I will probably be the odd man out here.  We did AAU basketball with both our boy and girl.  The boy from about 4th grade to Senior and the girl for about 4-5 years. After 8th grade it was all in the summer before 8th grade it was winter and summer.  Sometimes both at the same time. Couple times we even went different ways on the same weekend.  The boy played 4 sports in school plus speech and choir and the girl two sports plus band.  Yes we spent A LOT of time and A LOT of money doing this and none us regret any of it.  It was awesome family time and we went places we wouldn't of went to if we weren't doing it. It did help both of them become better basketball players and a better person. You experience some things playing AAU sports that you don't with school ball, both good and bad.  They both could of played at a small college but chose not to. They both made a lot of new friends outside of there everyday school friends and so did mom and dad. We never forced our kids to do this once we started they wanted to keep doing it. I even lost 160 acres of custom farming from it. My kids were more important to me one weekend than an old bachelors farm ground. We wouldn't hesitate do to it all over again if we could. I suggest give it a try if he wants to do it. Let it be there choice.