Forest Lake Hoops

POINT GAURD SKILLS by Coach Devin Stone

Coach Stone,

It always seems as the seasons begin we get some of the best questions here at the Basketball Highway. Yours is an excellent question. I suppose if you were to design a cube of skills required of the point guard position one side would involve physical skills (ball handling, passing, shooting, positioning and movement without the ball), one would be cognitive or decision making skills (offensive and defensive organization and communication, and transition game) and the final side of the cube, Emotional and psychological (dealing with issues of emotional balance, game focus, concentration, attentional capacity and handling interactions with teammates). This is quite a broad subject but these would be the areas I would based my overall evaluations one.
With that said you can break cognitive or decision making skills down into the various parts of the team game as well as individual performance. Both individually and within the team framework does the Point Guard understand their offensive and defensive responsibilities. What is their rebounding role, and what are they responsible for on the fast break. Additional area you must evaluate the PG on are free throw alignments, out of bounds plays, leadership skills in getting player into plays and making adjustments when the game situation requires them to do so.
I could probably spent an hour or so on traits or things you should look for in evaluating the point guard position. However, I think a better way for me to give you an idea of my concept of a point guard would be to tell you what a great point guard does. Here are 25 things I think contribute to the making of a great point guard:

1. On offense they have a assist to turnover ratio of greater than 6 to 1. Some point guards are great passers in the technical sense, but if their ration is 3 to 2 or 7 to 3, I would only rate them a good guard. If their assist to turnover ratio is 1 to 1 or only 2 to 1, they need a considerable amount of work on their skills and or decision making. The best guards who have ever played the position will make 6 or 7 perfect passes for scores before turning the ball over once.

2. Great point guards seldom turn the ball over due to pressure, and when they deliver a pass to a teammate it is to a point closest to the optimal position from which their teammate can score. Not occasionally, but virtually every single time.

3. Great point guards do not shoot every time they are open but can knock down the shot any time they are open.

4. Great point guards know how to get their best scorers the ball on a consistent basis, but are always on the lookout for how to create high percentage scoring opportunities for offensive teammates in a lesser roll. They are able to keep all of their teammates involved offensively which makes the attacking team more difficult to guard.

5. Great point guards can stop dribble penetration on defense.

6. Great point guards rebound any ball on the defensive end in open space and not coverable by the teams heavy load rebounders.

7. Great point guards box out every time and do not use their position as the floor general to excuse themselves from rebounding duty.

9. Great point guards keep constant pressure on a passer or dribbler forcing them off of their desire path of attack.

10. Great point guards talk constantly on defense helping their teammates to recognize potentially dangerous points of attack by their opponent. They keep their focus throughout the course of a game, and pay attention to details at nearly all times.

11. On the fast break they constantly find a way to get open on the outlet pass as far up the court as possible.

12. The great point guards can advance the ball up the court from the defensive three point line to the attacking three point line with 2-3 dribbles while under control, and they always pass ahead when a teammate is open down the court who either has an open shot, or can create a numbers advantage from which the retreating defense cannot recover.

13. Great point guards know who can score on their team, how and where.

14. Great point guards always have their head up and maintain full court vision at all times. They do not see one opponent or blocks of 2 or 3, they see all 10 players on the court, and understand the relationship of each by positioning.

15. Great point guards pay attention to situational advantages such as on the free throw line, during jump balls, or in the flow of the game. For example, when an attacking team has a penetrating guard with no one getting back for defensive balance, they know to attack hard and quick on the counter fast break.

16. Great point guards know their own team's optimal tempo for both offense, defense, and in transition. They know when to speed the tempo up or slow it down.

17. Great point guards look for and find quickly player mismatches.

18. Great point guards quickly and clearly communicate play calls or changes both in the open court and on dead ball situations. They also have the ability to quickly organize a team after an offensive pattern breakdown.

19. Great point guards rarely get caught up and out of position in defensive transition and the best have the ability to buy time, and space to force the defensive into a low percentage shot in the open court even with a superior numbers advantage. They may not stop the break every time, but if they stuff it half the time, they will save you 8 or 10 free point a game.

20. Great point guards recognize defensive mismatches as well and can with the assistance of a coach call changes in player guarding assignments quickly.

21. Great point guards get their teams prepared psychologically for practice and for games. They know which players need to be provoked to pick up intensity or concentration and which one's are excitable and need to be calmed.

22. Great point guards can extol a sense of team discipline without tearing down a teammates self-esteem or sense of worth during a game. In most cases the great guards give as many as 5 or 6 positive comments for each negative one they hand out. They are constantly looking for ways to reinforce the correct way to do things on the court.

23. Great point guards understand completely a coach's (and therefore team's) playing philosophy from top to bottom and every ounce of energy and effort is put forth to execute that philosophy. I have seen good guards who are great physically who constantly break out of the team philosophy creating confusion over the teams offensive and defensive goals. Great guards understand you cannot win if all the oarsmen are not rowing in the same direction.

24. Great point guards are aware of and know what to do in all game and time situations. They have a sense to call time out on a recovered loose ball when their are only 3 seconds left in the quarter. They know when an opponent has fallen and can't get back on defense leaving a teammate open for just a brief moment. Their sense and court aware are always looking for how they can best utilize the time left on a possession to maximize the team's chances of scoring.

25. A great point guard never stops learning and never accepts that their skills are polished enough to execute all areas of their game when the circumstances of the game call on that skill to be performed. Great point guards skills must be like a formula 1 race car engine where the mechanics are constantly tuning and working on keeping them honed to perfection. Anything less will result in skill deterioration.

Coach, these are but a few of the many areas I consider important to playing the point guard position. If you were to take me to a game in your area and watch a talented point guard. Sure I would watch their stats line, their speed, ball handling skills, and defense. However, these 25 things are also areas I would see and evaluate your player on before I would begin to call them a great point guard.

Thanks for Asking the Coach