Do What You Are Good At

Understanding your role. I’ve talked a lot about how that terminology can limit your players, and limit your ability to know what they are good at. I recognize I’m in the minority here when it comes to coaches. It seems like most of us want our players to “know their role,” and on good teams you even hear a lot of players talk about knowing their roles and how important it is to success.

Your role is to help our team win. That is everyone’s role. Do things that are going to help us have success. If you are a good 3-point shooter, you should be looking to shoot threes. If you are great at getting downhill, you should be driving to the basket. If you can help the team by sharing the ball or get to the glass, then get to it.

I think for a player learning his role is just about self-evaluation. Understand what you are good at. If you are honest about what you are good at, you can figure out how to help the team. Figure out what you are good at, and do those things a lot. That will help us. And that will give you an important “role” on our team.

As a coach, I’m not going to define a specific role for you. But I am going to help you understand what you are good at. I never want to limit a player or put him in a box and say “you are a defender and a rebounder,” because a lot of the time players will surprise you with what they can do.

Figure out what you are good at, and do that a lot. That is your role.