Why is it that I always have to explain basketball 101 to people?
Yeah 2 TOs when you're shooting enough to score 20 PPG is nothing. Throw in 5 assists and you're doing VERY well in the TO department.
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First of all, "shooting enough to score 20 PPG" is an incredibly meaningless statement.
You DO realize that scoring 20 points is a BAD thing if your field goal percentage is as low as Cousins' is? You DO realize that a missed shot has the exact same effect as a turnover if you don't get the offensive rebound?
Think about it this way: the league average field goal percentage for a center is 49.7%. During Cousins' BEST STRETCH OF THE SEASON he shot 48, but his average for the ENTIRE season so far is a measly 42.9%. This coming from a player who launches 23.5 field goal attempts every game.
So, first of all, it should be a HUGE red flag to you when he has more field goal attempts than points. So, out of 23.5 field goal attempts, he converts, on average, 42.9% of them (before you say anything about him having a slump for the season, his FG from previous seasons is not much better. His career average is just over 43). So, in an average game, he is going to get you about 10 field goals (or, roughly 20 points, give or take depending on 3 pointers and free throws and all that).
But a LEAGUE AVERAGE center, on the same number of field goal attempts, will convert almost 12 of those field goals. Cousins is producing FEWER POINTS PER GAME THAN AN AVERAGE CENTER WOULD GIVEN THE SAME NUMBER OF FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS. That means Cousins is a below average scorer. Considering the Kings have plenty of ABOVE average shooters, Cousins is actively hurting the Kings by taking all of those shots that should be being taken by GOOD shooters, as opposed to BAD ones.
So that's that.
Now, on to the turnovers. Yes, during Cousins's BEST STRETCH OF THE SEASON he had a good assist to turnover ratio. Good for him. Do you know how he is doing on the season as a whole? 2.7 assists per game, 2.5 turnovers per game. Ouch.
So when Cousins plays out of his mind, best basketball of the season, he just manages to not turn the ball over so much as he usually does, but he is stool shooting TERRIBLY.
I am not impressed, and I am really surprised at how often I have to explain to people that 20 points on 23 shots is NOT a good thing to have on your basketball team. It is actively harmful. If you are missing 13 shots per game, on average, as Cousins is, and your team manages to grab <10% of available offensive rebounds (as the Kings do) - meaning of those 13 you will get 1-2 back, let's say 2 to be charitable.
That's 11 extra turnovers.
And yes, they are equivalent. After all, what is the difference between a missed shot and a turnover? Absolutely nothing. It gives the other team possession, and basketball is a game of maximizing possessions. Obviously, every player misses shots. However, you need to make sure that the players with the best chance of making a shot are taking it, to increase the odds of scoring points versus turning the ball over to the other team. When you have a player that converts field goal attempts at a rate that is LOWER THAN THE LEAGUE AVERAGE, he should NOT be taking a lot of shots, because he will be turning the ball over to the other team at a greater rate.
Seriously, people, basketball 101.