Do You Take Advantage of Dead Ball Time?

WHEN THE CLOCK IS STOPPED

Mediocre players use this time to rest, to complain, to limp, to frown at referees, to look around at the crowd. The problem is that many talented basketball players use the time when the clock is stopped for the same purposes. But there is an endless number of valuable things a good player can do while the clock is stopped if he is thinking and really trying to be as much of an asset to his team as he possibly can.

On the free throw line,

• Remind someone to block out the shooter,
• Remind the big guys to block out aggressively
• Remind the inbounds passer to get the ball in quickly.

These are obvious things, yet so often they go unsaid, and so often there are breakdowns in one of these areas.

Watch More: A Habit of Great Floor Leaders

To go further, though, a good basketball player is constantly singling out people and whispering in a teammate’s ear:

• “We need to draw a foul on their big guy next time”
• “I’ll look for you this time cutting across the lane, make sure you come hard”
• “Let’s really hurry on the break this time. I think we can catch one of ’em loafi ng”
• “Make sure you turn and come back to the ball after you screen,”
• “C’mon, we gotta hit the boards,”
• “Let’s get a layup next time down.”

Singling out a teammate and giving him extra encouragement often works wonders, yet it is so seldom done. If you are about to take the ball out of bounds, tell someone you’ll be looking for him. Get your teammates doing their best. Praise someone for a play he made a minute ago. Urge tougher defense.

When there is a break in the action, and you can’t think of anything to say to anyone that might help the team, you are either a very selfish player, or you know very, very little about basketball. Good players use the time when the clock is stopped to make the next play work better and to make teammates try harder and concentrate.

If you use part of this valuable time for frowning and complaining and foot-stomping, it would be difficult to call you anything other than a stupid player, even if you are talented and a high scorer. Chances are you are not a winner.

—Excerpted from the book, “STUFF Good Players Should Know”