Become the Player Your Team Can’t Afford to Take Off the Floor

Draymond Green is a player we highlight in our film breakdowns here at PGC time and time again and it has absolutely nothing to do with him being a great scorer on his team. In fact, I have no doubt nearly every Warriors fan holds their breath every time he launches a three from the top of the key.

For most of Dray’s career, he hasn’t been close to what your average fan might consider a “scoring threat”. But playing alongside the likes of Steph, Klay and even Kevin Durant during two championship runs, Draymond has always been one of the players most closely associated with what made Golden State tick.

And the reason has very little to do with how many points he scored. Draymond could initiate the offense without needing shots. He could screen for Steph and turn the attention Curry commanded into opportunities for everyone else. He could defend multiple positions, organize the defense, rebound and push the ball himself, make the extra pass, and bring an edge that helped shape the DNA of the team.

When you removed Draymond from the floor, Golden State didn’t simply lose whatever points, rebounds, or assists he happened to produce that night. They lost some of what allowed everybody else to be better.

There is an important lesson in that for every player who wants a bigger role:

The most valuable players don’t just add value. They multiply the value of the people around them.

What Gets Harder When You’re Not on the Floor?

Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about roles. First, we challenged you to fully embrace the role you have, even if it isn’t the role you ultimately want. Then we talked about increasing your value by identifying something your team needs and becoming exceptionally good at providing it. Last week, we talked about mistake response and proving to your coach that you can be trusted when things don’t go your way.

Now I want you to put those ideas together by asking yourself one question:

What gets harder for my team when I’m not on the floor?

That’s a much different question than asking how many points you score, how many shots you get, or whether you’re in the starting lineup. It forces you to look beyond your own performance and think about how your presence affects the other four players around you.

Maybe the offense becomes less organized without you. Maybe the defense gets quieter. Maybe nobody else wants to guard the opponent’s best player. Maybe your team doesn’t rebound as well, take care of the ball as well, or play with the same energy.

The specific answer will be different for every player. What’s important is that you have one.

Because the players who become difficult to replace usually provide something their team noticeably misses when they’re gone.

How to Get Two More Minutes of Playing Time this Season

But providing one valuable thing is only the beginning.

Imagine your coach told you before tonight’s game that you weren’t allowed to score a single point. Could you still play so well that your coach would have a difficult time taking you off the floor at any given moment?

Now take that question one step further. How many different ways could you impact winning at the same time?

That’s where players begin separating themselves. Maybe your defense initially earns you minutes. Then your coach realizes you also rebound your position. You rarely turn the ball over. You’re one of the team’s best communicators. You make quick decisions offensively. You consistently bring energy. Before long, taking you off the floor doesn’t solve one problem for your opponent—it solves several.

Draymond Green built much of his career around that idea. Put great scorers around him, and instead of competing with them to do what they already did exceptionally well, he found other ways to influence winning. His defense, communication, screening, passing, decision-making and effort allowed him to impact possession after possession without needing to be the player taking the shot.

PGC Founder and former Duke All-American Dick DeVenzio taught this idea long before anyone was studying Draymond Green film. In his book Think Like a Champion, he wrote about six championship qualities he called SCHAPE: Spirit, Communication, Hustle, Approach, Precision and Enhancement.

That last word—Enhancement—is worth paying attention to.

Great players don’t simply perform well themselves. They play with so much energy, effort and focus that they enhance the people around them. They communicate information that helps a teammate make a better decision. They set a screen that creates an advantage they may never receive credit for. Their energy raises the energy of the group.

Watch Draymond again through that lens and you’ll see Enhancement everywhere. His defensive basketball IQ doesn’t only help Draymond play better. It helps everyone around him play better.

That’s a completely different way of thinking about your value to a team.
Remember, it’s not about becoming great at everything. It’s about becoming valuable in so many different ways that your coach begins to feel your absence whenever you’re not on the floor.

And sometimes the easiest opportunities are hiding in plain sight.

So ask yourself…

What important things are your teammates unwilling to consistently do?

Once you’ve identified every important job your teammates are unwilling to consistently perform, you’ll have found all the opportunities for you to become more valuable.

For Coaches

If we want players to understand that basketball is bigger than scoring, we have to make sure we’re not unintentionally teaching them the opposite.
Players learn what matters by watching what coaches recognize. If most of our praise goes to made shots, points, rebounds and highlight plays, it’s easy for a young player to conclude that those are the things that determine their value.

Make the invisible parts of winning visible.

When a great screen creates an open layup, point it out. When someone makes the extra pass that leads to the assist, don’t allow that first pass to disappear from the teaching moment. When a player cuts hard and creates the space for somebody else to score, help your team understand who really created the basket.

The clearer you can make the connection between value and opportunity, the more likely players are to stop chasing minutes and start developing the things that actually earn them.

For Parents

The car ride home is one of the easiest places to unintentionally reinforce the idea that a player’s value is tied to points, shots and playing time.

Don’t ask questions like:

“How many did you score?” “How much did you play?” “Why didn’t you get more shots?”

Ask this instead:

“How did you make your teammates better tonight?”

At first, your child may not know how to answer. That’s okay. The question itself teaches them to start looking for things they may not have noticed before.

The goal is to help your child slowly build an identity around something much bigger than just being a great basketball player…

And that is to be the kind of player, teammate and person who helps make everyone else around them better.

Keep THINKING the Game,

Mano