Much has been made of Jrue Holidays turnovers in the first three New Orleans Pelicans preseason games. In fact, Ryan took note of them before they happened. For the purposes of this article, we take the 2013 preseason statistics to date and the idea that they predict regular season performance without quibble and examine Holidays performance with respect to turnovers.
Since we take the turnover stats at face value, we take them all as such. If small sample size can be ignored when causing worry, then it can be ignored when attempting to cure it. If the potential irrelevance is set aside for the purposes of causing worry, then it can be set aside when attempting to cure it. And so on.
Preseason Statistics
In about 78 minutes of play, Holiday had 17 turnovers: 8 against Houston (27 minutes), 4 against Dallas (24 minutes, I hate the Mavericks), and 5 against Orlando (27 minutes). The 8 turnovers against Houston really set the tone of the discussion, since the per 36 minutes rate was through the roof, and the rates against Dallas and Orlando, though better, are nowhere near what is considered acceptable. Last season, the worst per 36 minutes turnover rate by players with at least 1000 minutes logged was 3.7 (Will Bynum, Rajon Rondo, and Ricky Rubio). Jrue Holiday and James Harden were behind them at 3.6.
The above should give one pause. First, it is just unrealistic for turnover rates to remain that high according to the data from last season, which is nice to know. Second, Jrue, through among the highest-turnover-producing guards, is in good company: Rubio and Rondo are known as very good passers who are not skilled shooters.
