Feb

21

ConverseOkay, here's my dilemma. I have to coach the team by myself Saturday evening, my first foray into coaching by myself. We're playing the best team in the league. They are quick, fast, can jump, dribble, shoot and they play an incredibly aggressive game. Every member of their team can. They have no weak links. If all my players show up, I will have nine kids. Here's what I've got to deal with. First, the main problem. I have three kids that simply can't play. They are complete liabilities. I've been on teams with guys that weren't very good, but they weren't liabilities. We could teach them to do something well. So they could at least do something of value — set picks, or play defense against the other team's weakest player. We would be better off playing with only four players than having them on the floor. But this is an instructional league and I have to play all kids roughly equally. Two of these bad players can only play. One of them can play guard on offense, and play forward on defense. I use the word "play" very loosely here. Now, on to the good players. I have two good true guards. One of those guys has to be on the floor at all times, or I've got no one to handle the ball. I have one kid who can "float" between guard and forward. He is actually good enough at guard that he could bring the ball up, but I'd prefer that he not. Three kids who are pretty much only forwards. I don't really want them to bring the ball up the court and I'd prefer they do as little dribbling as possible. So, how do I run the team with the fewest bad players on the floor at one time. If I could do it with only one bad player on the floor at a time, I could stick him at the 3 position on offense — weakside forward, which is to the left of the point guards (getting kids to move to the left at this level is difficult). Doing that pretty much keeps him out of the way, except that the 3 position has to cover against fast breaks (and the team we're playing is a fast break machine). I've got to run five guys on the floor at a time, and I've got three bad players. Here's what I'm thinking about starting out with: I'll run one of my two good guards at the 1 point guard position I'll run the kid who floats at the 2 guard position. I'll run one of the bad kids at the 3 position (and pray that he moves up to stop the fast break). I'll run my two best forwards at the 4 & 5 positions. How then do I run the other two kids in and out and only have one of them on the floor at the same time, while giving them essentially equal playing time, keeping in mind that the opponent is scary good I don't want these boys to get blown out. Any input would appreciated.


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