Turnover

In basketball, a turnover means a team losing the ball to their opponents, in other words, a wasted opportunity as this rarely happens by accident. This tends to happen because of bad strategy, unsatisfactory teamwork or fouls committed by the team.

There are obvious basketball rules and among them, a turnover means the team is guilty of committing a foul. A turnover occurs when a ball is stolen from the opponent or when a player makes a double dribble.

Other instances include stepping out of bounds, throwing the ball out of bounds, making the three-second or five-second violation, a shot-clock violation, backcourt violation and traveling. There are offensive fouls and technical fouls in basketball which all players should follow, if not they might get a turnover when these mistakes happen.

Types of Turnovers:

1. Forced Turnovers: a defender steals the ball or gives a bad pass, traps a player and forces them to make a poor decision, etc. Simply put – turnovers caused by the opponent is solid defense.
2. Unforced Turnovers: an aggressive player throws a poor pass, bounces the ball off their foot, moves screens, steps out of boundaries, gives soft passes, doesn’t catch the ball, double dribbles, makes offensive fouls, travels, etc.

These are some of the violations that cause turnovers:

• walking or traveling;
• double dribbling;
• backcourt violation;
• held ball violation;
• stealing;
• passing the ball to an opponent;
• shot clock violation;
• 3- second violation;
• 5-second inbound violation;
• 10-second backcourt violation;
• paint violation;
• goaltending;
• charging;
• carrying or palming.

Turnovers are never accidental and they tend to happen when team members aren’t playing hand in hand. They’re caused by lack of practice, not having proper gameplay and not reviewing previous game tapes. If a team doesn’t identify and resolve what caused the turnover, chances are it will happen again.

Another reason for turnover is not knowing the opponents’ moves before the game.

Turnovers also happen because players are nervous or excited. When in possession of the ball, their first instinct might be to shoot the hoop, which might not be the best idea at that point. During practice, a player won’t face unexpected events, but when these occur during a game, nerves or confusion may get the better of them.