Again, no question ... but there is a tendency among fans (more so than among coaches) to overvalue some kinds of contributions (usually what their daughter is good at) and undervalue the girl who puts the ball in the basket.
For example, some girls spend a lot of time on ballhandling -- they can dribble behind their back and between their legs and cross over. (These are the kind of players who gratuitously dribble between their legs while bringing the ball up court with no defender within 20 feet.) This is a nice skill to have, and occasionally will have an impact on the game, but it is much, much less important than scoring, not only in terms of the game itself, but in terms of the number of available players who have the skill.
It's great to handle the ball, and coaches love to have a lot of ballhandlers. But few coaches want to dribble through presses, and a lot of good ballhandlers don't use those skills to attack the basket, so my advice would be to develop scoring skills first. (Which means playing pickup, preferably against males, and looking to score.)
Being able to do everything well is better than being able to do one or two things well, of course. But if you're going to allocate your skill development time, put most of it on scoring, not only for your own sake, but if you want your team to win. When the day comes that there are too many girls who can score, then other skills will begin to have more value -- but that day is far away.
Everyone has an opinion. I can respect yours. Check out Geno's opinion and what he looks for in the video I've posted below. We've all seen players who could shoot a good % from the 3 point line particularly in easy games. Situational players, typically brought into the game in situations. Because those same players have poor fundamentals everywhere else. No defense, poor ball handling, no rebounds, poor decision making, no stamina, not good under pressure or on big stages. But they score a lot of points, primarily
in easy games and run up
false stats. So I'll take a
complete and tested player over a one sided false stats player when all else is equal. And just because a player isn't putting up many shots per game it doesn't mean they can't. Players can be influenced by the
team/ system/ coaching and encouragement they fall under. As I said, there are players out there in systems with coaches that
limit or don't encourage the player(s) to shoot and score more individual points. Smart scouts and smart coaches can see the potential and consider the team, system or coach, a player is playing under. And know what a player would be capable of doing in their system under their encouragement. That is a good thing. They can see some are under utilized or under developed. Again that's a good thing and it's why I pointed it out. But someone
must put others on the radar to help scouts and coaches to find them. There are a few players who get free reign and jack up bad shot after bad shot but
lead the team in scoring just because they
take the most shots. While others have to work within the system and encouragement (or lack there of) they fall up under. Some players are encouraged to challenge/develop and strengthen weaker areas of their game to develop confidence and become better players. Which creates a better team by post season. Then some are not encouraged to develop what they need to improve and get confident at so they actually become less confident and less productive players under some coaching environments. And of course if the players and the team is not getting better as the season progresses they limit their chances of success during the post season. Some coaches and some programs are simply better than others.That is why
getting out scouting a player (and more than once) can tell more about the capabilities of the player given the system and encouragement they'd be under at the next level. It's also why
there is a need to put other players with talent and skill
on the radar in their senior year. And that is what we are attempting to do here.
Scoring is important, but it is not everything. And it's not all scouts and coaches are looking for thank goodness.They want
good team players who can do more than just score points. But it's a plus when they can score points also. Scoring is scoring, it's not winning. That is why teams with players like Destiny Littleton ( a division 1 player/ terrific scorer) aren't winning many championships. And though she leads the nation in scoring ( and is a good player) most would say she is far from the top recruit and probably not the overall best player in the nation.
Carmelo Anthony, Karl Malone, and James Harden can score all sorts of points. But how many championships can just a scorer/ one sided player bring you?
Have a great day Clay ! It's always great getting your take on things and bouncing around opinions.
