The Portland Trail Blazers can't hold onto the ball. Seemingly every broadcast, announcers Kevin Calabro and Lamar Hurd (rightfully) castigate the Blazers for sloppy play. Unfortunately, that sloppy play has become part of the Blazers' identity this season, and it's not improving as the season progresses.
Ranked dead last in turnover rate over the past 15 games, the Blazers (despite some overall good play in that stretch) are light years behind the rest of the league in protecting the ball. For reference, the Heat have a turnover rate of 3.8% in that stretch, compared to the Blazers' 27.6%. Ouch.
For a team that already struggles to shoot and create offense consistently, not being able to hold onto the ball is the type of problem that could cause everything to collapse, especially in a postseason atmosphere.
Who is to blame for Blazers turnover problems?
Everybody! Yay? There isn't one player who is bringing this number down. Instead, everyone on the team is just a bit too careless with the ball, and that all adds up very quickly. Orel Dizon recently wrote a great piece about Deni Avdija's recent turnover woes, and when a team's best player and primary ballhandler is struggling with turnovers, it often spreads to the whole team.
In the same period, the Blazers' defense is improving as I wrote about a few days ago. It's somewhat frustrating to see the team get better on one end of the floor, only to struggle so mightily with turnovers on the other. Being a fine defensive team that takes care of the ball would be cool, too! The Libra in me is coming out right now... Why can't we find a little balance?
There are two ways to look at this; if you want to remain optimistic, you could say that the team is staying in games despite the worst turnover rate in the league by a longshot. If you don't want to remain optimistic, you can say the Blazers are not likely to remain competitive if the turnover rate keeps up like this, no matter how much the defense improves.
As it stands, the Blazers are likely to play in the 9 vs. 10 play-in game. In other words, they'll need two wins in a row for a playoff berth. It's hard to envision winning two games in a row against playoff-caliber opponents when the team is turning the ball over every other possession.