What`s The Most Important Position On A Basketball Team?

PF/C is the most important position because they anchor the defense. Any position can score on offense. There are teams that are led in scoring by every position, and every position has led their team in assists at one time or another. Basically, any star player can make your offense work. On defense it is a different story. No matter how good a perimeter player is on defense, they can really only affect one of the opposing players. A dominant big man can change the whole complexion of the opposing offense.

 

the center postion (or pf/c) without question. as SM just said and others did a great big man will always have a greater impact on D than any smaller player can.

on offense, i would argue a great big man is still better simply because they are less likely to be subject to bad shooting nights due to their proximity to the basket (though they usually can't go off like a guard, consistency is better) and when you start having to double team an inside guy you're pretty much conceding an open shot. you can shade over to stop a great guard (and thus recover better with a full out double team) more than you can shade to stop the big man. you pretty much have to completely leave your man to double team a great center and thus cause more disruption to your defense.

and if you don't like everything i just said, the history of the nba is proof enough. even outside of the championships won by big men over guards is the number of contending teams with quality big men over the number with quality guards. look at the rockets the last few years. cuttino and steve form one of the best backcourts in the game yet they stood no chance against of contending with teams with big men do to our own lack of quality big men. nearly every team in the nba mentioned in championship talks right now has a dominant big man.


and the biggest reason UT is worst off without TJ is simply because he was awesome, not just b/c he was a pg and awesome. you take the best guy ever at your school off the team and it will hurt no matter where he plays on the court.

 

I don't think it matters what position it is. If you have the best player in the game on your team no matter what position he plays your going to be the best team more often then not. Usually the best player historically has been a big man at the center position but it could work with any position. As long as your best player has atleast two go to moves (i.e Hakeem's dream shake and hook shot in the paint.), have a good defensive team, and have a clutch set of role players your going to succeed.

 

Well, there's always the matter of (as francis for perez points out) them losing their best player. The fact that he's a PG may, or may not, be relevant.

 

I don't see all things being equal here. I would take Bird in a second, because he was unstoppable offensively. Russell wasn't even GOOD offensively. The way to win a championship is to be unstoppable offensively.

I don't think zones have changed much, as far as winning championships. How long has zone been legal now, two full years? The best player in the league still won the championship in those two years. If SA or LA wins this year, it will be the same.

 

Hmmm. Very interesting question.

I'd agree, on a "normal" team, that the position where you can least afford a real clunker is at PG. That said, I think that once your PG is average or better... the most important position is the PF/C.

So, it's most important not to have a bad PG. But it's more important to have a "great" big man. Not sure what that means in terms of either position being more important.

I think we can all agree that SF is the least important position.

 

Most important- Without doubt - 'The Playmaker'
The Playmaker makes his Team-mates better and forms the twelve players into one well oiled machine -a Team! The big men are nothing without an unselfish Playmaker.

 

Then you're dumb,

before yesterday, Vick's team actually won a playoff game, where no other team had won, and Payton's hadn't.

 

You've got to be kidding.

Isiah Thomas
Michael Jordan
Larry Bird
Tim Duncan
Shaq,

point, whoever is the best player on the team, plays the most important position.

 

Not responsive. Remotely. And your tone makes that sort of amusing.

Your argument would only be meaningful if I had said, carte blanche, that the PG and big man were always the most important players on the team. I didn't.

On some teams, the SF (which I consider the least important strategically) will be the most influential. But that doesn't mean that it's the most important position in itself. You can, of course, adapt strategy to suit personnel... but we're speaking generally, here.

Simply listing a bunch of players who were the "best" on their teams proves absolutely, positively nothing. In the future, please avoid conflating issues.