Cory Joseph is in the midst of a career year on the offensive end. Unfortunately, he can’t stop getting in his own way.

Cory Joseph is putting the ball through the rim better than he ever has. That, on its own, is fantastic. His total offensive package is more refined than it has ever been. He’s finishing at the rim well, he’s diming up more guys than he ever has, and he is playing multiple roles. He has become a very useful offensive player.

And yet, he somehow still leaves a lot to be desired on that end of the floor.

Think about the Pacers lead ball-handlers for a second. They have Darren Collison, Tyreke Evans, Victor Oladipo, and even Aaron Holiday handle the ball on occasion. All of those take the ball up the floor more frequently than CoJo. Despite this, Joseph averages nearly the most dribbles per touch on the team at 3.79, only 0.02 behind Darren Collison.

Dribbling on its own is not a bad thing. It is all context dependent. You legally have to do it to move around the court with the ball. But good dribbling is dribbling with a purpose or goal. Sometimes, it is as simple as taking the ball up the court after a make. Other times, it is driving past your man to get to the basket. It can be a power dribble to draw in extra defenders in the post. There are a multitude of reasons to dribble that are beneficial to an offense.

But ineffective dribbling is problematic. It makes the offense frantic instead of the defense, it takes time away from the set, and it increases the chance of a turnover. This is where Cory Joseph’s problem is. He dribbles too frequently. and many times, he does it ineffectively.

His dribble-heavy nature this season has been his demise far too often. His 16.0 turnover percentage is a career high. His playmaking skill is in the 37th percentile amongst all guards this season. It’s not coming together well when he puts the ball on the floor, and too often we see results like this:

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Even more problematic than the number of turnovers Joseph is committing is the nature of them. Of his 36 turnovers this season, 25 have been live-ball, which most frequently lead to points for the other team. 69.4 percent of his turnovers are live-ball, the second highest percentage of his career:

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Joseph isn’t necessarily a bad ball handler. He occasionally breaks out a move that wows you as he gets to the hole and scores. But he is up there in the league rankings in terms of dribbles that either leads to nothing or something negative.

Those plays are a detriment on his shooting as well.

Shots off the dribble tend to go in at a lower percentage for a variety of reasons. They are less open most of the time, they lack the rhythm that a catch-and-shoot opportunity has, and it takes more energy to get the shot up. For Cory Joseph this anecdote is magnified, especially this season:

Once Joseph hits the three dribble barrier, his efficiency craters both inside and outside the arc. From outside the arc, he’s only hit one-third of his threes when he takes a trio of dribbles or more. From inside the arc, he’s 43/90. The shots are just worse.

Some of those looks are these weird herky-jerky floaters that just have to stop. He’s hit 33 percent on driving floaters this season, and they often come after he dribbles the air out of the basketball:

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Turing that shot into a pass to Domantas Sabonis, or just resetting the play entirely, would both be better options than that shot. CoJo is a crafty finisher, but he doesn’t hit this floater enough to continue to push it up at the rim, especially off the dribble.

When he lets it fly off the dribble from beyond the arc, the result tends to be… not ideal:

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CoJo is playing alongside Aaron Holiday more frequently. When Victor Oladipo returns, he will share the floor with Tyreke Evans and Oladipo more often. All of those players are more effective ball handlers than Joseph. They should take some floor general duties away from him.

While Joseph is stroking it like he never has before, he would benefit from not putting the ball on the floor so much. He’s hitting 73.9 percent on catch and shoot jumpers. He occasionally makes a nifty move when he puts the ball on the floor. But all in all, pounding the rock is holding back his offensive game. If he can maintain career shooting number, his season will continue to be an effective one on the offensive end of the floor. But his offensive impact could soar to new heights with a reduced number of ball bounces.