In the past month’s worth of games, Derrick Rose (the guy who everybody liked to pretend had become an elite three-point shooter [including maybe me, shamefully]) has made a grand total of one three-pointer. One. In ten games.
Contrary to popular belief, NBA players are very aware of their own flaws. Some players just don’t care about those flaws and keep doing things in a flawed way because they have “confidence”. Rose, I believe, has acknowledged his flawed three-point shooting by not taking very many attempts. This game in particular, he stepped in a few feet on all his jumpshots, abusing the Wizards with long two-pointers which were much more likely to go in than his three-pointers.
A lot of people I play pickup basketball with could benefit from having the same level of self-awareness that D-Rose has. If you can’t shoot jumpers, don’t waste our team’s possessions by airmailing jumpshots. If you can’t dribble, just make crisp passes when you catch the ball. If you have no skills in posting up, don’t spend the entire possession trying to get post position on your defender; set screens or cut to the basket or literally do anything but what you’re doing. If you have stamina issues, hang out by the top of the key so that when you have to get back on defense, you’re already halfway there. Meanwhile, I’m perfectly aware of my own shortcomings (too skinny to defend anything, poor court vision, can’t dribble without looking at the ball) so I’m always the perfect teammate. Just saying.