Positionless Basketball and Rockets 2022-23/beyond

I think it's the opposite. The positionless trend is more about defense than offense.

On offense, you dictate what you do according to your personnel. You can afford to have one guy who can't score from the outside and still have a good offense.

It's on defense you need all the flexibility or you are going to get exploited, especially in the playoffs.

 

It really just comes down to having a rotation of your best players that can be successful against any matchup. It's really difficult to build a roster when one of your guys can't stay on the court if another team goes big or small or is hunting switches or whatever. I wouldn't consider Brook Lopez positionless but despite not being a anterior athlete he does well even when teams play untraditional lineups.

These guys are so young, I haven't really seen enough good defense to confirm who can hold their own on a legit playoff rotation.

 

I think it comes down to personnel. Easier to be positionless when most of your rotation is 6'6"+ with length

 

If KJ could just become more consistent defender, he'd be an indispensable rotation player.

 

The ability to switch and adjust is very much needed in today's NBA. I believe that nothing is unbeatable. It's just that some team players can adjust better. E.g., Draymond had a very high IQ that he can double team an offensive player and slide back in defense. That and coaches like Kerr who can concoct a lot of things both on the offense and the defense. There are so many things that Rockets still needs to learn. I'm feeling Silas won't be up to the task.

 

High motor on defense is really what you want. That how GS float even to below average defenders like Curry. To be fair with Curry, even if you beat his defense, he will still hound you continously and follow you or switch to others who needs defending. Rockets need a system to take advantage of Rockets' excellent defenders. One of the reasons I root for Jabari is this. He can be a Draymond on defense. They might be totally different players when it comes to offense but defensively, Jabari can do what Draymond does for the Warriors.

 

I agree but think with Smith’s length and leadership it’s possible to expect even more. Summer league was interesting because of Smith’s play but his communication and directing other players is where the difference making is going to happen. He is like a defensive captain making the team play as one. If Smith can hold his teammates accountable we will see immediate results.

Like anything else positionless basketball can be taken to the extreme. We saw Wood bring the ball up killing any fast brake opportunities after every rebound he got. That is not on Wood but the system or coaching. Hopefully things are going to change.

 

positionless basketball sounds as great as small ball or hoisting 50+ 3's a game or hammering fouls over actually trying to score....

will people ever stop trying to juke the system with some half baked reinventing of the wheel...?

just work hard and play the fkn game as intended... smdh...

 

Time to get back to the fundamentals of real ball.

 

For me the game is simple. Exploit a matchup every time down the court where you have the advantage. Height is part of it. If that happens because you have a 7'6 center, you exploit it. Same thing on defense, if the other team isn't exploiting a matchup, then you are likely to win, but if they are, you better try to hide it. It's the Vince Lomabardi model. Run it again and again. But I like it.

 

LOL

 

I asked this question in another thread - but could Alpi play forward next to another center? If he gets his 3-point % up to like .350 or so.

He's kind of a "point center" anyway, could he be a point forward?

Size-wise, he is like Lebron.

 

Jokic and Gobert are two examples of HoF players getting played off the court in crunch time situations. Sengun will probably not be on the court against the likes of Ja Morant or Anthony Edwards at the end of games. Green/KPJ/Tate/Tari/Jabari is the ideal closing group defensively.

 

Jokic did not get played off the court. He was too valuable on offense to sit him just because he's not good at defense. The only time he was substituted for defensive purpose was a situational substitution with little left on the clock. It is very different from getting played off the court, like Gobert and other bigs who have limited offense.

 

I think our best 5 is probably Porter-Green-Tate-Smith-Sengun. Idk that they're positionless but they are versatile and there's every reason to convince them to play for each other, set each other up and lean into the fact that they can all do a little bit of everything.

 

I don't think he has the lateral quickness required to defend most 4's or defend on the outside, He's going to have to defend the 5 ....

Offensively he can play as a hybrid, but he's got to improve to league average from 3 which was .375 last year while he shot .248. He's got a big improvement to make there.

 

I honestly think wingspan is as much important considering the way the game is played now.

 

I don’t think it is as black and white as that. As the game has evolved lately I think positionless basketball is more than a system for example how we played with harden etc.

Instead of having 4 specialists arguably next to Harden for example the majority of the starting 5 can be flexible and interchange with each other with more emphasis on the defensive end.

To my eye more players can do more than 1 thing when maybe 10-15 years ago you could do one thing pretty well but now you may see players being pretty strong in 2-3 areas versus just 1.

A lot more SG and wings take much more play making then in the past with a certain extent running throw play making centres where you would have not seen that in the past for the most part.

 

i think most everything has its place... positionless bball, focus on 3s, small ball, etc... prob is... as we've encountered... when someone decides to just take one of these thoughts - and run it out to the nth degree...
This is a reg rant of mine - lol... see the sig... lol
I'm fine with situational wrinkles to the gameplan to help exploit situations as they arrive... but i'm against painting ourselves into a corner (trading Capela) or based on 1 overriding sentiment (bc 0-27 happens)... bc at that point, the other team makes the adjustment - and we're screwed...

jus like when folks were all jazzed on small ball... worked well - until we ran into the Lakers and got our butts beat in the paint...

I hated MDA's stubborn self... "we dont adjust to them - they adjust to us!" ...yeh Mike, we dont - and they do and they did - and 'they' kicked us out of the playoffs every year... smdh...

 

Do you realize Rudy T also "juked the system" all the way to a championship by instituting crazy 4 out scheme and revolutionary # of 3's?

Robert Horry was the precursor to the stretch 4 that has become norm in modern era of NBA.