I've been very interested in this question this season, as my Maryville team started out getting absolutely crushed against the press. Lost the first three games, including one as a 31-point favorite and two in which I thought my team had a significant advantage. So I switched from normal tempo to slowdown, and my impression was that my offense was running better. But impressions are easily biased, so I'll look up some numbers. I'm not digging through play-by-plays to find out how many possessions were in each game, so I've compared turnovers to the total number of shots by both teams, which should be a decent proxy for turnover rate (note: I used total shots instead of total shots by my team because the more I turn it over, the more my shot total goes down, but the game shot total stays high). I've listed that as a decimal ratio.
So here are the numbers.
120 shots, 19 turnovers (.16), 45% FG (39 ATH, 50 SPD, 41 DEF)
96 shots, 18 turnovers (.19), 45% FG (35 ATH, 43 SPD, 36 DEF)
89 shots, 14 turnovers (.16) , 39% FG (42 ATH, 37 SPD, 40 DEF)
111 shots, 16 turnovers (.14), 48% FG (32 ATH, 44 SPD, 27 DEF)
79 shots, 15 turnovers (.19), 56% FG (42 ATH, 46 SPD, 46 DEF)
83 shots, 16 turnovers (.19), 42% FG (55 ATH, 51 SPD, 59 DEF)
118 shots, 17 turnovers (.14) , 56% FG (37 ATH, 54 SPD, 37 DEF)
100 shots, 11 turnovers (.11), 57% FG (32 ATH, 46 SPD, 30 DEF)
94 shots, 10 turnovers (.11), 57% FG (23 ATH, 53 SPD, 24 DEF)
85 shots, 13 turnovers, (.15) 43% (39 ATH, 46 SPD, 42 DEF)
Four games at normal tempo:
Average opponent ratings: 37 ATH, 44 SPD, 36 DEF
Average turnovers/total shots: .16
Average FG: 44%
Record: 1-3 (including loss as -31 favorite)
Six games at slowdown
Average opponent ratings: 38 ATH, 49 SPD, 38 DEF
average turnovers/total shots: .15
average FG: 52%
record: 4-2 (including win as +10 underdog)
How does that work with y'all's observations? What's the conclusion? Other than it's obviously worked better for my particular team.