Explain One Play: are 26 turnovers a fluke or flaw?

It might seem weird to harp on the 26 turnover game, given the complete annihilation of the Clippers on Oct 30, but so far the turnover festival has been the norm this year. Let’s look at that game to see how much is correctable and how much is structural.

I know all the articles say the W’s had 25 turnovers, but by Basketball Reference, and my video, it was 26, because there was a 24 second violation that didn’t get assigned to anyone.

Here’s a movie of 25 of the TOs (no 24 sec violation). Best played with the sound on.

I saw

• 4 silly traveling violations. You’ll always get one here or there, but four seems irresponsible. Klay Thompson (2), Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant were the culprits.
• 4 miscommunicatons. These should get better with better communication, time to gel, and lineup stability. Draymond Green was a serial offender here.
• 2 plays disrupted by uncalled fouls. That’s life.
• 4 interceptions from the Pistons overplaying the passing lanes and the Warriors not adjusting. This can be fixed with better attention to backcutting to counter overplaying the pass. The Warriors have been quite lazy and sloppy on cuts this year.
• 2 soft passes out of unexpected traps. Practice and game plan will fix this.
• 8 poorly thrown passes. Not completely sure how to fix this except for just working on the basics in practice and more accountability.
• 1 careless bobble at the end of the game scramble, and 1 24-second violation.

Traveling can be tightened up through effort. The 8 badly thrown passes can be tightened up through effort. That’s already 12 out of 26, which would leave 14, which is a typical NBA total. So there is hope.

Final Thoughts

Last night’s 26 turnovers against DET was the most by the Warriors since the 27 turkeys they tossed up against Phoenix in 2014. By coincidence, that was the last time I was inspired to make a super cut of all the turnovers in Turnovers: The Movie (2014).

In 2014, we saw a team on the rise, trying to adjust to Coach Steve Kerr’s pass-heavy motion offense after being at the bottom of the league passing in 2013-14 under Coach Mark Jackson. The team didn’t know how good it could be, but they were off to a fragile fast start. The sense then was the team was still thinking through the new playbook.

This time around the team seems like fat cats that have come back to the season hungover from a championship, casually figuring they can flip the switch when the real games start, with their habits poor, intensity low, and their execution sloppy. They know what to do, but can’t get up to game speed. The Clippers game was a good sign, but they always play the Clippers well nowadays. So the jury is still out.

Poll

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