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Turnovers are a big part of the game of basketball. Turnovers can ruin a drive before the player even shoots a shot. Turnovers are obviously a negative but how much impact does turnovers have on a team's winning. This project will determine how much turnovers affect a team's win %.
For this project, I got data from all 30 NBA teams across three years. I collected statistics including turnovers per game, total wins, and winning percentage. To make things simpler, I used winning percentage instead of total wins and compared it with turnovers per game.
To compare total wins and turnovers per game I used Pearson correlation coefficient. A correlation closer to 1 means there is a strong positive relationship, while -1 indicates a strong negative correlation. For this project, a result closer to -1 would show that as turnovers increase, winning percentage tends to decrease which is what we want to see.
After I determined the correlation between turnovers per game and winning percentage, I found a correlation coefficient of -0.556. This means that there is a moderately negative relationship between the two stats. This shows that teams that commit less turnovers win more games.
The negative correlation shows that keeping the ball safe can give teams an advantage. The fewer turnovers a team makes, the more chances it has to score. While also making more turnover gives the opponents more chances to make shots.
While the results show a connection between turnovers and winning, it does not necessarily mean that turnovers cause a team to lose. There are also other elements that contribute to the success of the teams including shooting, defense, rebounding, injuries, and talent of the team
In conclusion, the data shows that turnovers negatively affect NBA teams. The Pearson correlation coefficient shows there is a -0.556 correlation meaning teams that have more turnovers have less total wins. Though turnovers aren't the only factor in winning, Keeping the ball safe is an important part to winning in basketball.
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