What To Do If You Have Bad Teammates (Basketball Tips)

What's up, guys? Coach Ethan here. Today we're going to talk about what you should do if your teammates are bad. Now, I've gotten this question twice in the past week in our basketball training group from two different guys talking about, basically, they are one of the better players in their team and they're able to beat their defender every time. But then usually when they get into the lane, the defense collapses. So they'll kick the ball out and then they don't have teammates who are able to hit those shots or they aren't confident enough to take the shots. Even so, their teams aren't really able to score unless they force up shots because their teammates aren't very good. And it's a frustrating place to be in as that player. So let's talk about what you should do if you have teammates who aren't very good. Now, this is a very tough place to be in as a player. Because basketball is a team sport. You need to have at least a couple teammates who are good on offense that can help you. If you're the only player who's able to score on offense, it's very, very easy for a defense to be able to stop you. Because as good as you might be, if a defense puts all their attention on you, you, it's very, very difficult for you to really be able to get going consistently as a scorer and to be able to really get any sort of easy or rhythm looks. So what can we do to help the situation? Well, the first thing is that you still have to be willing to make the right play. So when you drive into the lane and the defense collapses and you don't have a look, you still have to be willing to pass the ball to the open guy. And whether or not they can hit that shot doesn't matter. For right now, if you're on a team where players are really bad, well, here's the you've got to either find a better team or if you're young and most players haven't caught up with you yet, understand that as you get older and players start to get better and you start to play on better teams, you're going to have guys who can hit those shots. So for now, focus on making the right play. Make the correct basketball play. When you get into the lane, they collapse. Hit the shooter on the outside. Because once you get to a point where you're going to have guys who hit that shot, all of a sudden, if you're able to get into the lane and hit shooters like that, you're going to be a great player, and coaches are going to love having you on the floor because you're going to be able to make the right play. You're going set up your shooters, and those guys are going to love you, too. If you're a guy who's willing to get into the lane and make the right play, you're going to be everybody's favorite teammate because you're unselfish with the basketball. Now, also, the other part of this is if you're still willing to make the right basketball play, the defense can't be quite as focused on you. If you still show that you're willing to pass the ball to the open guy, you're not going to force up shots. Now, all of a sudden the defense has to understand that they think, oh, he might pass the ball here. That's going to start to give you more open opportunities. If every time that you drive the lane, they collapse and you the ball out, well, next time that might not collapse as hard. Now all of a sudden, you're going to have the lanes against the basket because the defense doesn't know what you're going to do. A lot of times when players are in this situation, they actually start to really, really force things. And even though it might seem like it makes sense, like, oh, man, I've got to make things happen. My teammates are bad. They can't do anything on offense. I got to do everything. I got to be the hero. This actually is going to make life way harder for you because the defense is going to see that their coach is going to say, okay, guys, he's not going to pass the ball, he's going to shoot it. Focus all of our attention on him. Make sure every shot he gets is very, very difficult. And you're going to find it increasingly difficult to score. So make sure you're willing to make the pass, you're willing to make the good play, because that's going to help you out even if your team is not scoring off of it. That said, you have to understand that if you're the best option on offense, you have to be aggressive. If you have a shot, you've got to take it. If you have a lane to the basket, you've got to take it. You can't be afraid of missing shots because if you're the best option in offense, you're going to be expected to hit shots. And if you aren't willing to do that, well, then you're going to be hurting yourself. And even more importantly, you're going to be hurting the team. If they're going to expect that you as the best player are going to need a guy who can carry them. On offense, you got to be able to be a little bit more aggressive than maybe you might like to be. So there might be times where you do force up a shot. It might happen from time to time. The thing is, you can't let that become repetitive. If you force up every single shot on offense, you're going to find it very difficult to ever get good looks. But you also have to understand that if you have a look, even if it's slightly contested, you got to take it. You got to be willing to be the guy who's going to do that. So just to recap, let's talk about what you should do if your teammates aren't very good. First of all, build your foundation. Make the right basketball play. Become a great basketball player with a high IQ and knows what play to make and when. Because as you move up, as you play on better teams, there is no substitute for being able to play the game of basketball the right way. And if you build those habits now, even if you don't have teammates who can finish out the plays that you make down the line, it's really going to help you guys. And trust me, you're going to be very thankful that you spent all that time making making the right play, getting guys in the right spot, and being a guy who can facilitate make the right play, play good basketball. That's very, very important. Make sure that you guys do that. And also, don't be afraid to take shots. You might have to force up a shot every once in a while. Understand that you're the best player on the team. Be willing to take the shot, be willing to miss shots. But at the same time, like I said before, don't get into a spot where you feel like you have to four shots or you have to put the ball up every single possession because that's going to come back to hurt you in terms of defense, being able to focus all their attention. If you guys enjoyed this video, go ahead and leave a like and subscribe as well. I want all you guys right now to click the link in my description below. Join our private basketball training group. I'm giving you guys free workouts, personal coaching, and like I said, this question that I got was from that group. So if you want me to answer a question and maybe even make a video out of it, the best place to ask me that question is in that group. So link is in the Description below. It's 100% free. Hopefully I'll see you guys in there. Like I said before, if you enjoyed the video, go ahead and subscribe. His little like button right here to make it easy. Guys, I really appreciate it. And drop a comment for me, too. Let me know what you guys want to see next. That's it, guys. Peace.