The Greatest Challenge

The great challenge for basketball players is to MAKE THE PLAYERS AROUND YOU BETTER. The best players have the greatest capacity to do so.

How do you do that? You must develop individual skills and have the awareness to create for and utilize your teammates.

Some examples:

• Moving without the ball
• Passing to open players
• Setting screens, and rolling to the basket or popping to open spots
• Help defense (and recover as needed)
• Blocking out to allow your teammates (or yourself) to rebound
• Hitting the outlet pass AFTER securing the rebound

Although I'm often tasked with coaching the fours and fives (which involves a lot of footwork), I grew up as a perimeter player (and mostly as a baseball player to be honest)...

Here's a brief article from the Coaches' Toolbox on what perimeter players need to develop. Becoming an accomplished player means acquiring and refining a broad individual skill set and learning how to use it. If we are successful, you will be able to become a coach someday and share your knowledge with your students. As we say in medicine, "see one, do one, teach one."