Basketball and the starting 5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here--she gets a decent amount of playing. She does sit on the bench some. She is 13 (7th grade) and I never saw an issue with her not starting but it bothers her. Should the team be rotating who starts?

If it's billed as a recreational league, yes. Given her age, if it's not recreational, then no.
If she was much younger and playing "travel", it's developmentally appropriate to rotate starters etc. I mean, how hard is it to start the 8th/9th players and call a TO after a couple minutes and sub them out? Kids get better by playing, period.

[Anonymous]

Is this club level/AAU or a rec league. My guess with the timing is that it is club/AAU. The coach will not switch up who starts just to make people feel good at that level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this club level/AAU or a rec league. My guess with the timing is that it is club/AAU. The coach will not switch up who starts just to make people feel good at that level.

OP here. It is AAU. DD claims that one girl who starts is "way worse" than her. I pointed out that they play different positions and the girl starting may be better than the sub taking her place but it didn't mean that she was better than my DD since their positions aren't the same. Could that be true?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this club level/AAU or a rec league. My guess with the timing is that it is club/AAU. The coach will not switch up who starts just to make people feel good at that level.

OP here. It is AAU. DD claims that one girl who starts is "way worse" than her. I pointed out that they play different positions and the girl starting may be better than the sub taking her place but it didn't mean that she was better than my DD since their positions aren't the same. Could that be true?

That can absolutely be true. Can your child play that girl's position? If not, then it doesn't matter if your daughter is better overall. How many subs are there for your daughter's position? If she's one of two or three bigs, even if she can play guard, that isn't where she's needed.

[Anonymous]

Similarly, if she is the second-best PG on the team, the coach is most likely going to bring her in off the bench so he/she has a fresh ballhandler when he subs out the starting PG. Position matters at this age/level.

[Anonymous]

So....the starting 5 aren't necessarily the best? My DD is the person next to a PG (shooting guard??) and is short. The girl who starts is a "big" and doesn't play guard positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So....the starting 5 aren't necessarily the best? My DD is the person next to a PG (shooting guard??) and is short. The girl who starts is a "big" and doesn't play guard positions.

Yes. Unless your child can defend the other team's bigs, then she can't replace that girl in the starting lineup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So....the starting 5 aren't necessarily the best? My DD is the person next to a PG (shooting guard??) and is short. The girl who starts is a "big" and doesn't play guard positions.

Basketball is tough this way. It’s a position and size thing/quickness thing. If your DD is shorter she is already at a disadvantage because she will be limited in positions. What a coach looks for (usually) is two ball handlers, two low block players and some type of matchup player. If you go less on ball handlers or low black players it can get dicey.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. I’ll continue to reassure her that starting is less important than she thinks. I don’t know what else to say to her because she is getting down on herself and she’s a good player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here--she gets a decent amount of playing. She does sit on the bench some. She is 13 (7th grade) and I never saw an issue with her not starting but it bothers her. Should the team be rotating who starts?

No, in 7th grade they should be old enough to earn their starting position. This is a great opportunity for her to speak with her coach about ways to improve, practice that outside of team practices, and improve enough to become a starter.

+1
The answer is just no.
Your child is 13 already.

[Anonymous]

Have her work on her defensive skills as well. If she is an average sized 2 guard, work on the ability to defend point guards and small forwards as well as other 2 guards. I know scoring is glamorous, but the best defenders will always see the floor. Have her watch UNCs Leaky Black, he’s on the floor sometimes the entire game and it has nothing to do with his offensive ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So....the starting 5 aren't necessarily the best? My DD is the person next to a PG (shooting guard??) and is short. The girl who starts is a "big" and doesn't play guard positions.

No, you'd be lying to her if you told her it doesn't matter who starts and at 13 she would know you're ridiculous for thinking that.
With nearly every coach the starters are the players he or she thinks are the best players. Period. End of story. They may not actually be the best players but that's a different story.

Basketball seems to be the most consistent in this regard. I've seen hockey lineups that don't start with the best players at this age and even sometimes soccer but I have a DS who plays basketball in HS and have never seen it in basketball. I think it's just fewer players and it's very quick scoring so they want to start out strong to build up morale?

[Anonymous]

Is she practicing ball handling and shooting on her own time? This is where improvement is made. If she doesn't practice on her own, I wouldn't even bother with aau level.

[Anonymous]

DS was concerned about not being a starter, even with good play time, So I brought a notebook to a few games and tracked each player in and out then input the times in a spreadsheet. He is short but fast with great ball handling, playing shooting guard and 2nd point guard. Turns out, he played more than other guards, only big guys played a bit more. And definite pattern of him subbing in after a few minutes and staying in for much of game, only being subbed out for a drink. When another guard annoyed the coach, he subbed DS back in sometimes less than one minute of game time. Time patterns were consistent, he is a finisher.

[Anonymous]

YOu can be one of the five best players on the team, but if you aren't the best at the particular position the coach has decided you should play, you aren't starting.