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The NBA is a league of roughly 450 players of different sizes, backgrounds, ages, skill sets and abilities. There are guys in the league who will make $200 million over their careers and become hall of famers. There are guys who will get one 10-day contract and $38,000. Everyone has their own journey and their own challenges. And at some point, the question every player has to answer is: "What is my role in this league?"

The players who can consistently help their teams win games are the ones who stick around, so every player has to figure out what it is he does well enough to help a team win. Otherwise, the new crop of young players who enter the league every year will replace them.

The NBA is currently enjoying a group of some of the most talented basketball players the planet has ever seen. The game is evolving, and the athleticism is at an all-time high. Certain rules—like no hand-checking on the perimeter, and defensive three seconds, which moves help defenders further away—make it almost impossible to shut down the most talented offensive players. They are going to get their shots and their numbers. They have earned this position because they have proven that when they get the ball and try to score, good things usually happen for their team. These guys are rare and are valuable and are paid accordingly.

So what about the rest of us? Players like, well, me?

Before most of us entered the League, we were one of the main scoring options on our college teams. Offenses were designed to get us the ball. We got features in the media and received all the accolades. When you make an NBA roster, that all changes. All of a sudden, you find yourself on a different level of the totem pole, and you have to adjust. Each team may have three to five guys who consistently find themselves creating their own shots. The other ten guys on a roster have to learn to play off of those guys and find ways to create value for themselves. You create value for yourself by doing enough positive things to make your coach keep you on the floor. The guys who have success in the league and stick around are the ones who understand how to make themselves valuable to an organization.

You do this by embracing your role and focusing on things other than scoring. Sure, you’ve spent your whole basketball life developing and displaying your offensive game, but suddenly you aren’t getting those scoring opportunities in games. You take thousands of shots in the offseason, you work on your shot before and after practice, yet you may go weeks without taking a jumper in a game. But you can’t dwell on it, because there is so much else you can do out there to help the team win. If you can become really good at things like screening, passing, defending pick and rolls, communicating, boxing out and rotating defensively, you can have a huge affect on your team winning a game. If those parts of your game become a habit and you develop consistency, you are going to be valuable to your team and have a long career.