What counts as a turnover in basketball?

A turnover is a mistake by the offense that gives the ball to the defense before the offense gets a shot off. The NBA Stats Glossary says a turnover "occurs when the player or team on offense loses the ball to the defense." Bad passes, lost dribbles, violations and offensive fouls all count.

What counts

The FIBA Statisticians' Manual sorts turnovers into four types:

• Bad pass. The pass goes out of bounds or to a defender. Charge the passer, unless the pass should have been caught. Then charge the receiver.
• Ball handling. The player loses the ball while dribbling or holding it, or drops a pass they should have caught.
• Violation. Traveling, a double dribble, a 3-second or 5-second violation, a backcourt violation, stepping out of bounds with the ball.
• Offensive foul. A charge, a moving screen or a push-off by the team with the ball.

What does not count

• A missed shot. Once the shot goes up, a miss is a miss, not a turnover. Whoever controls the ball next gets a rebound.
• A defensive foul. Only the team with the ball can commit a turnover.
• A held ball the offense keeps. If the possession arrow gives the ball back to the offense, nothing is recorded.

Turnovers and steals

Every steal has a matching turnover. Not every turnover has a steal.

• A defender intercepts a pass: turnover on the passer, steal for the defender.
• A player travels: turnover, no steal. No defender caused it.
• A defender deflects a pass out of bounds: turnover, no steal. FIBA gives no steal when the ball goes dead and the defense gets it out of bounds.
• A defender takes a charge: turnover, no steal. A steal needs a defender to touch the ball.

Judgment calls

• Bad pass or bad catch? If the pass was catchable, the receiver gets the turnover.
• Which player caused it? A bad pass can force a teammate to step out of bounds. The FIBA manual charges whoever started the mistake, here the passer.
• Control. When the ball changes hands twice in a scramble, the statkeeper decides if either team had control. FIBA's rule: if in doubt, assume there was no control. Then that team didn't turn it over.
• Team violations. FIBA charges some turnovers to the team, not to a player. Examples are shot-clock violations, 8-second violations and 5-second inbound violations. Leagues handle these in different ways.

How a statkeeper records it

Mark the turnover in the player's row the moment possession flips. Then ask whether a defender touched the ball. If one did, mark a steal in their row too.

An offensive foul gets two marks on the same player: a personal foul and a turnover. New statkeepers often record one and forget the other.

With HoopReads you say it as it happens:

“Tyler travels”

An offensive foul in one sentence:

“James turns it over, foul on James”

HoopReads charges every turnover to a player. It doesn't record a turnover that belongs to no player, such as a shot-clock violation, so its team total is the sum of the players' turnovers. If your program counts those team-level turnovers, keep them in a separate note.

Related

• How to keep basketball stats: the full workflow.
• How to record assists: coaches often compare the two.
• Basketball box score: where TO sits in the final table.