The NBA is a star-driven league. With only five players per team on the court at a time, the individual impact one star can have on a game or season is far larger than it is in other sports. This has been quite apparent over the course of LeBron James’ dominant career. However, that does not mean the other four guys are insignificant.
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The impact of a player’s dominance can always be seen in the types of players arriving in the NBA from college. When Paul George’s tweener style and smooth dribbling as a forward was front and center, we got forwards like Jayson Tatum and Brandon Ingram, who tried to move in a similar fashion.
As more players started chasing their development in “bag work” culture, many prospects fell to the wayside. LeBron has a suggestion for those following that path that could help them actually make the league, although with fewer highlights reels.
On his Mind the Game podcast with cohost Steve Nash and special guest Luka Doncic, James opened with social media’s obsession with “having a bag” before focusing on the development of Luka Doncic as an example of how to grow in a smart way.
“I’ll be on social media, and people are like, ‘LeBron has no bad.’ I’m sitting here on 50 billion points,” James joked. “Just play the game the right way, and I hope that our younger generation don’t get swamped by saying, ‘I need a bag.’ Work on your game. Know what you need to be good at to help the team and prove the next year to be a better player.”
So what can players do to assert themselves? In an era that has moved more to positionless basketball, it’s hard to find the clear archetypes that were once rigid. While self-creation abilities only matter when you have the ball in your hand, off-ball shooting and movement and an ability to defend are always relevant across all minutes played.
As James put it, “It’s only one or two, three guys maximum, that’s gonna be handling the ball anyways. They don’t need you to have a bag … you can make $200 million in the NBA if you defend and shoot a corner three pointer.”
While hard-edged archetypes have largely been phased out, defining a role is still a required part of the player’s development and roster planning. Simply look at the Indiana Pacers, who have such clear roles for the entire roster that players are never caught doing too much or too little.
“Know your role,” Luka summarized, “Know what you’re good at, and don’t do something that you’re not good at.”
James responded,“It’s gonna expose you.”
A little bit of targeted development on the creation side can greatly help players. Just look at how Jimmy Butler developed in Chicago, or even Jaden McDaniels or Amen Thompson, who are slowly building that now. But it is certainly not the be all, end all solution that fans and youth coaches alike have framed it as. Awareness and maturity to do what you need to are vital in today’s game.
