While reading through the Sports Illustrated NBA preview, I noticed that O.J. Mayo is still working on his dribbling in an effort to be a point guard:
“Mayo improved his ball handling in the off-season and can handle both guards spots.” – Chris Mannix
Mannix wrote the same thing in July. Monta Ellis is another player who spent last summer working on dribbling drills in an effort to become a point guard.
According to his Slam article, Portland called Rus Bradburd to train Jerryd Bayless on his dribbling drills (via True Hoop). Bradburd’s article is well-written and his approach mirrors my thinking:
One of my theories on improving dribbling skills is centered on the concept of failure. This has less to do with any scientific understanding of human learning than my own experiences as a DIII walk-on who couldn’t make his high school team. I fumbled the ball a lot before I made progress, but that feeling of experimenting with failure seemed to be at the core of my improvement.
As I read somewhere recently, “an expert is someone who has made all the mistakes there are to make.” To improve, you have to move outside your comfort zone and risk mistakes and failure.
My question is not with the trainers’ approach or with the drills, but with the thought-process.
Bayless is not a point guard. It has nothing to do with his dribbling ability and everything to do with his mindset. I watched him play at the NBA Summer League before his rookie season. He was the best player there. However, he was not a point guard.
Bayless got the rim at-will. He penerated on any defender. When he ran the pick-and-roll, he attacked a switch or a hard hedge and bullied his way to the basket.
As he made these plays, I often found myself saying “kick it” or “see him” to myself because he had open teammates. However, Bayless drives with a single-minded purpose: score. Only when his lane evaporates does he look for a teammate. In this way, he is similar to Dwyane Wade, a talented ball handler and slasher who usually has a decent number of assists due to his high percentage of plays made with the ball, but a player who is not a point guard.
How do I differentiate? Steve Nash is a point guard. He often looks to score. However, if he has a decent shot and an open teammate, he passes every time. Bayless had open teammates and decent shots and shot every time. Bayless has a scorer’s mentality; Nash has a playmakers’ mentality. The difference is not dribbling skill – the difference is mindset.
Dribbling skill plays a role in point guard play. If a player has more confidence with the ball, he concentrates less on his defender and more on the court. Therefore, he sees more and theoretically passes better.
However, does a drill like this make a point guard (couldn’t find Bradburd’s drill from the article; closest I could find):
When describing the difference between a scorer and a playmaker, I believe the difference is the dominant mode of attention. We have four modes of attention: broad-internal, narrow-internal, broad-external and narrow-external.
While we use all four modes, we have a dominant mode. I believe players who we label traditional point guards – like Nash – use a broad-external mode of attention: that is, they see the court through a wide-angle lens. Scorers, and especially great shooters, use a narrow-external mode: they focus on one specific thing (the basket) and exclude other relevant and irrelevant cues.
Confidence with the ball may help a player to shift his mode of attention and not revert to his dominant mode as often or as quickly. However, when under pressure (late in the shot clock, playing in front of a big crowd, fighting for playing time) the player is more likely to play to his strengths and use his dominant mode, which means a scorer looks to score, while a playmaker sees the whole floor, even when pressured.
For this reason, I do not think that Mayo, Ellis and Bayless need more dribbling drills to become point guards. They need more game awareness, and 1v0 dribbling drills will not create awareness. The dribbling drills may play a role, but it is a small role in the development of their point guard skills, as none struggles to beat defenders off the dribble or get into the paint. Instead, their personality leans to that of a scorer and to be a more traditional point guard, they need to move away from their habits and learn to be more aware of the whole court by expanding their attention from narrow-external to broad-external.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Brian – I agree 100% with your assessment on point guards. What I am wondering is can you change a player with a scorer’s mentality and make him into a point guard and do you even want to do that? So much of that would seem to fall on the athlete to be self-motivated to want to change his mindset and outlook on the game. At the high school level where I coach, there would seem to be more kids who would have that playmaking mindset and could work on their dribbling and passing skills as compared to taking a player with the skills and mindset of a scorer and trying to change them. Also, what assessments do you know of our there that would help a coach assess their players on their dominant mode of attention? I know that you can watch a athlete play and tell if they have a pass-first mentality but is there an easy assessment to give athletes to find their dominant attention style?
Doug:
I don’t have an answer for all the questions. I actually intended to pursue a PhD this year and my plan was to use this subject as my doctoral thesis. But, I couldn’t give up the coaching.
Here is an article about one of the tests, but I did not see a link to the assessment:
http://www.rembisz.com/tais3.html
I think this is a link to the assessment, but I think you have to pay for it:
http://www.epstais.com/index.php
As for changing a player, I think it depends on the level and the player’s goals. If you’re coaching a 14-year-old who will never grow beyond 5’11 and he has dreams of playing in college, he better be a pretty special scorer (Josh Akognon from Cal State Fullerton) or a point guard. Therefore, if he’s willing to work at that goal, it probably makes sense to try and turn him into a point guard.
If players are not concerned with college scholarships and simply want to maximize their high school performance, I would play to their strengths. So, it depends on the player and his goals. I think that coaches often try to change a player and then he is unsure of himself, which does not help anything. But, I would look for the kid who has the point guard mentality and improve his ball handling or if he is a big kid run a high post-oriented offense and allow the scorer to be a scorer.
At the college or pro levels, I think you select for the talents and skills that you want rather than trying to change someone. Bayless, for instance, found an ideal situation because he can play next to Brandon Roy who is one of the few true all-around players in my eyes who could be a true point guard or a scorer (LeBron, Jason Kidd, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and a couple others fit that category too). Roy can be the playmaker and allow Bayless to be the shooter, while Bayless can defend small point guards like Paul. Last night, Roy created several open shots for Andre Miller, but Miller isn’t a great shooter. Bayless is, and Bayless has the potential to be a great defender is he puts his mind to it. He could be the perfect complement to Roy as a Craig Hodges or Steve Kerr-type “point guard,” but a better defender. He would also excel in the Triangle or Rick Adelman’s offense which typically de-emphasizes a “true” point guard and instead runs the offense through the high post.
Anyway, at this point, I think Bayless is better off maximizing is positives rather than trying to change his game. Same with Monta Ellis.
The interesting one is Stephon Curry. I think he’s a shooter and best used as a shooter. But he has such a tremendous basketball I.Q. and really good court vision, so he is one who could develop into a Steve Nash-like point guard who is devastating in the pick-and-roll because of his shooting and passing skills.
I have a son who loves basketball and plays on the eighth grade team but needs individual training from someone other than his dad. He wants to be a very good ball handler as a guard. Can your training group make a recommendation for someone who can work with him over this Spring and Summer. We are located in Central Illinois.
look at chauncey billups. He started off a scorer and now he is a pure point guard, so a player can change their mentality.
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