What Position Should I Play In Basketball?

Terry Hoover
9 min readJan 30, 2024

So, you want to play basketball. That’s great, but you may be wondering, what position should I play in basketball? The fact is that there are generally certain skills and physical characteristics that you will need to play the different positions in basketball.

Here’s a quick rundown of the traditional basketball positions to determine what position should I play in basketball.

  1. Point guard- The point guard (or 1) on a basketball team will need superior dribbling and ball-handling skills. The point guard will be the player on the court who has the ball in their hands the most often. Point guards should be comfortable handling the ball under strong defensive pressure. Point guards are usually quick and are often like a “coach on the floor” at times during games to make sure their teammates are lined up in the correct positions to run the offense in the half-court possessions.
  2. Shooting guard- The shooting guard (or 2) needs to be a player who can shoot the ball well from the outside. This person should be comfortable shooting three-pointers and making a good percentage of them. Shooting guards will also need to be capable ball handlers.
  3. Small forward- The small forward (or 3) will be a player who is often a good defender and capable of playing well offensively both outside and inside.

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Terry Hoover

Husband, father, middle school history & keyboarding teacher, basketball coach, track coach, Youtuber, tech geek, sports fan