In his first season in Spain, TJ Shorts is on the verge of etching his name into the Liga Endesa history books while leading a revamped Valencia Basket side looking to maintain its place among the elite of Spanish and European basketball after last season’s breakthrough. The American point guard is closing in on a truly unusual statistical feat in basketball, particularly in today’s game, for a team that plays at such a high tempo as Valencia Basket and for a player who handles the ball as much as the former Paris Basketball and Panathinaikos guard does.
The California native is putting up remarkable numbers for a player at his position with such a heavy workload: he has made it through the first five rounds of the season without committing a single turnover. With 19 assists in 85 minutes of action, he is now one game away from matching a mark that has stood for more than a quarter of a century.
The record Shorts could surpass this Sunday against Baskonia was set by Toñín Llorente during the first five rounds of the 1999–2000 season. The Spanish point guard dished out 20 assists without giving the ball away once, a feat no other floor general has matched since. Shorts therefore needs one more turnover-free outing to reach the historic mark. If he records at least one assist while keeping his turnover count at zero, he will match Llorente’s achievement; if he finishes with more than 20 assists, he will surpass it. It is worth noting that the assist-to-turnover ratio is one of the metrics coaches place considerable value on when evaluating a point guard’s performance. In that regard, Shorts’ numbers for Valencia Basket are, quite simply, as good as it gets.
Shorts’ achievement goes well beyond an intriguing statistical quirk. He is an explosive point guard who can beat the first line of defense with a change of pace, create advantages out of the pick-and-roll and find the open man when help defense cuts off his path to the rim. His ability to alternate between attacking the basket and setting up teammates makes every possession a threat and generally turns him into the opposing defense’s primary focus. Executing that entire offensive repertoire without committing a turnover is therefore an exceptionally rare feat.
That said, a comparison with his EuroLeague numbers highlights the higher demands of continental competition. In six games and more than 138 minutes of action for Valencia Basket —known as the Taronja— Shorts is averaging 5.7 assists and two turnovers per game. Those are far more human numbers, and they make his extraordinary ball security in the Spanish league all the more impressive.
Shorts is now within reach of Toñín Llorente’s historic mark while chasing another milestone: becoming the first point guard to play the first 100 minutes of a season without committing a single turnover. In a game as fast-paced as modern basketball, that is a feat worth paying attention to. On Sunday against Baskonia, the Valencia Basket guard could turn an already outstanding start to the season into a golden page in the history of Spain’s top basketball league.
