High performance basketball teams and high level performance bands have a lot in common. In both cases, you achieve maximum performance, and have the most fun, when your group is in sync. Great bands have more than one great player, even if he or she isn't generally recognized.  And disrupting the flow gets you out of the group, no matter how good your individual chops are.

In both cases, synch comes with a beat, a pace, a tempo. no matter what that is, it needs to be steady. If you control rebounds, you can control tempo - the bigs are like the rhythm section. The center is the drummer - must be steady above all else. Flash is not needed, consistency is. Power forwards are like bass players. They can go all over the map - run solos, play melodies, score points, block shots. But it's like the old blues' players' highest compliment for bass players - "He could keep time."

The point guard sets the time the rhythm section keeps. He hands off solos, takes leads, weaves the melodic line in the game he's set. He's the lead. And the swing players are... heh. The horns, or the backup instrumentalists. The swing section takes passes, improvises, scores... and gives the melody back to the lead.

Like rebounding bigs, rhythm players will never be recognized unless they do something flashy. But without them, you cannot hold tempo, and unless you can hold tempo, there is nothing around which to synchronize your team.