The point guard should not suffocate his teammates' play with excessive dribbling and shooting. Too often point guards think too much like shooting guards and forget the true role of a point guard. When it comes down to it, a point guard should almost be a reluctant shooter with a pass-first mentality. Often, the point guard is the better shooter on the team but that does not necessarily mean that it is the best thing for the team for the point guard to be doing all the scoring.
The intangible benefits of the point guard passing up shots, especially early in games is a confidence payoff for his teammates when they get to shoot rather than the point guard. In the long term of a full game, many opportunities to shoot will come back to the point guard for his teamsharing approach.
The sacred duty of a point guard is to make his teammates better. Period. He has to earn the trust of his teammates and maintain a sense of unity. He should be a respectable shooter but first and foremost he is a playmaker. Scoring is not his real function. He has to keep the other four guys on the floor in the mix of the game passing out the rock to the player who is in the best position to score.
The nature of the point guard has to be one of wanting to be liked. Wanting to make others feel good about being a member of the team and being valued. This is where the biggest weapon of the point guard, "the assist", comes into play. The need to "set up" his teammates with assists must be the primary quality that a point guard must possess. At the end of the day it comes down to the point guard being completely unselfish. He understands that scoring 15 points with 5 assists does not affect the game near as much as the powerful results of scoring 5 points with 15 assists. It is as simple as that.
One can say that a true point guard runs the team by keeping the players humming, involved, contributing to the win by capitalizing on the strengths of his teammates thus inspiring team moral and unity. This result must be one of the key goals of the point guard before his own scoring stat sheet. The natural point guard feels good about involving others before his own scoring results. He knows that in the end, the team will be in a better position to win when everyone is involved as opposed to just one player doing all the scoring.
The consumate point guard is the one that moves the ball and who everyone else gets the ball to since they know the point guard will create the oppotunity to get it back to them for the score. They know the point guard will make the game easier for everyone since the right thing will eventually get done.
What kind of point guard is on your team? Is he selfish and wants to score first and pass second? Does he force up shots even though he has two or more defenders all over him? Does he refuse to consistenly pass the ball to the open man? Is he all about how many points he scored regardless if the team won the game? If the answers are "yes" to the above questions, I guarantee you that your season record will be below .500.
Unfortunately, the true point guard is a rare breed but if you have one on your team, cherish him because this type of point guard will bring the best out of everyone thus leading your team to a deep run in the playoffs and even to a very possible championship banner.
