pretty much just like missed shots on the offense. That's why TO by itself is a misleading stat.
I would probably extend that a bit further and say that TO is pretty much a completely useless stat. PPP/effiency is that main stat to look at - if you have 75% effiency on offense, would it even matter how many turnovers you had?
A team that gets 10% more shots in a game well outscore a team that is 8% more efficient in those shots all else being equal.
But all else isn't equal in our case. Our freethrow rate is insane. Those turnovers must be weighed against freethrows and putting opposing defenses in foul trouble. Not that I'm happy at all with our turnovers, especially Dwight and Asik. Note: On the road, it will backfire against equally marquee defenders/teams like LeBron or Hibbert.
Figured I should just update this real quick. The Rockets this season went through the month of the November with a record of 11-4 --if you want to count the first two games of the season that occured in late october then the record would be 13-4. Either way it did improve on the start they had last season. A lot of what I had said in the original post still holds true. The team if anything has had to deal with more injuries this year than before. Being able to only play the first two games of the season with the projected starting lineup. Dwight Howard has missed almost 1/2 of the games this season (5-3 in games he does not play), Terrence Jones pretty much the entire season, and Beverley more than 1/2 the season (10 games). Factor in that in the games at least Dwight has not played (the most important player out of the injured group) the average winning percentage of the teams the Rockets have faced is: .577 and this is brought down from the fact that they played the Knicks and Lakers in that span. (I truly believe that the team was not properly prepared for the Lakers game because Dwight was a super late scratch they've been far better prepared since) Throw out those two teams the Rockets are 4-2 in that span against teams that are average .693 Saying all that they are going to be fine as soon as Dwight and the rest come back. The biggest difference has been the defense this season. Clearly the team has embraced the defensive mindset. Its the only way to explain how their defense still has been amazing despite losing arguably their two best defenders in Dwight and Beverley for 1/2 of their games this year. Its refreshing to see and it reminds me of the JVG days when the team was super competitive because of their defense despite having a lack of actual talent on the floor. It makes it a lot easier to root for these guys when you see that sort of scrappy effort on the floor. Luckily we still have an all-nba player in Harden being able to carry and lead this team offensively. Hopefully these injuries turn into that 'blessing in disguise' for guys like Black, Motiejunas, Dorsey, Canaan and even Nick Johnson later in the season and that they can still perform at the levels they have been in a more limited role.
Does anyone feel like I do, that we haven't substantially improved this year (especially with the injuries) but that 80% of the teams in the NBA have just regressed? The only ones that stayed the same just about are the ones who are leading the conferences--Memphis, GSW, Portland, Toronto, us, and Dallas. San Antonio and LAC are lurking but haven't cared enough to separate themselves from us. But they will. And then of course OKC always has the potential to explode. Who knows what the hell Cleveland is up to. But the point remains: the teams leading the NBA right now are only doing so because the real big boys haven't gotten themselves out of hibernation to knock them off their seat. It's kinda like leading in Mario Kart after Lap 1. Utterly meaningless.
Some probably agree...but I for one totally disagree. Backcourt: Let's start with Harden...his improvement is remarkable and not only on defense. He has to be in the MVP discussion at this point of the season...and is bcoming a complete super star. Jason Terry is a significant upgrade over Lin, huge upgrade. Bev, has been in and out, which has allowed Caanan to develop and improve. Our backcourt is far superior to last year's at this point. Frontcourt: Before injuries, the team was playing much improved with Howard. The entry pass is so much better, it isn't even close. Have we forgotten how painful it was to watch them try to incorporate Howard into the offense early last season? DMo's improvement really has added great depth....Asik wasn't playing anyway this time last year. With Black and Dorsey emerging, the team depth is even more enhanced. Parson's loss offset by the superb defense of Trevor. Assuming Jones recovers fully, we will be much improved in the frontcourt over last year. I haven't ever seen a Rockets team make such a turnaround on the defensive end. Its really remarkable. Maybe there has been one before but I can't remember it. The real test is what happens in the playoffs....bring it on and let's have the discussion again.
