SLN Position Theory, presented by JWoo
Posted: April 9th, 2024, 10:47 pm
At risk of giving away all my deepest team-building secrets, I've been thinking about putting together some totally observational, dorky as fuck SLN positional philosophy to help us all think about roster construction, roles, and how the game works.
With that in mind I've come up with what is essentially a position rubric that goes beyond the traditional five positions that the game gives us. These are archetypes that a large portion of the game's *usable* players can fit into, with some players that are admittedly unicorns and can't neatly be put in a box. There are also players who don't fit into these boxes because they suck.
I think this might also be a useful lens with which to look at draft prospects — do guys have realistic pathways into fitting into one of these types of roles? Can a player be easily camped into one of these boxes? Obviously, some of these archetypes are rarer and much less scalable than others — superstars are superstars. There are plenty of guys who are somewhere in between.
Anyway — here are the 18 different positional roles I was able to separate after spending a lot of time thinking about it and parsing through rosters. Might refine this a bit over time as the league shifts.
***
Point God
Key traits: High volume, high efficiency, manageable turnovers, at least passable defense
Think: Terrell Brandon, Jason Kidd, Tony Parker
These are the rarest types of PGs — the guys who truly wreck games. They can lead the team in scoring without having to be a top option, they can do it efficiently, they take care of the ball, and they contribute on the defensive end. This is obviously a rare type of player and is kind of an FBB holy grail, but they do exist. Think of it as the final evolution of a point guard prospect — guys can evolve and gradually land in this archetype over time, and no Point God arrives fully baked. It takes TC luck, shooting camps, etc to hit this pinnacle.
Game Manager
Key traits: Low turnovers, useful efficiency, good defense
Think: Devin Harris, Shaun Livingston, Mike Conley
The defining trait of a game manager is, you guessed it, taking care of the basketball. These guys are usually positive offensive threats - maybe you can play them as a third option - and they are also usually good to very good on defense. The key thing here is having either close to neutral steals to turnovers, or more steals than turnovers. They may not have the volume to take over every game, they might be a little more pass-first, and they might have a down shooting season here and there, but you can easily build an infrastructure around any guard in this mold. While three-point shooting is always nice, it's not a requirement. This is a role that also scales fairly well — you can certainly find a solid game manager as your backup.
Microwave PG
Key traits: High volume, high efficiency, high three-point volume, manageable turnovers
Think: Jamal Crawford, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard
Defense is not a requirement for these types of players — only buckets. They are elite scorers who can create a huge competitive advantage by being too hard for opposing PGs to handle. You can anchor an offense to one of these guys and win plenty of games. But they are also usually giving away turnovers and/or points, and it might require a lot of quality infrastructure around them in order to contend for a title. Another important distinction is that these guys are also typically not good enough at rebounding or lack the strength to truly shine at the two. We also often see guys like this find success off the bench providing useful scoring in short spurts as combo guards. (think Courtney Alexander or George Hill).
Combo Guard
Key traits: Able to play point guard, scores and/or defends at an elite level to get on the floor, turns the ball over a little too much
Think: Jeff McInnis, Deron Williams, Early Steve Francis
Sometimes we see guards wind up in this zone where they end up going back and forth between both guard spots over the course of their careers, usually because of a turnover problem or some other extenuating circumstance. Sometimes it works out just fine, sometimes it can really hurt a player's utility. Will John Wall wind up in this bucket? He'll need to score it well enough to justify playing the two. Michael Carter-Williams presents a similar conundrum in this year's draft.
Superstar wing
Key traits: Great volume, great efficiency, great defense
Think: Manu Ginobili, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant
Obviously there's a narrow pathway to actually ascending to this level, but these are the game's best wing players. They are basically good at everything, adding value as an offensive option who at minimum plays solid defense with some form of stocks. They are typically but not always good enough to play both SG and SF. Not every player may not be able to sustain Hall of Fame level peaks like this, but this is the pinnacle. Guys like Kawhi and Paul George are hoping to sniff this rarified air, but if they don't, they can still easily fall into a different role bucket and succeed.
Pure scoring SG
Key Traits: Good shooting, good volume, solid handles, average to below average defense and/or average to below average rebounding
Think: Ray Allen, Ben Gordon, Willie Green
These guys will contribute massively to your offense as viable options and are outside oriented, which can create a massive leg up in the scoring department. They also might limit you a bit in terms of constructing a lineup due to positional constraints: these guys might lack the strength to guard stronger threes, or lack the rebounding to slide down to small forward. But ultimately, you want them in the game for offense. Lesser versions of this player typically wind up more in a combo guard role, backing up PG and SG, but as long as you can score it well enough, you need to be in the game.
