The Portland Trail Blazers currently rank last in points off turnovers.
There’s no crying in basketball, and that’s that. When an opponent makes a mistake, the only option is to go for the jugular. But maybe the Portland Trail Blazers are being too friendly…
Right now, the team currently ranks dead last in points off turnovers with 13.6 per game.
The problem appears two-fold.
First, the Blazers just don’t force their opponents into many mistakes. Like their points off turnovers, they also rank last in opponents’ turnovers per game at 12.0, per teamrankings.com. So, the Blazers’ players getting the fewest amount of chances at capitalizing on these opportunities. It’s no wonder they’re falling behind in this category.
Comparatively, the Oklahoma City Thunder rank first in both opponents’ turnovers per game (18.5) and points off these turnovers (22.1).
You’ve figured it out by now. The numbers correlate with each other.
That is, until they don’t anymore.
Take the Milwaukee Bucks, for example. They currently rank 27th in the league in opponents’ turnovers per game (13.1) but 15th in points off turnovers (17.3).
This likely has to do with the Giannis Antetokounmpo factor. With his elite size, strength, speed, and finishing ability, the Greek Freak gets out running whenever the defense isn’t set. There’s almost nobody that can guard Giannis isolated in the half-court, much less when he is barreling down the floor at them one-on-one.
However, it can’t be just that. Among players that have played in more than 10 games this season with 20 or more minutes per game, Damian Lillard ranks 20th among players in points off turnovers with 3.7. That’s higher than guys like Kevin Durant (30th) or Blake Griffin (32nd).
Rather than not having an elite player who can finish these opportunities, it appears the Blazers are lacking on the contributions from the players around Lillard.
This is the second part of the problem: the fact that other teams’ role players, like the Bucks’, have been more effective on scoring off turnovers than the Blazers.
The Blazers’ top five scorers in these scenarios are solid: Lillard, CJ McCollum (2.2), Jusuf Nurkic (1.7), Zach Collins (1.6), Al-Farouq Aminu (1.2). But the rest of the team averages less than one point.
Comparatively, the Bucks go seven players deep that score over one-point per game on turnovers. Their top three in Giannis (4.3), Eric Bledsoe (3.4), and Khris Middleton (2.5) score a combined 2.6 points more off turnovers. Between the top seven players – who have appeared in more than 10 games – the Bucks score 3.9 points more.
Something needs to change.
But then again, maybe not. After all, the Blazer also ranked 30th in points off turnovers the previous year (14.0). They won 49 games, good enough for the 3rd seed in the Western Conference.
But if the Blazers do end up making any moves to their roster this year, they may want to seek out players who either force more turnovers, are efficient in scoring off them, or, even better, do both.
While every team could use players who capitalize when they have an advantage, the Blazers look particularly in need of one to better compare to the rest of the league.