NC State Basketball Coach Brett Nelson’s 4 Crucial Point Guard Qualities

• By Grant Young

Basketball’s point guard position is often regarded as one of the most challenging roles on the court due to several demanding aspects:

- Playmaking Responsibility: The point guard is often referred to as the "floor general," responsible for orchestrating the offense. This requires a deep understanding of basketball strategies and the ability to make quick decisions under pressure. 

- Ball Handling Skills: Point guards need exceptional ball-handling abilities to navigate through defenses, create their own shots, and facilitate plays. They must protect the ball while also being aggressive. 

- Vision and Awareness: A successful point guard must have excellent court vision. They need to anticipate plays, read defenses, and recognize mismatches, which requires acute situational awareness. 

- Defensive Challenges: Point guards often face opposing players who are larger and stronger. This demands not only skill in on-ball defense but also the ability to anticipate opponents' moves and disrupt their rhythm. 

- Leadership Qualities: As the leader on the court, a point guard must inspire and manage their teammates. This includes motivating players, communicating effectively, and maintaining team morale.

This combination of responsibilities makes the point guard position not only pivotal for team success but also exceptionally challenging. This is why it’s imperative that when a coach finds someone who can succeed as a point guard, work hard to keep developing them and helping to improve with these aforementioned aspects. 

But what qualities does a good point guard convey? That’s what Brett Nelson is for. 

Coach Nelson is currently an assistant coach at NC State under head coach Kevin Keatts. Prior to that, Nelson was an assistant head coach at UMass before spending the previous four seasons as the head coach of Holy Cross University. He worked as an assistant coach at Marquette from 2014-2019. 

In his ‘Point Guard Play’ clinic, Coach Nelson shares what he looks for in a great point guard, on-court responsibilities, as well as developing the mindset for successful point guard play. We’ve pulled some of his most pertinent pieces of point guard development wisdom to share with you today.

4 Important Qualities For a Point Guard

At one point in his clinic, Coach Nelson reveals what he considers to be the 4 most important qualities for a point guard. They are:

1. Do your job with maximum effort

Coach Nelson discusses how he believes that in basketball (which is a game of mistakes), effort makes up for mistakes. In addition, the motto, “Strong and wrong is better than weak and right,” is something that Coach Nelson holds dear, and is meant to assert that doing something with maximum effort and conviction is always the most important thing, regardless of whether that’s technically the “right” thing to be doing. 

And this maximum effort applies to more than the basketball court. It’s in the weight room, in the classroom, at study hall, and in one’s social life. 

2. Always put the team first

Another one of Coach Nelson’s important qualities for a point guard is to always put the team first and have an unselfish attitude. 

For a point guard, body language is of the utmost importance because they’re often the one with the ball, and therefore have their teammates’ eyes on them. So if they’re showing bad body language, this will send a message to the entire team. 

Coach Nelson concedes that of course, in order to win games, a team has to do more than give maximum effort and have an unselfish attitude. But if you don’t do those two things, you have no shot at sustained success in any level of basketball. 

3. Practice is everything

Coach Nelson asserts that a team’s point guard has to be the most consistent practice player on the roster. He also says that there are two people on a basketball team who can’t have a bad day: the head coach and the point guard. 

Going off of that, Coach Nelson discusses how it’s his job as a head coach to create a competitive environment at practice, which will facilitate growth and development. And because the point guard has the ball in their hands, they can push the face and set this competitive tone with each possession, which is vital.

Be on time

The fourth and final quality a point guard must have is being on time to everything. On the court, this means being on time with their passing lanes and defensive help rotations. But being on time is even more important off of the court, whether that be with study hall, in the film room, to the classroom, getting to bed on time, and everything else. 

Because if a point guard is a perpetually late person in their individual life, how can they be expected to lead an entire team on the basketball court?

Another important part of this equation is that if a point guard is never late (and encompasses the other three aforementioned qualities), they’re able to hold their teammates accountable, as well. 

The point guard has no choice but to be a leader on the basketball court. But if they can embrace and embody this responsibility off of the court as well — especially by upholding these four qualities — their team will be much better off because of it.