Every team has superstars, and every team has three or four guys that it pins its hopes on every year. Then, there are the other eight guys on the roster. Some role players are simply worse versions of good players – when they come in, you cringe as they toss up bad shots, dribble into double-teams, and get treated like a yield sign on defense as you anxiously pray that they’ll get pulled and your team can put the lineup you trust out again. But other players know their role, play it well, and often have as much impact as the guys lighting up the scoreboard. Teams like the Spurs stockpile these players, and the Knicks have a hard time finding one. Six types of role players every team wants 1. The Mistake-Free Backup Point There are many different types of backup point guards – the Houseian shoot-first, second, and third microwave man, the Arroyan “push” guard who changes the pace for a few minutes. Clearly, these types can be effective – the teams that just met in the Finals featured a push guard in Jordan Farmar and a shoot-first guard (the aforementioned Eddie House) manning the backup role. But the most agreeable model for the backup point is the one who won’t cost his team possessions, handles the ball well, gets his teammates involved early in the shot clock, and hits open shots to keep the defense honest. Why they’re tough to find: It’s exceedingly difficult to find someone who was the best player on the floor for the first 18 years of his life, give him the ball every possession, and not have him try to do something he shouldn’t be doing with the rock. And it’s hard enough to find a starting point guard who can really read defenses and make solid decisions with the ball anymore. And they’re supposed to be good enough scorers to force defensive attention to boot. Guys who fit the bill: Brevin Knight, Derek Fisher, Antonio Daniels, Keyon Dooling, Jose Calderon – he was so freakishly efficient, he produced like an upper-tier starter although he was technically a backup. Example of this player on the Spurs: Jacque Vaughn http://slamonline.com/online/2008/09/know-your-role-2/
