Qualities of a Good Player

There are a lot of philosophies out there about what makes a good basketball player.  Some are valid and some are not.  Some sound complicated and some seem simple.  I like to keep things simple.  When you make things too complicated you tend to lose the people you are trying to teach.  So in an effort to summarize what I think makes a good all around player I will list 2 qualities an aspiring player should have offensively and defensively in order to make a difference.



Offense - The philosophy here is one of creating odd man breaks within the half court set and then taking advantage of them:
  1. Player must be able to beat the person covering him.
    • With the ball - you must be able to breakdown the player who is covering you.  Learn to identify poor closeouts, how to get your defender off balance, and how to play off a ball screen.
    • Without the ball - you must be able to take advantage of a player who is overplaying you, and learn how to use off ball screens to lose your defender.
  2. Player must be able to make the right decision when the odd man advantage occurs.
    • When you have the ball - Know where your teammates will be when you hit certain spots on the floor and learn how to make the split second decision of whether you should find the open player or take the shot yourself.
    • When you don't have the ball - Know the open spots available to you on the floor and be prepared to make yourself available to your teammate.
    • Know where the defensive rotation will come from so you can anticipate them.
Defense - The philosophy here is of making the offensive players as uncomfortable as possible.  To do that let's think about what makes a player comfortable offensively.  The 2 things which make players the most comfortable offensively are space and time.  So in order to force offensive players into bad decisions you should be prepared to:
  1. Give them as little space as possible.  Get in on their body and don't allow them to move freely. To do this successfully you need to be strong, quick, and confident as a defender.  Always keep in mind that when the offensive player is square to you with both feet evenly facing you and the ball in front of him, he has an advantage on you.  On the other hand, if he puts the ball on his weak side hip and pivots back and away from you in an effort to protect the ball you have done your job.  
  2. Rush the opposition into making bad decisions by closing out rotations as quickly as possible.  This has a lot to do with understanding your responsibilities as a help defender.  Once a good offensive player goes by his defender he is looking to process what the defense is doing in reaction to his blow by.  As a good defender you need to cut into his reaction time by being sharp in your defensive responsibilities whether you're the man responsible for closing out on the ball or for rotating to open players.
As you can tell to be a truly great player you have to be on another level mentally, physically and skill wise.  Work on all three aspects of the game as much as possible.

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