Ric Bucher: Retire the idea that position matters

[Edgar]

The problem is that the quality of the players in the league has become worse. If there were more mandatory college years then I don't think we'd see the need for a position-less player. Big guys would learn how to play 'big' and small guys would learn how to facilitate better.

At the risk of blowing the this out of proportion....

I hate hearing the first two of these 3 statements - I think they are largely poorly thought through and are dripping with nostalgic bias.

"Players aren't as good as they used to be" - it's incredibly naive to insult the hundreds of front office/coaching professionals in all levels of basketball by implying that no one has learned from the past or improved their methods over the last few decades. All levels of basketball are filled with more and depth and talent overall making for an increasingly competitive platform for those playing/learning. Sports science, advanced statistics, training, medical, and nutritional methods, etc have all improved hugely every generation since the beginning of the game. Simply put - Jordan/Kareem/Magic/Chamberlain were no doubt great but it's absurd to deny that they did it against lesser competition - I hardly think it's absurd at all to reason that the vast majority of their opponants/peers wouldn't meet the standards of today's NBA .

"Make them go to College" - This is constantly spun as a "Do it for the kid's", but realistically it's much more of a negotiated political stance with the NCAA/FIBA (think $$$) and a large measure of saving GM's/Owners from destroying themselves drafting high risk diamond in the rough types like Kobe/KG/LBJ/etc. There is always exceptional talent that could be hurt by being forced to play as a man among boys (nevermind financially hurt), but the real problem is who decides where to draw the line?

"Big guys play big/Little guys play little" - While it's important to develop talent to optimize their size/athletic qualities, you also don't want to smother their existing talents by doing so. To speak to the thread topic directly - only top talent is worth trying to build around in an unorthodox way in today's NBA...

[grindhouse]

I guess another way to put it is: skills matter, positions don't.


What do you think?


*And yes, Rudy and DeMar come immediately to mind*

As long as u can bring the ball up the floor , play defence, cause mismatches, and hit open jumpers.

Your good to go. The game of basketball is very simple.

[grindhouse]

Think about it if u can run a play to give ur small forward a post up play what stops you from running that same play with your PG in that position?

[Rapstor4Life]

Ujiri is a smart guy if he sees a problem with the Rudy and DeMar tag team he will address it.... for now though hes hoping that Rudy and DeMar are something special together and fans should see that too the potential is amazing there. Give them a season and just stop this whole "They overlap too similar cant shoot 3s nonsense" and watch them play together on a clean slate first... Jesus H christ.

3 point shooting is important but its not all there is to ball we can easily obtain role players to come in for floor spacing I.E we now have Novak....