Can a player’s system proficiency change? You know, how well a player fits into a certain system in whatever sport they play in. 

Scouts spend time targeting not only the best players available but also players who mesh well with the system planted by the coaching staff. You wouldn’t add a tall slow center to Mike D’Antoni’s early 2000s seven seconds or less offense because that defeats the entire purpose of pushing the pace. Basketball’s different systems both offensively and defensively intrigue me, especially coach D’Antoni’s high paced offense. 

The Suns and star floor general Steve Nash rode this offense to two consecutive conference finals. Nash even won two Most Valuable Player awards with this offense. How well players work in specific systems changes though right? 

Take Ray Allen for example. He used to be a high flying shooting guard on the Milwaukee Bucks who could attack the basket, play solid defense and shoot the ball well from three-point-range. In his career, Allen won two championships but the second one draws my attention the most. If 1999 Ray Allen played on the 2013 Miami Heat instead of 38-year-old Ray Allen, then we would be talking about two polar opposite story lines. Allen couldn’t do what he used to do with the Bucks as a youngster compared to him with the Heat. Therefore he couldn’t slot into that same system as a 38 year old. In 2013, Allen was just known as a spot up shooter. He’d get the ball and repeatedly knock down catch-and-shoot threes. So his system proficiency did change. 

I guess my question is why? Well, his age probably most contributed to the decrease in his vertical jumping, speed and endurance causing a reliance on another skill set that he could still flourish in. But injuries can affect that as well. A devestating knee injury can force a fast guard who can get downhill and score –Shaun Livingtson– into relying on methodically breaking down a defender to get to his shot. Livingston developed into a midrange maestro after his horrific knee injury and ascent into his thirtys forced him to accomadate into a new style due to his changed skill set.

Is that just what happens when you get older? When you experience something you fear the most? It makes change? Well it’s not all bad right? While obviously Livingston could’ve had a better career without a legacy altering injury, he still won a championship with the Warriors three times as a contributing member of the team, and while Allen’s time toward retirement was ticking down he still ended up with another championship. Both of their stories are predictable, yet quite unpredictable at the same time.

I can’t feel the instant something has changed in me, but at the same time I know I’m changing. All the time. Some of the changes I’m experiencing genuinely hurt me to think about, but it’s comforting to think I can end up like Allen and Livingston in a way. A while back I made an emotion driven decision to express my thoughts of being left out towards my friends. While I know this was okay to do, I went about doing it in the worst possible way. I stormed into one of their houses at 12 a.m. while they were hanging out to essentially go yell at them and not listen to any of their rebuttals. After that, I left the house and what I did really didn’t set in until the next morning. Once I had realized it, I apoligized to all of them just to hear that they didn’t want to speak to me. Okay that’s actually understandable, I mean I needed to cool down too. Through one of the texts I received, I also learned that this was a repeated pattern that came to a head that night. I had been acting erratically and bringing down the groups morale at times without even realizing it from their point of view. This feedback hurt to hear, but it was needed for me. Through my time pondering on myself and reflecting I realized that I was too reliant on them and I still had unresolved issues. My morale would crash at times because I hid things from myself. What does that even mean? Well in the beginning of 2023 I went to see a therapist, after a long conversation with my parents about how I felt about myself and the therapist told me I had a “pretty good case of anxiety and depression.” I still don’t know what “pretty good case,” means but hearing that come from a professional honestly upset me. I know depression isn’t an uncommon thing, but I just didn’t know how to deal with it yet. Eventually I got to a point where I felt a lot better, and I completely stopped going to therapy. Even though I thought I was better, I still had flare ups of just overwhelming angst and heaviness that made me shell up like a turtle. This would typically happen when I was alone so it was easier to hide. Then I started hanging out with this group and our “luh calm kickback” groupchat. There would be little things to set me off and I brought them all down with me. I didn’t talk about what I was upset about because I felt apart of me was still glued to the past where I let people know too much about me which later was used against me. I got scared that one of them would do that to me. After they all talked to me and told me I needed to take time away, I figured that I really needed to think about what I am doing not only to my friends but to myself. I didn’t want to mention the depression to them because I didn’t want them to think I was combating what they were saying or just using that as a cop-out. In my time away I felt more secure in myself the more I thought about my past and how it got me to where I am now. One of my other friends, a girlfriend to be exact, also helped me reflect in ways that were previously oblivious to me. Stepping back helped me notice things about myself and them that helped me understand that I was relying on their approval of stuff and other people too much.

For lack of a better thought. 

I’m awesome. 

And I’ve proved to myself that I’m awesome in the past fighting through the battles I didn’t even want to make it through. Now I can look back and see positive growth throughout all this time and I hadn’t even realized most of it. Getting close to people isn’t bad and I’m lucky to have the supporting cast of friends and family that I have, but I also have to be stronger as an individual to love myself just as I tell other people to do. I understand that life is hard and that I’ve only experienced a couple drops in the pool compared to what’s yet to come, but im willing to take these challenges on head first and continue to grow myself. If Shaun Livingston can still have the confidence to go up for layups after his career altering knee injury was caused by a layup attempt, then I can defintely stop letting my past prevent me from growing right now and in my future. I’m going to college in a year. I have to be reliant on myself. I have to change my thinking. I have to change my system.