Bledsoe's turnovers

[Revived]

Similar to Kieff's rebounding, Bledsoe's turnovers is something the Suns really need to address imo. He hasn't showed any improvement in this category from last season, he's averaging the same 3.3 turnovers per game. His turnovers have gotten worse once we traded Dragic and IT away making him more of a primary ball handler as he's averaging 5 turnovers a game post All Star break. He was still turning it over a ton before the trades but he's doing it even more so once he became the primary ball handler.

Now tons of primary ball handlers turn the ball over a lot and that would be fine if he was racking up the assists to match it. His assist/TO ratio is a horrific 1.80 a game which is among the worst in the NBA

Ranked #47 among qualified players in the NBA, you have to actually go to page 2 to even see his name

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/assists/sort/assistTurnoverRatio/position/point-guards

I get that its his 2nd year as starting PG but he's a 25 year old whose been in this league for 5 years now whether its playing, practicing or watching. If he really wants to prove that he's worth that $70 million contract he's on, he needs to improve his improvers by a large margin imo.

He's had 7 games of 5 turnovers or more in just February and March including back to back 7 turnover games in the last 2 Suns games.

What's irritating is that a lot of his turnovers are simply careless turnovers, he forces the issue and he seems to telegraph tons of passes. Staring down your intended target before throwing the ball is something that will never work in the NBA. His "drive to the hoop recklessly jump pass" is also so damn frustrating, he honestly has no clue what he's gonna do until he gets inside the paint, gets trapped and jumps AND THEN decides on what to do with the ball during the short time that he's in the air. He also picks up his dribble so damn early. One thing that Dragic learned from being backup to Nash is to keep dribble alive even when your under the rim, I wish Bledsoe could have picked up on this as well.

You would think someone who watched CP3 and played against him every day in practice for like 3 full years would have better bball IQ and better feel for the game.

He's really, really gotta improve on his turnovers if he wants to lead the Suns team anywhere as their starting PG imo. He's been doing everything else fine but these turnovers have just been way too damn much.

[MilotheSlayer]

I look at his TO's like this. He hasn't been told to lead a team since high school. He played along side Wall in college and played behind CP in LAC. He's been told to drive the ball and score the rock. He missed most of the season last year, so this is his first year where when he's in the game he's the one bringing the ball up and initiating the offense. This teams window is still a few years away so I'm okay with sticking with him and hoping he brings the number down. (Which I think he will) He fills up the stat sheet in so many areas it'd be asinine to just give up on him now.

[Revived]

I look at his TO's like this. He hasn't been told to lead a team since high school. He played along side Wall in college and played behind CP in LAC. He's been told to drive the ball and score the rock. He missed most of the season last year, so this is his first year where when he's in the game he's the one bringing the ball up and initiating the offense. This teams window is still a few years away so I'm okay with sticking with him and hoping he brings the number down. (Which I think he will) He fills up the stat sheet in so many areas it'd be asinine to just give up on him now.

I'm not saying give up on him. And yea he does everything else but the most important thing for a PG is assist/TO ratio imo. Everything else is a bonus.

[MilotheSlayer]

I'm not saying give up on him. And yea he does everything else but the most important thing for a PG is assist/TO ratio imo. Everything else is a bonus.

I agree that it's important, but in this day and age the PG position just needs to initiate the flow of the offense. We do run a PnR offense so I would like his Assist number to be 2/game higher, but like the article posted in another thread stated. We run pick and pops with the Morri and instead of shots they take it and drive. He's learning though, and that's the big thing.

[jeff2020]

Bledsoe is the key to our future with Len, knight, and markieff. This is his first full year at point and we have had a huge roater turnover midseason. He will be fine as long as he cuts down on the pull up 3s. Most of his turnovers come trying to make plays which is fine. His 3s are the thing I have a problem with

[JTrain]

Out of 55 guards with significant starts this season (at least 25), Bledsoe is #11 in turnovers per 100 possessions. Knight is #9. Those are both very bad.

Now, there are some great players near or above those levels of turnovers. But in order in make the turnovers "worth it" you have to also be very high in creating points, either by directly scoring or by assisting.

Bledsoe scores 24.9 PPH (points per 100 poss.) and Knight scores 28. Bledsoe has 8.8 APH (assists per 100 poss.) and Knight has 8.5. You'll find that the players having great seasons tend to outweight their turnovers by having significantly higher points and/or assists for every turnover. Westbrook puts in 40.3 PPH and 12.3 APH. Harden 37.3 PPH. John Wall 14.6 AHP. Curry 35.6 PPH and 11.6 APH.

Let's take the league average of roughly 2.25 points per assist to figure the approximate amount of points being contributed by the assists, add that to actual points scored, then divide the total by the turnovers (all of this is per 100 poss.). This will give us a points created per turnover stat and show us how badly these starting guards are affecting their games via turnovers.

