Turnovers TO

TO stands for turnovers in basketball. Losing the ball to the other team before a shot goes up — a bad pass, a strip, an offensive foul, a step out of bounds. Also called giveaways. Other sites write it TOV.

How TO is calculated

Counted. Lower is better, and the league tracks it against assists as AST/TO.

High turnover totals follow the ball, not carelessness: the players who lead the league in turnovers are almost always the same ones who lead it in assists.

What counts as a good TO?

Half of the 452 qualified NBA players in 2025-26 were at or below 1.0 per game. The tenth with the most were above 2.4, which is where the number stops being a good sign.

Median
1.0
Top 10%
2.4
Leader
4.0

By position, the median was 1.2 for G, 1.0 for C and 0.9 for F.

Qualified: 20+ games, non-zero, 2025-26 regular season.

Turnovers questions