"Only the penitent man shall pass."
"Basketball is a game of cutting and passing with player and ball movement." But situations arise when players shouldn't pass. When might that occur?
Maintaining possession.
Away from the offensive end, in the final seconds of a quarter or game (with the lead), doing nothing and allowing time to expire can be better than taking chances on surrendering possession.
Playing without a shot clock, situations arise when skilled dribbling can run out the clock.
Maintaining advantage/Avoiding disadvantage.
Sometimes young, interior players have 'scoring' possession under the basket (literally their wheelhouse), and pass instead of shooting and/or taking contact.
When driving to the basket with a favorable angle for a layup, keep your edge.
Know whom should receive and where. In transition, some players have catching ("bad hands") or ball handling deficiencies and shouldn't get the ball where they're likely to turn it over. Avoid putting players in bad positions for them.
When having a choice, avoid primary trap zones (yellow). Good defenses use boundaries to their advantage. Sometimes players can't avoid passing into primary trap zones
Avoiding turnovers.
Good passers limit turnovers. Many games, we see forecourt players "flirt" with passing to players established in the backcourt (violation). Turnovers are more like when a receiver is not open or if a receiver is in traffic ("don't play in the traffic").
Choosing better options.
Limit passes to nonshooters (shot turnover) or in a "foul situations" when better free throw shooters dictate who shoots.
Don't count your possessions; make every possession count. When an action reduces your chance of quality possession or increases risk of losing possession, keep it in the bag.
Lagniappe:
Keep the ball out of the paint. Kevin Eastman's "Force to Tape" drill teaches that.