Here is the data, sorted from best to worst by points created per turnover:



Here it is in chart form. The two orange dots are our guys:



Turnovers are definitely a problem for both Bledsoe and Knight.

[JTrain]

A lot of people are quick to point out that we have a very young team, in hopes that there will be significant growth among the players. But while Bledsoe and the Morri are young in the respect that they still have a lot of years left of good basketball, they are actually not that young in basketball years. And if you look at the older great players (27+) you won't see many of them that showed significant improvement after their 25th birthday. In fact, most of them were quite obviously stars by their 22nd or 23rd birthdays.

So while there may be minor improvements, I think we pretty much know what we have in Bledsoe, Keef and even Knight: good players but not great players.

[saintEscaton]

Gunna start waging on over/under 5+ TOs for Bled every game. Its a sure thing

[Puff]

I understand the concern for Bledsoe's turnovers and certainly a lot of them are his fault. However I seldom see anyone moving and often he has to request a pick from his teammates to free himself. The well coached teams seem to keep the ball moving while keeping everyone involved. When Bledsoe loses his dribble no one seems to even try to go get the ball and keep the offense moving. Nothing ever seems to flow. If we don't turn it over and we shoot 50% or better from the 3 point line we look pretty good. That is basically our winning formula.

Last year we had Green and Goran shooting out of their minds so that we could win 48 games. Green now cannot get court time, Goran is in Miami and IT is in Boston.

We suck and so does the style of basketball we play.

We are not a fun team to watch.

[schnakenpopanz]

4.6 Turnovers since the All star break.
This is beyond awful-

[JTrain]

Sucks that the PG market is saturated for the foreseeable future. But maybe we can find one team desperate enough for one that has a good young PF available. I can't really think of one at the moment.

[In Len We Trust]

Every time Eric gets a nice stat line he ruins it with the turnovers. More turnovers than assists is 100% unacceptable.

[SunsRback4Good]

He needs to be traded immediately cause he isn't a pg of the future for this team.

[RunDogGun]

While some of Bledsoe's turnovers are just plain stupid, I think they are correctable. What's tough about that table shown, it doesn't show the tendencies of players they are assisting to. If some are spot up shooter, or just great finishers off pick and rolls vs guys that take one or two dribbles after they receive a pass, or guys that like to create once they get a pass, which usually (even if made basket as a result of a pass) are listed as unassisted.

[Damkac]

Is there any great retired pg who teach playmaking like Hakeem is teaching post moves?

[3rdside]

Jason Kidd


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[saintEscaton]

Jason Kidd


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup just deal him to the Bukcs if we cant convince him to jump ship and join our coaching staff

[RunDogGun]

Bledsoe needs to watch a ton of game film, and talk to his players. He needs to know where they will be, and want to be. There are tons of things he can work on, but knowing where players should get the pass, at the best position to score will be the key for him. He needs to know when is the best time to lob, bounce pass, chest pass, or just not to pass. It would also help if guys cut to the basket more. If you noticed, the other night when Warren cut to the hoop, Bledsoe found him twice, and made the correct pass.

[NavLDO]

That's strange that his TO rate has skyrocketed since the All-Star Break. I wonder what could have happened at that time that could have had such an influence...

...Oh wait, we lost 2 PGs with the highest number of minutes, aside from Bledsoe, traded away a 3rd PG, and added another combo Guard and tried to integrate him into our offense immediately.

This information, IMO, is pointless. Yes, his TO rate is going to increase in the short term. Talk to me after 20 games next season and we'll see if it's still that high--I'm guessing, NOT. Yes, he inherently has a higher than average TO rate, and yes, it should be addressed in the off-season--maybe when he has an off-season that's not spending 4 months away from the team due to contract issues.

But this whole "The sky is falling, the sky is falling" overreaction about TO rate after the All-Star Break is senseless, IMO. I'm more interested in overall, how does he fair and in comparison to Knight, plus 4 other PGs considered to be better than he is--Wall, Westbrook, Paul, Lillard--he compares rather evenly across the board. Per Game, Per 36, Per 100 Pos--He's neither the best or worst in any of those situations IRT Turnovers.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... =knighbr03

You take the good with the bad. He averages less Points than everyone on the list in all the situations, but he is also at the top in those situations for Blocks. He compares favorably in Steals, FG%, 2Pt%, and Rebounds, and is average in 3Pt%, and a little below average in Assts and FT%. Bottom line is, overall, he compares favorably with those guys across the board--better in some areas, worse in others, but by no means is he WAY below average in TOs; he's actually about average in that area, overall, so his recent numbers don't surprise me, nor do they alarm me in anyway, because to me, it's explained away rather easily.

[In Len We Trust]

Jason Kidd


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup just deal him to the Bukcs if we cant convince him to jump ship and join our coaching staff

Lol at "join our coaching staff."

Kidd would be our head coach, and Jeff wouldn't even have a case over him.