PLAYING AMATEUR GENERAL MANAGER
January 5, 2009 by Andy Socrates
You can only do so much flying solo. You need teammates, which is tough when your field of potential players all work 40 hours a week in some office. In order to field the best team, you’ve got to look at how players fit together, which doesn’t necessarily mean the most talented scorers. Here are some tips on getting the right players.
Know what you want. Great teams are made up of players that fit different roles. You want to develop a team that is built up of selfless guys that are motivated to win. Chemistry is more important to team success than individual talent. You need to focus on recruiting guys that will believe in your vision and follow your lead. Ideally your team will have a mix of scorers, lock-down defenders, rebounders and role players. You can follow the blueprint of past successful NBA teams to build your mix. Looking at the defending NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics, you can see the breakdown of two scorers in Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, one lock-down defender in Kevin Garnett, an all-around point guard in Rajon Rondo and a big man and rebounder in Kendrick Perkins. On the bench, you have role players that can provide immediate impact on offense with James Posey and Eddie House, along with big men Glen Davis and Leon Powe to clog the lane. A balance of players is key as you don’t want five guys on your team who all want to be scorers. You want some guys that like to shoot, others that like to distribute the ball and most importantly guys that love to play defense. Defense wins championships. All past NBA champions had top-notch defense.
Reach Out. Once you have a set idea of the type of players you would like to recruit, let your friends and co-workers know that you are looking out for people. Organize a day on the weekend and invite everyone to join for pick-up games. This allows you to evaluate talent in an informal way and allow you to extend offers to people you want to join your team. Another way to find more people is through your internal network at work or school. You can put up a posting that you are looking for players for your team and that there is an upcoming scrimmage.
Go Web 2.0. The Internet can also be a useful tool. Take advantage of social networking tools such as MySpace or Facebook. Put up a posting or a status update that you are looking for basketball players. This is a great way to let people know of your need without spamming them with unnecessary emails. You can also create an Evite event and invite people to the scrimmage.
Differentiate your team. Be clear about the style of play you will employ. If you are building a run-and-gun style team similar to Mike D’Antoni, or a pick-and-roll offense similar to the Utah Jazz, let the players you are recruited know it. Also, be clear what type of defense your team will play, either man-to-man or zone defense.
Have a selling point. If you are recruiting a high scorer for your team, let him know that he’ll get plenty of playing time and will be given the chance to play in clutch situations. Besides getting plenty of playing time, other selling points you can use are subsidizing the league cost for the player to play for free, offering the chance to network with other team members that can help them in areas outside of basketball, and providing the chance to play in a fun competitive environment.
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