"You own your paycheck." - Kevin Eastman
You own your "Triad" of minutes, role, and recognition. It's more than 'putting in the time' but investing in the core and peripherals. Know what gets and keeps you on the floor.
- Skill
- Strategy (tailor your game to its application)
- Physicality (toughness, strength, conditioning)
- Psychology (mental approach, resilience)
- Game closing skills (if you're a closer)
- Leadership
Charles Barkley asks, "What is your NBA skill?" Geno Auriemma says that if an assistant asks whom they're recruiting that's a bad sign for the player. It gets back to "possession ending" - scoring, rebounding, passing leading to scoring, defensive stops. Those are elements of Dean Oliver's "Four Factors" - SCORE, CRASH, ATTACK, and PROTECT.
What distorts the concept? Developmental programs introduce players to the sport, teach the game, competition, and impacting winning. Playing time should meet those goals and avoid discouraging players ("Never be a child's last coach.") Also, user fees have to be considered. Parents don't "Pay for Minutes" but fees (gym time, officials, league fees, uniforms) can exceed over $500/season.
With progressive time and age, performance impacts "the triad." And player performance changes everything. Maven Herb Welling says that when you get "the player," the exceptional blend of skill, athleticism, and desire "you have to take care of her."
"Control what you can control" as a player, including intangibles of energy, toughness, and relentlessness.
I worked to balance developmental lineups. Have two ball handlers, rebounders, and scorers on the court. Sometimes that would mean having the two best players on the court together. Avoid a "critical mass" of 'softness' on the floor together. When our twelve or thirteen players would face eight from a community fifty percent larger, that would give us sustainability but not advantage.
Watching teams, study intent to create and disrupt advantage. When absent, it's frustrating. Hard to watch is hard to watch at every level.
Lagniappe. Ball handling drills. Find some things to adopt.
