The MOST Valuable Skill In Basketball (Not What You Think)

So then I got a question from, from Brian and he was asking me, what do you value most when playing basketball? So offense and defense. And so what do you value most on that side of the ball? And for me, you know, offensively, I'll answer that first. I value ball movement and guys who just know how to play. So that, that's the cuz when I see that, I can tell that that guy's played a lot of basketball, you know, and to me that, that leads into. He's committed to it. But in today's age. I kind of talked about this earlier, but there's a certain flow to basketball. A lot of it is perimeter oriented, ball movement, shooting. Okay. Ball movement is such a massive part of basketball these days. Okay. This is not 2000 anymore. You can just have Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady in every team going one on one with guys. That's just not how it works. Now all of a sudden this is all about ball movement, shooting. So it all starts with that ball movement, being able to push the ball off the floor, finding the open guy. And teams who do that well are teams who are successful. So as a coach, I love guys who move the ball well, who know when to make that extra pass, who know when to take the shot, and guys who just who make the right play. Okay. Because that's, that's developed through playing basketball. Okay. Defensively, this is the big part for me. Defensively, I value guys who do the little things. Like I value guys who talk. It's crazy to me how difficult it is for some players to talk when playing. But it's, it's like great. Teams are teams who talk, who communicate on defense because basketball is a team game. So when you're playing individual defense, you're going to lose to teams who are better than you. But if you want to actually compete, you got to be a team that has five guys who are together playing as one unit. And that's what the best teams do. So I value guys who make plays like that, but I also value guys who do selfless things. Again, guys who are just the consummate team players on defense. They talk, which is not talking is one of the most selfless things you can do on the basketball court because you're helping out your teammates. You're letting teammates know what when a screen's coming, let them know you're at help. Letting them know that you've got the ball, let him know that the shots gone up. All those things are helping out your teammates. That's going to make the team better. Listen, here's the thing. If you want to make your team better, you don't have to be the best player on the court, but when you're on the court, talk on defense, that's going to elevate the defense of all of your teammates. Even if you're the worst defender on the floor, that's going to elevate the play of the rest of your teammates. That's going to make them better, therefore making your team better. I mean, coaches want guys who do that. And that's the reason why the best teams are the ones who talk, because they aren't. Usually they're out there. They're all good athletes, they're all good defenders, but because they talk to each other, they elevate each other's game. So they go from good to great. That's. That's the value of talking on defense. The other thing going along with that is I value guys who, who do things like take charges, man, I love guys take charges because again, that's, that's. That's one of those, like, I'm all for the team. And more than that, those are the guys who really care about winning. That's a winning play. It's not a play that shows up in the stat book. You don't get put on overtime or slam or ball is life or taking a charge. What happens is you win more basketball games when you have guys take charges. The best teams I've played on are the guys who are teams that have multiple guys who take charges, multiple guys who are willing to take charges, who try to take charges. The worst teams that I've played on are the ones who have guys who are scared to take charges, who don't care enough to take charges, who don't want to win enough to take charges. So evaluate that for yourself. And that with defense, man, that's just all about wanting to be good. That has nothing to do with skill. You don't have to put in any work to actually do that. All this you have to know is positioning, and you just have to go try and do it. And it's crazy that more players don't do it. We're going to get into another question that's going to relate to this, but it's just. It's funny. Ryan also asked me. He asked me, what should players value? So that's a good question, too. You know, I put a video out on this, talking a little bit about, like, my issues with some of the mixtape channels, and I feel like they encourage. They encourage Selfish basketball. They encourage a me first attitude. They encourage, they encourage basically things that detract from winning, in my opinion. And so I think that the misconception now is that players think they have to, they have to score 25 points to be effective for their team. But it's, it's really, that's really not it. I think that one of the biggest things you should value is what you can, what you can contribute to the team. And that's going to look different for everybody. So I actually got a question from Ian. He was saying, you know, what things do varsity college coaches look for when they talk about putting guys on the roster? And I kind of talked about this a little bit before when I talk about, you know, college, the college podcast, which was last podcast, so check that out if you haven't seen it. But essentially I was saying that, you know, the, the important part is you have to recognize where you can contribute to the team. So not Everybody can score 25 points a game. That's fine. You don't have to be that way. And it's funny because at once, you especially once get to the college level, everybody can play. Everybody can play. And I talked to, or I talked to, I listened to a podcast with Nasir Little, who played for the Tar Heels last year, and he plays for Portland now. I believe he's a rookie, I think, because I believe he played. I believe he was in college last year, but he was talking about going from high school to college to the NBA. And he was saying, like, you know, when I was in high school, I could do whatever I wanted, okay? Because I was better than everybody. And in high school, really, it was just like, you know, play, like, go score, right? There was no real system we had to run, which is go score. Just go be better than everybody. But he said, when I got to college, all of a sudden that changed because now I'm at North Carolina, got Roy Williams as my coach. We have a system that we have to run. I can't just go down and score every time because first of all, guys are too good. Now, like, I'm playing in a whole different level of competition. He was saying that the difference between high school and college is that you're going to walk into a gym and for practice or whatever, and you might have been the best scorer in high school, but the guys that you're going to be on the team with, you're going to have juniors and seniors now who are better scores than you because they were great scores in high school, too. And now They've had two years to develop at the college level. So they're going to be the scorers in the team. So if you as a freshman come in, you can't do anything else other than score well, you're not going to play right away. You're not going to be able to contribute right away, and it's going to be tough for you. So he was saying, like, what else can you contribute to the game, to the team? Are you just a player who scores because there's guys again at the college level? Everybody can