Timeouts and Your Starting Five

I was chatting with a coaching friend the other day, and the conversation turned to the topic of timeouts; when, where, and why to use them.

He said something that I found interesting: “I never call a timeout before the other coach”.  He seemed to wear the statement as a badge of honor, as if he were somehow outfoxing every opposing coach by refusing to be the first one to show any sign of weakness by calling a timeout.   To me, he was missing the point.

• When it comes to game play, a coach’s primary job is to keep his team functioning at the highest possible level on the floor.

Everything else is secondary.  So, what does this have to do with timeouts and your starting five?  I’ll start with the starting five.

• Your starting five is not necessarily your best 5 players.  It is the 5 players who can get you off to the best start

Usually, this is your best 5 players.  Sometimes it is not.  I have coached teams that, for whatever reason, started the game better with a
combination of 5 players that was not my 5 best players.  Sometimes the reason is the chemistry that the starting 5 has.  Other times, the sixth
man is a player with great potential who hasn’t yet figured out how to translate that potential into actual game play.  Nonetheless, on those teams, being able to bring one of my best players off the bench is a huge luxury, because it usually allows us to maintain a high level of play when the sixth man comes in the game.

On to timeouts…

• If my goal is to keep my team functioning to the best of its ability on the floor, timeouts should reflect that goal.

Getting into a mano y mano contest with the opposing coach loses sight of  that goal.  Following the logic that a coach should never call a timeout before the other coach, I could go an entire game without calling a timeout.

Timeouts should be used for the following:

1. To stop a run  – or, to keep the tempo of the game from getting out
   of control.
2. To correct errors that cannot be corrected with a substitution.
3. To rest a player or players who you can’t afford to take out of the game
   with a substitution
4. To manage the clock and set up time and score situations.

In any circumstance, you should use timeouts in a way that is responsive to your team’s needs and allows your team to compete at the highest possible level at all times.

Filed Under: Basketball Coaching Tips

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