Turnovers will haunt the Blazers throughout the season.
Right now, the Blazers rank 20th in the league for turnovers per game at 15.3. This number may also not tell the whole story.
In their last two games, they committed 18 against the Indiana Pacers and 20 against the Houston Rockets. And most of these turnovers come off some unforced errors – like an Evan Turner pass that bounces to no one or a lazy Nurkic bouncer that’s instantly intercepted.
What’s more, these turnovers could be scaring the Blazers into going more high pick-and-roll than full ball-movement, like they preached at Media Day and played in preseason. But maybe I’m just projecting – Terry Stotts did only say the offense was 20 percent new. I guess I thought 20 percent was a larger amount.
But still! The Blazers must rid themselves of their turnover curse before it gets too strong. Otherwise, they’ll toil away in .500, praying none of their stars get injured, and/or that the Western playoffs require a smaller win threshold.
Portland will need to execute well if they want to be considered contenders.