One of the most important jobs as a coach is to have tryouts to determine which players are a match for a team. Tryouts run players through drills and exercises to see which players are best suited to the team. Drills are one of the most effective ways to gauge a player's ability.
Fundamental Skill Drills
To have a well-rounded team, you have to have players with well-rounded skills and fundamentals. Basic dribbling drills such as dribbling through cones and dribbling against a defender are effective for evaluating ball-handling skills. Shooting drills such as spot-up shooting, lay-up drills or pressure shooting drills test players' abilities to put the ball in the basket. Divide all the players who are trying out into smaller group, and have stations of different skill drills around the gym. Each group rotates through the individual drills, which are tailored around one fundamental basketball skill, until everyone has completed them.
Position Drills
Evaluate each player in terms of what position they will likely play during the game. Forwards and centers need ball-handling skills, but you probably want to spend most of your time assessing their post moves and rebounding because that's what they'll be doing during the game. After the skills drills portion of your tryouts, divide players by position. Run guards through ball-handling and offense drills. Have taller players work on rebounding drills. Tailor the drills to the kinds of plays you'll be running during the season.
Conditioning Drills
You don't want someone on your team who out of shape. Conditioning drills help identify players who are in the best condition to play at a high level. The ladder drill is a perfect conditioning drill to run players through during a tryout. In this drill, players sprint from the baseline to the free throw line, touch it and return to the baseline. From there, they sprint to the half-court line and back, then to the farther free throw line and back, and finally to the far baseline and back, touching each line. Take into account that taller players will probably be a little slower than shorter players.
Scrimmage
To simulate a game, have at least some scrimmaging during your tryout. A scrimmage is like a pick-up game of basketball, used for practice purposes. But don't just throw players out there and let them do whatever they want. Teach them specific offensive and defensive plays and see how good they are at picking up the concepts quickly and using them during the scrimmage. Pay attention to the intangibles, such as how players communicate with each other, who hustles and who does the extras, like making an extra pass or getting back on defense.
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