Performance or potential

Coaches at our level try to recruit the best players they can get. You have to. However, they know they are not going to get the best talent that is available. So, where they cannot get immediate performance, they have to recruit upside. Potential. Do you remember just how raw Akeem Olajuwon was his first year at Houston? But his potential - obviously - was through the roof. Some guards at our level are good shooters or good ball handlers, but their games are pretty much one-dimensional. It is not that they cannot do the other things; they just never have had to, or perhaps never tried to. A good coach can take such a player under his wing, round out his game, make him more consistent, and make a much better ball player out of him - if they kid is willing to work hard. So, where our coaches cannot get performance, they have to recruit attitude and physical tools, or in other words, potential.