play. Okay, but what are the other things that you contribute? So he was saying, for example, he was saying when he got to the NBA, he's now playing on Portland. So he's playing on a team with Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Carmelo Anthony. There is no shortage of scorers on that team. So he understands that, like, okay, you know what? My job is not to score. Now when I get playing time, and I believe he started a couple games this year, he's saying, when I, when I get playing time, like, my goal is not to score. My goal is to. He was saying that his goal now is like, I want to get five plus rebounds a game. If I look at the score sheet after, and I had eight rebounds and zero points, that we won the game. That to me is a great game. So all of a sudden his mindset, his mindset shifts from I got a score to how can I contribute and help the team. How that relates to you, Ian, is you have to have another part of your game, okay? You can't just be a scorer. That's not that, that's important, okay? Because you want to, you want to be able to score, but you also have to be. Here's my thing. If you can score, you can play great defense, you're going to be able to contribute to teams, especially, you know, at the high school level, if you can play defense and you can score. I was talking about, again, the flow of basketball now, where it's ball movement, shooting, pushing the pace. If you have guys who can hit threes, can play good basketball and can play defense, I mean, that's, that's, that's what every coach wants. Now at the high school and college level, too, you guys who can, who can shoot, play great defense and knows how to move the ball, well, man, those are the three things. So even if you get to the college level and you got guys who are better scorers than you, as you probably will unless you're a top 1% scorer, coming out of high school, you're now all of a sudden going to be able to play because you are a great defender and you can make the right play. Okay. And then as you develop a little bit more, you're going to be able to step into that scoring role. But all of a sudden you gain minutes because you now have another skill, have another dimension to your game. Okay? So for example, when coaches go and recruit, they're not as looking for, oh, I want to find the guy who can drop 30 every game. Honestly, I was actually listening to a, it was, I was on a zoom call with some coaches the other day. They were talking about, they're all three or five college coaches from New Jersey, from different colleges in New Jersey. And they were talking about like they don't just like they'll get highlights sent to them and it'll be some kid who can, who scores 30 points a game, but he also takes 25 shots a game. Like I don't want this kid. Like I don't need a kid who's going to jack up 20 plus shots a game. Like that's just not going to work at our level. They're looking for the kids who are efficient. Okay? They're looking for a kid, you know, we need a point guard. So we're going to find a kid who can run his offense well, is tough, great ball handler, great vision, is a leader on the floor. That's who we're bringing in this year. It's not always about how good you are. It's about what role you can fill for a team. Okay, that, that goes for every level, high school and college as well. So think about what your, what your best two or three skills are and develop them. Don't be a one dimensional player that's going to allow you to contribute to the team regardless of who else is on there. And especially with those broad skills, shooting and defense. Those are, those are the two things right there where if you could do those things at a high level, you're going to be able to just plug and play anywhere. And then obviously you add in like if you have any sort of size or you're a good athlete, that's just again going to increase the ceiling that you have if you have those two skills and then whatever your measurables are. Okay, but even if you don't have that. I had somebody asked me about, you know, what they should do for an undersized guard and I was saying like, listen for you as, as an, as an undersized guard that just all of a sudden means that you need to be great at shooting, be great at ball handling, and you've got to, you got to be a great defender. Now obviously if you get matched up in a bigger guy, you might get scored on, but when you're guarding a point guard, you got to be great at it. Okay? So that, that goes for both sides of it. But again that, that's really what I'm, what I'm talking about. So I also look at a guy like Kawhi Leonard, where Kawhi Leonard came in the league and he averaged 7.9 points per game as a rookie, but he played 24 minutes a game as a rookie because of his defense. Okay, he came in the league and he could play defense. So he got to play on a great spurs team. I mean for, with, with hall of Fame teammates. Hall of Fame, maybe the best coach of all time. He got playing time as a rookie because of his ability to play defense. And as you've seen, he's developed over the years. He went from 7.9 points per game as a rookie to 27 a game this past year with the Clippers. And he's developed his three point shot. He's developed his ability to attack his post game. I mean he is, he's one of the most complete players in the NBA now. But he didn't start off that way. He realized like, listen, I have Tim Duncan, Manu, Tony Parker, guys who, a bunch of role players on the spurs team who could score. I my way to get playing time off the bat is to play good defense. And that's what he did. He took that springboard to say, okay, as the year goes on, year two, year three, year four, now I'm the guy on the Spurs. I go from being roll guy to the guy and all starts with what else he could contribute. If he had come in the league and he couldn't play defense, all he could do is score. I don't know if we're talking about the same Kawhi Leonard who's got two, two titles. I don't know if we're talking about that guy. I think him, him being able to play defense is what propelled him forward. So now look at a guy like Marcus Smart too. So Marcus Smart on the Celtics is over the past few years, I mean they've had some really loaded guard groups, like just, just crazy groups of guards and slash wings. And Marcus Smart has probably been the least talented offensively out of all those guards. Yet he's still in the starting lineup a lot of the times because he's one of the best defenders in the NBA. And I also looked at Marcus Smart's numbers. He went from something really low, like six or seven points per game as a rookie to, I mean he was averaging over 13 and a half this year. So again he's been able to develop his offensive game. But it all started with how can I get on the floor? Well, I'm going to play great defense and then I'm going to develop my game after that, going along with that. So really for all that, it starts with don't be one, don't, don't be one dimensional. That's what I would say to you. What I'm doing is I'm actually going to give you guys part of the 20 points per game blueprint. So I'm going to give you guys, it's about a 13 minute video. And in that video I explain defender control. So how to control your defender. The two ways that you can score off the dribble, specifically that you can kind of repeat. And so now again, you know what to look for and the two moves you need to develop to be able to actually do that. So that's kind of an all encompassing video. Even if you don't end up getting the full thing, it's going to help you out. So I would recommend that you guys do that. If you guys are interested in that, I'm going to put a link to it in the description below. So go ahead and check that out.