After the Celtics turned the ball over just three times in the first half yesterday against Orlando, Greg Payne of CelticsBlog tweeted a question: Did the return of Marquis Daniels, the C’s steady back-up point guard/shooting guard/small forward, have something to do with the decline in Boston’s turnovers?
I had been wondering the same thing before the game. Here are the C’s turnover figures in games with and without Daniels, not including Sunday’s loss to Orlando.
With Daniels (19 games): 15.1 turnovers per game
Without Daniels (28 games): 16.1 turnover per game
That’s not much, but it’s also not nothing. If the C’s season-long turnover average were 16.1 per game, they’d be leading the league in turnovers per game despite playing a very slow pace. Cut out one turnover, and the C’s would rank about 20th in raw turnovers per game—still bad, but not far from league average.
Of course, Golden State turning the ball over 15 times per game isn’t the same as Boston turning the ball over 15 times per game; the Warriors play fast and use about nine more possessions than the C’s, so if the teams’ raw turnovers are equal, it means Golden State—Golden freaking State!—takes better care of the ball than Boston. (And they do).
But let’s get back to the Daniels Effect. » More: Does Daniels Solve the Turnover Crisis?
On The Kevin Martin Rumors
February 9th, 2010I haven’t had time to delve deeply into the Ray Allen-Kevin Martin rumors, but others have done a fine job discussing them.
Start here and here for the views of Tom Ziller, author of the Kings blog Sactown Royalty and a writer for NBA Fanhouse. Ziller is a longtime Martin fan (from the days before the stat gurus made Martin a cult foul-drawing icon) and he says the C’s would be making a great deal in any Allen-Martin trade…. » More: On The Kevin Martin Rumors
6 Comments »
Posted in Commentary, Notebook