Like anything else, to develop a good passer, the player and/or team must practice that particular skill.  With limited time during the season to work on your team’s defensive and offensive schemes, passing drills tend to take a back seat if they even get a seat at all.  So that pushes the development of that skill to the offseason, and players usually do not incorporate passing drills into their workouts.  Consequently, players do not end up learning the fundamental skill of passing.   For players to be effective passers, they must work on passing as an individual skill but also within the team concept.  In doing so, the following teaching points should be focused on:

• Crisp passes.  There are too many players that float their passes and that leads to steals for their opponent.  Using a medicine ball or a weighted basketball will help develop this skill.
• Follow through.  Following through will help with making the pass crisper and also more direct.  Players should point their index finger of the hand they are throwing with at the target that they are throwing to.
• Ball fake.  Often times players throw the ball directly off the hands of their opponent because it is telegraphed. A good ball fake will help alleviate this issue.
• Vary your passes.  Players need to be able to throw all kinds of passes with both hands…YES, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO PASS WITH YOUR OFF HAND TOO. 

It is a necessity that passing gets incorporated back into a player’s skill development as well as team practices.  This will go a long way toward eliminating this major defficiency in the game of basketball.  When doing so, emphasize the key points that are mentioned above and do not let your basketball players develop bad passing habits.   The following video is of a drill that is called Footfire Passing.  It is a simple drill that can be used to develop crisp passing while also incorporating footwork and conditioning.