StepCross
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I read the following on another UT message board. It's long, but might spark some discussion.
*****Begin quoted post******
Recently Drew Cannon wrote an interesting article about positions in basketball. His basic idea is that the idea of "five positions" is not accurate; at least, not quite, not exactly accurate.
On defense, of course, you have to be able to guard the five players the opponent trots out there. Thus, you end up having to have some tall players, and some quick players, and you end up with the spectrum we're used to. Let's call the defensive positions D1 through D5, where D1 is expected to guard the PG, D2 the shooting guard, etc. The requirements here are easy to state: every player needs to be quick enough to stay with his man, strong enough not to be pushed around by his man, and tall enough not to be easily "shot over" by his man.
No surprises there.
But the interesting take by Cannon is that the offensive positions are not quite as well-defined. Naturally, you need some things to happen on offense, but it doesn't necessarily matter who does them, as long as they get done. Cannon introduced four "tasks" on offense, and then merged two of them into one. I'm going to keep his idea, but change his offensive tasks. Here are the offensive responsibilities, as I see them.
1. Handler. This is someone capable of bringing the ball down the court and starting the offense. The handler also should be able to go get the ball if the offense stalls, bring it back to the top, and restart things.
2. Shooter. Every team needs an outside shooter, to force the defense to extend and create space in the paint.
3. Scorer. Basketball is a game of probabilities. You win by getting better shots--higher-probability shots, if you will. Thus, you need guys who are able to get into the paint and get a high-percentage shot up, even if guarded. There are two basic ways to do this, and I'm going to lump them since it doesn't much matter which one a team has. You can be a slasher, a guy who gets the ball on the perimeter and drives to the basket; or you can be a post-up guy, who gets the ball in or near the lane with your back to the basket, and abuses a defender. In both cases, the scorer can either create his own open look even though he's guarded; or he can make guarded shots; or he can get fouled. Typically, all of the above, if he's a good scorer.
4. Rebounder. [Here we mean offensive rebounding; obviously everyone is expected to rebound his position on the defensive end.] Like I said, it's a game of probabilities, and sometimes even good shots don't go in. Thus, you want a guy who can pick up the garbage, get offensive rebounds, and keep the possession alive.
5. Distributor. Someone needs to get the ball to the scorers in good spots. Or, get the ball to mere contributors in REALLY good spots. Major Wingate, for example, wasn't ever going to create his own shots or abuse a defender, but if Dane could catch the defense out of position and feed Major for a wide-open dunk, then we've definitely won that possession. A great distributor can mask a lack of great scorers.
[Cannon considers shooters and scorers to be the same thing; I think they're different. Cannon also merges the handler and distributor, and claims that the handler has to be the one who distributes. That's nonsense IMO.]
Now, the prototypical basketball team looks like this:
D1 = handler, distributor
D2 = shooter
D3 = scorer
D4 = scorer, rebounder
D5 = rebounder
But Cannon's main point in his article is that it doesn't HAVE to be that way. Your "guy-who-guards-the-PG" can be your shooter, and your D4 can be your handler, and your D3 your rebounder. Or whatever. There's no particular reason why you have to lump DEFENSIVE responsibilities with offensive ones.
I agree, and in fact, sometimes the best teams have hard-to-define players that are versatile and create matchup problems no matter what the defenses do.
Some recent UT players who maybe don't quite fit the normal mold:
-Prince. Mostly a D3, but quick enough to guard most PG's and tall enough to guard the occasional PF. On offense, a distributor first, scorer second. Not a shooter at all, only average as a rebounder.
-Chism. D4 or D5 interchangeably...he could guard either position. On offense, mostly a scorer but sometimes a shooter (got away with lower outside percentage because he was our big man, and it's a pain to pull a big defender away from the basket to cover Wayne)
-Lofton. D2 or D1, depending on other matchups. Offensively started out as a pure shooter, but grew the confidence and ability to turn into a scorer by his junior year. As a note, a shooter/scorer combo is extremely difficult to guard, because if you play him close he's going to the paint, and if you back off he's shooting. Lofton was very difficult to guard in that stretch. Of course, then he hurt his ankle, and the next year he had cancer. At that point he kind of faded back into pure shooter mode.
-Bradshaw. Pure distributor on offense, from the PF position. Really had no other offensive responsibility. I'm not clear on who he guarded...probably process of elimination most nights.
Thoughts? Did I miss any obvious offensive roles?
