If you consider the number of actual points produced and detract from that the average number of turnovers of the team multiplied by the average turnovers by the player, you'll have your answer. The detrimental effect of two or three extra turnovers to a player's value is usually overstated.
Assists/turnover ratio is bullshyt anyway. Turnovers should be compared with steals. Assists should be compared with the number of passes a player makes in a game.
Turnovers are lost possessions. Their effect can be exaggerated, but they're still a significantly meaningful part of looking at what a player is doing.
The reason that assist/turnover ratio matters is because both of them are a side effect of having the ball in your hands a lot. Even the poorest passing PG's in the league, if they dominate the ball, will have a lot of assists by default...and a lot of turnovers by default. Looking at an assist/turnover ratio is one way of seeing whether a player with distribution responsibilities is maximizing possessions when he does have the ball in his hands.
Or course, there may be a deeper stat that would reach that better....something like "usage/assist ratio and usage/turnover ratio" and then evaluate that in comparison with points created on one's own. I wouldn't say that you can directly add in points to created points, because there's other things about team chemistry and such going on there as well that makes those created points a different thing.
What Westbrook and Harden are doing is definitely more impressive than what Chris Paul is doing. The extra points the first two score are significant and more impressive than having two or three less turnovers.
I wasn't talking about points (or rebounds, or defense) at all. I was
merely talking about assists. I believe that CP3 is a better passer, and more effective at maximizing his team's play via passes, than Harden's or Westbrook's is. And while assist/turnover ratio is a quite simplistic way of seeing that, it's less simplistic than mere assist numbers, which is what Harden/Westbrook fans are often using.
It also bears remembering that CP3 is getting his 18 and 8 in 30 minutes a game. His stats look smaller than they actually are because the Clippers have been blowing out teams so regularly that he's barely playing. If he was playing normal minutes, he'd be at 22 and 10....but still only 2 turnovers a game. And his scoring is insanely efficient - Westbrook hasn't shown he ability to score with that kind of efficiency even when he's been on a team with some really good players, while CP3 (and Harden) have continued their scoring efficiency regardless of who their teammates were. I will say that Westbrook has somehow remarkably improved this year - I thought his 3pt-shooting would crater this year, but he's somehow having a career year there. It remains to be seen if that will hold.
CP3 at 63% true shooting, Harden at 63% true shooting, and Westbrook at 56% true shooting are all insanely impressive for what they're doing though. I have to imagine that all three of those numbers are going to regress over the season, but they're crazy right now.
Who is "more impressive" is a matter of subjectivity. But if I'm trying to build a championship team with all the pieces in place, I'm taking CP3 as my point guard piece before I take Westbrook or Harden. Taking everything into account.
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