What are bench players in the game of basketball
Bench players are members of a basketball team who do not play at the very beginning of a game but instead remain near the sideline alongside the coaching staff and possibly at least one trainer.
In other words in a standard 5-on-5 full court basketball game, bench players would not be a part of the starting five team members who would play immediately.
Bench players are also known as substitute players, subs, backups, reserves, role players, or simply the bench.
Furthermore, basketball teams will generally have 7 to 10 bench players, which would also equal a total of 12 to 15 basketball players on an active roster.
That is to say, 5 members of a basketball team will participate in the game at any given time while the other 7 to 10 members will remain on the bench until they are substituted into the game.
It should also be noted that in terms of basketball skills, bench players will generally specialize in one particular area or role while the starting five will usually be skilled in multiple areas.
When can a bench player get into the game
The general process of when a bench player can get into the game happens when the coaching staff calls them from the bench to become a substitution player, when the bench player moves to the scorer’s table, and when the referee beckons for them to be a participating player in the game.
When the coach calls for a substitution player
First, the coaching staff, and even more particularly, the head coach, calls up the bench player and tells them to become a substitute player for one of the five players that are already playing in the game.
When the bench player moves to the scorer’s table
Next, the bench player leaves the bench area and moves toward the adjacent scorer’s table, which is also on the sideline at the midcourt between the two bench areas of both teams.
Also, the bench player will more than likely have to inform the scorer’s table of the player that they would be replacing on the court.
Moreover, as a side note, the scorer’s table features at least one scorekeeper, at least one timer who manages the game clock (and possibly another timer that manages the shot clock if necessary), as well as any other potential statisticians who keep track of various aspects within the game.
When the referee signals the bench player into the game
Once the player moves to the scorer’s table, the game continues on until some type of stoppage of play such as when a player on the court commits a foul against an opposing player.
After play gets stopped, mainly via a whistle, the referee will then beckon the bench player into the game, commonly with a hand gesture.
From there, a member of the scorer’s table will usually sound a horn, which indicates that a substitution is taking place.
Once that occurs, the bench player will step onto the court within the boundary lines and one of the other five team members that was replaced will step off of the court.
Also, the player that was replaced or subbed out of the game should move to the bench area with other teammates as well as the coaching/training staff.
Why is it generally important for a basketball team to have good bench players
It is generally important for a basketball team to have at least a few good bench players because when those players can contribute to the team, especially in terms of scoring, rebounding, assists, blocking shots, or getting steals, it alleviates unnecessary or undesirable pressure that could be put on the starting members.
As a basic example of this, let’s say that the final score of a game was 80 points for Team A and 78 points for Team B. In this instance, let’s also say that all of the five starters of Team A scored those 80 points, which was evenly distributed at 16 points per player.
So, even though Team A won by 2 points, this would be much pressure for its starting members, who had to score all of the team’s points because the bench members contributed no points.
This type of scenario, in which the bench players score no points at all, would probably be very difficult to maintain for the vast majority of teams, especially if their opposition has bench members that can contribute via scoring points.
Next, let’s look at a similar situation that has a final score of 80 points for Team A and 78 points for Team B.
However, this time, let’s say that within Team A, one bench player was able to score 14 points while two other bench members scored 8 points a piece for a total of 30 bench points.
This means that the starting five players would score 50 points, which would only be 10 points a piece if evenly distributed among all five starters.
In this instance, the scoring load would more than likely be much more manageable for most teams and as mentioned, the bench scoring automatically makes it easier for the starters to not worry about constantly scoring points.
Nevertheless, it should also be stated that even if one or more bench players are not able to necessarily contribute in terms of scoring or other statistics, those same players could still help the team as a whole by focusing on intangible traits that do not show up in the stat sheet such as diving on the floor for a 50/50 ball.