*****END QUOTED POST*****
*****Begin quoted post******
Recently Drew Cannon wrote an interesting article about positions in basketball. His basic idea is that the idea of "five positions" is not accurate; at least, not quite, not exactly accurate.
On defense, of course, you have to be able to guard the five players the opponent trots out there. Thus, you end up having to have some tall players, and some quick players, and you end up with the spectrum we're used to. Let's call the defensive positions D1 through D5, where D1 is expected to guard the PG, D2 the shooting guard, etc. The requirements here are easy to state: every player needs to be quick enough to stay with his man, strong enough not to be pushed around by his man, and tall enough not to be easily "shot over" by his man.
No surprises there.
But the interesting take by Cannon is that the offensive positions are not quite as well-defined. Naturally, you need some things to happen on offense, but it doesn't necessarily matter who does them, as long as they get done. Cannon introduced four "tasks" on offense, and then merged two of them into one. I'm going to keep his idea, but change his offensive tasks. Here are the offensive responsibilities, as I see them.
1. Handler. This is someone capable of bringing the ball down the court and starting the offense. The handler also should be able to go get the ball if the offense stalls, bring it back to the top, and restart things.
2. Shooter. Every team needs an outside shooter, to force the defense to extend and create space in the paint.
3. Scorer. Basketball is a game of probabilities. You win by getting better shots--higher-probability shots, if you will. Thus, you need guys who are able to get into the paint and get a high-percentage shot up, even if guarded. There are two basic ways to do this, and I'm going to lump them since it doesn't much matter which one a team has. You can be a slasher, a guy who gets the ball on the perimeter and drives to the basket; or you can be a post-up guy, who gets the ball in or near the lane with your back to the basket, and abuses a defender. In both cases, the scorer can either create his own open look even though he's guarded; or he can make guarded shots; or he can get fouled. Typically, all of the above, if he's a good scorer.
4. Rebounder. [Here we mean offensive rebounding; obviously everyone is expected to rebound his position on the defensive end.] Like I said, it's a game of probabilities, and sometimes even good shots don't go in. Thus, you want a guy who can pick up the garbage, get offensive rebounds, and keep the possession alive.
5. Distributor. Someone needs to get the ball to the scorers in good spots. Or, get the ball to mere contributors in REALLY good spots. Major Wingate, for example, wasn't ever going to create his own shots or abuse a defender, but if Dane could catch the defense out of position and feed Major for a wide-open dunk, then we've definitely won that possession. A great distributor can mask a lack of great scorers.
[Cannon considers shooters and scorers to be the same thing; I think they're different. Cannon also merges the handler and distributor, and claims that the handler has to be the one who distributes. That's nonsense IMO.]
Now, the prototypical basketball team looks like this:
D1 = handler, distributor
D2 = shooter
D3 = scorer
D4 = scorer, rebounder
D5 = rebounder
But Cannon's main point in his article is that it doesn't HAVE to be that way. Your "guy-who-guards-the-PG" can be your shooter, and your D4 can be your handler, and your D3 your rebounder. Or whatever. There's no particular reason why you have to lump DEFENSIVE responsibilities with offensive ones.
I agree, and in fact, sometimes the best teams have hard-to-define players that are versatile and create matchup problems no matter what the defenses do.
Some recent UT players who maybe don't quite fit the normal mold:
-Prince. Mostly a D3, but quick enough to guard most PG's and tall enough to guard the occasional PF. On offense, a distributor first, scorer second. Not a shooter at all, only average as a rebounder.
-Chism. D4 or D5 interchangeably...he could guard either position. On offense, mostly a scorer but sometimes a shooter (got away with lower outside percentage because he was our big man, and it's a pain to pull a big defender away from the basket to cover Wayne)
-Lofton. D2 or D1, depending on other matchups. Offensively started out as a pure shooter, but grew the confidence and ability to turn into a scorer by his junior year. As a note, a shooter/scorer combo is extremely difficult to guard, because if you play him close he's going to the paint, and if you back off he's shooting. Lofton was very difficult to guard in that stretch. Of course, then he hurt his ankle, and the next year he had cancer. At that point he kind of faded back into pure shooter mode.
-Bradshaw. Pure distributor on offense, from the PF position. Really had no other offensive responsibility. I'm not clear on who he guarded...probably process of elimination most nights.
Thoughts? Did I miss any obvious offensive roles?
*****END QUOTED POST*****
