How Do You Play A Lot Of People?

I had a good conversation with a head coach recently about how you go about playing a lot of players. He has a really deep roster this year and a lot of new players who he thinks can help. He is comfortable playing a rotation of 7-8 generally, maybe one more, but he feels like he’ll need to play 10 or more guys this year to get the most out of his team, as well as keep people happy.

It’s interesting that almost every coach goes to the “keep people happy” reasoning for playing a lot of guys. They don’t want too many guys on the end of the bench upset, and possibly bringing a bad attitude to the rest of the team. The truth is I don’t think playing time is what you should think about when you want to “keep people happy.” I think players are in a good spot mentally when you are honest with them and they know what to expect. Not simply when they play. They want to know what’s expected of them, what they have to do to play, and they want a fair shake. If you can provide that environment, they may not always be happy with their playing time but more importantly they will be good teammates about it.

A lot of coaches don’t play a lot of guys quite honestly because they are a little insecure. There is so much pressure to win, and to win you want to have your best players on the floor. As soon as you give one of your studs a break, and the other team goes on a 4-0 run, you are sending that kid back into the game. It’s mental protection for the head coach - well, if we lose with our best players out there and they don’t perform, it’s on them, it’s not on me. A coach can take a lot of heat for losing with his starters on the bench. But you can’t tell me that the 34th-plus minutes of your starters are better than minutes 1-5 of a good player with fresh legs.

I always liked to play a lot of guys as a head coach, but it started with having a lot of good players. What I learned though was that it had a huge impact on practice. I started as a head coach with the belief that practice was going to be the most important 2-3 hours of our day every day. Not the games, not recruiting, but practice. That was the mindset, and I still believe it today.

To have a competitive practice every day, you need everyone engaged. And to keep everyone engaged, they have to show up playing for something. I’ve been a part of too many teams where the back-ups or the scout team, who knew they weren’t going to play, started going through the motions once the games started because they knew they weren't going to play. Now you can Coachspeak them to death all you want - you never know when your number is getting called, everyone has to be ready every day - but it just doesn't work that way. Every kid on your team wants to play more. If they don’t feel like practice is a way to earn playing time, their competitive edge is going to drop and your practices will get worse.

I learned how powerful it was when you rewarded kids who competed and produced at a high level in practice with playing time. When that kid who hardly played was the first guy in off the bench after having a good few days of practice, everyone took notice. It sent a strong message - if you bring it every day, you’ll get a chance. Playing time was earned every day. That is what gave our practices a great competitive edge.

How do you actually go about playing a lot of guys? The first thing you have to do is figure out exactly what is important to you as a coach. What are the behaviors that you value that lead to winning? I would write them down. Think hard about what really matters to you when it comes to winning. Once you are clear in your own head what really matters to you as far as winning, you can be very clear with your players.

First you need to be honest and direct with your players. Do you want to be a part of an elite team? Here is the situation we are in. We have a lot of guys who can help, and our depth will be a huge strength for us. No one is going to play as much as they like. But you are going to have a chance to earn it every day in practice. The standards we expect of everyone to earn playing time will be clearly laid out for you.

Once you’ve made it clear to your players what to expect, then you have to show them the behaviors - and reward them. If you value toughness, show your players he behaviors that define toughness for you - a great blockout, sprinting back on defense, diving for a loose balls, etc. Then you have to reward those behaviors with playing time. If you believe those behaviors lead to winning, then the guys that do them most consistently need to play. It doesn’t mean they need to start, but you have to consistently reward the right behaviors with playing time.

I used to do this pre-season exercise with my team. I’d give each player an index card and ask them to write down one number on the card - the number of minutes they expected to play. Obviously they all want to play a lot of minutes. But ask them how much they expect to play, based on what they’ve earned - how hard they compete, the way they produce, how they impact winning. They need to write down the number of minutes they expect to play on their card, and they don’t have to put their name on it.

Inevitably when you add up the numbers on the cards you are going to get between 400-500 minutes. Everyone, even the young guys who just arrived, expect to play good minutes. It’s a pretty simple message. You guys wrote down that you all expected to play a total of 400 minutes. Do you know how many minutes are available in every game? 200. But your expectations are to play twice that many - and that’s not possible. Everyone is going to have to sacrifice, because no one is going to play the minutes that they want.

Finally I think it’s important that they understand that simply doing their job isn’t good enough to earn minutes. That is what is expected of everyone - the bare minimum. When a player comes to me and says “Coach, I’ve been working really hard, I compete hard in practice every day, I really feel like I’ve earned the chance to play…” Well, that isn’t quite enough. Not only do you have to meet our standards every day, you have to do it better than the guy next to you. Competing hard every day in practice, and being a great teammate, that’s not enough. Everyone is going to do that. You have to do that and outperform the guy next to you who plays your position. This isn’t a grammar school YMCA team. We are trying to win here. Just showing up every day and competing doesn’t get you on the floor.

Playing a lot of guys isn’t comfortable for a lot of coaches, and it isn’t always easy. But it is a great way to build a cohesive team and get the most out of everyone. Be intentional about your approach - be honest with yourself and your team about what’s important to you, explain it to them in behavioral terms, and reward the right behaviors with playing time. You’ll be surprised how much your team will buy in when you are honest with them.