October Nuggets Case Study

Your columnist has a distinct fascination with dubious records in sports. Most strikeouts by a hitter in a Major League Baseball season (Mark Reynolds, Arizona, 2009, which if Ks were hits would 've given him a .386 batting average!) Most fumbles by a player in a football season (Kerry Collins in 2001 and Dante Culpepper in 2002 both fumbled 23 times). Most missed shots in an NBA career (Kobe, famously.)

This year, we may be looking at another dubious record. Emmanuel Mudiay of the Denver Nuggets has 60 turnovers through the first 14 games of the season after coughing it up three times (to lower his average!) against the Golden State Warriors tonight. Part of that might just be early-season jitters for a rookie who got press-ganged into the starting role when the Nuggets traded Ty Lawson to

There are a couple of things that could get in the way of chasing this dubious record. One, if the Nuggets end up unexpectedly challenging for a Western Conference playoff spot, they might find themselves limiting Mudiay 's minutes to try and keep him from giving away the game late. Two, they could send Mudiay to the D-League to work on his ball handling. Three, Mudiay could get hurt...

...or, ultimately, the 19-year-old from the Congo could shake off the rookie jitters, learn to make smarter moves with the ball, get his turnovers down, and avoid, say, Magic Johnson 's worst season for coughing it up (314, 1990-91, with the Lakers, his last season before his initial retirement, the year Los Angeles lost to Michael Jordan 's first title team from Chicago.)

The record for most turnovers in a career? 4,524 from Karl Malone. Second is John Stockton with 4,244, and rounding out the top five are Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, and Moses Malone. The top nine are all either in the Hall of Fame or will be when they 're eligible. So at least there 's that comfort---let 's face it, you can 't rack up that many giveaways if you 're not good enough to stay on the floor with other