Two-Way Wing
Key traits: Positive offense, positive defense, useful volume, useful rebounding
Think: Marvin Williams, Tayshaun Prince, Tony Allen
Most great teams have at least one player like this as part of their foundation — if you don't have a star wing who guards at a high level, it's almost a necessity to have a guy like this holding it down on the perimeter. These guys don't necessarily have to play as options, and you may not want them to, but they won't hurt you in any serious capacity and are capable of winning games on their own. It's a role that scales very well and there are somewhat wide margins to fit this box. Finding a guy who can hold his own on both ends is usually a coup for building a team.
Offense-first wing scorer
Key Traits: Lots of efficient buckets, good strength and inside scoring, not a ton of defense
Think: Jamal Mashburn, Carmelo Anthony, Michael Beasley
These guys are always slanted toward offense, but typically provide quite a bit of it. On the very high end, these guys can lead the league in scoring. On the lower end, they can still find quality roles on teams and play as offensive options (like an Adam Morrison type of guy). Some teams have much higher tolerance for these types of players than others, and they usually require some level of defensive insulation around them if you want to win big. You may not be able to roll out too many of them at once unless they're really, really good. Some of them are twos, some are threes and some can play both spots — it matters less so long as you can score at plus levels.
Glue Guy Specialist
Key traits: Playable shooting, good defense with stocks, low scoring volume
Think: Shane Battier, Julian Wright, PJ Tucker
These types of guys don't always pan out, and they are prone to variance in play due to what is usually limited volume. At bare minimum they have to have enough offense to be efficient with the touches they get. They are especially useful in shot funnel type of contexts — and these guys typically have great stocks, which is what justifies them getting minutes in the first place. For example, I'm hoping Kent Bazemore can develop down this route, where the volume is a slight drawback, but the other skills cover for that. These guys are often bench pieces, but can be optimized quite well in winning contexts.
Superstar Forward
Key traits: Positive offense, great stocks, good rebounding, viable at SF and PF
Think: Peak Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Tracy McGrady
Many of the game's best players have at one point or another fit into this bucket: they can play both small forward and power forward, they're good scorers at bare minimum, they chip in stocks at a high rate, they rebound well, and their versatility allows for maximum pathways to constructing an elite team. These are the guys you dream about having on your team, and they are not easily acquired as a result. Giannis might wind up in this group, in a perfect world.
Swiss Army Knife forward
Key traits: Playable offense, good defense with stocks, great rebounding, good strength and quickness
Think: Kris Clack, Yi Jianlian, Lamar Odom
Sometimes these guys wind up best used as supersubs, sometimes they're starters at SF or PF, but they're usually excellent in either capacity. This is a broad-stroke way to classify all these players who can be deployed creatively and are extremely fun to mix and match with. You can sometimes use them to attack matchups, or you can use them to plug holes. It's one of the more unique things you can find — and some superstar players often scale back into this type of mold due to how good they are to begin with (think Shawn Marion and KG). They can play across positions thanks to their rebounding and stocks, and still create offensive advantages.
True Power Forward
Key traits: High inside scoring, good jump shot, solid defense and rebounding, not enough sheer strength to max out at center
Think: Pau Gasol, Blake Griffin, Chris Webber
I classify these guys as true PFs (and I acknowledge that Blake is playing small forward this season to positive effect, albeit maybe not forever) due to the fact that they probably need to play the four and not the five to have a maximum strength advantage. You want these guys to shoot and score and use their quickness and strength — and they are going to do it whether you like it or not — but if you can optimize for efficiency, these guys are unicorns unto themselves. It's not always the easiest task, however, as history has shown.
Offense-first big
Key traits: High inside scoring, good strength, good rebounding, typically more steal-slanted than block-slanted
Think: Carlos Boozer, Zach Randolph, Amare Stoudemire
There are very wide error bars for this type of player, but they are undeniably useful if you can optimize for them. Building a winning team around them has often been a different story, but it can be done. They usually ask for too much money, which makes it harder to neatly fit them into a role, and they don't usually rack up blocks. But a creative GM can sometimes find a way to get more out of these types of players. It's one of the more difficult player types to work with sometimes, but sometimes they still thrive as non-options. These guys tend to be better suited for PF due to the likely strength advantage they can glean there, but it varies.
Unicorn Big
Key traits: Efficient offense with volume, great defense with stocks, above-average to great rebounding
Think: Hakeem Olajuwon, Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge
These guys are the most idiot-proof players you can have, and they are few and far between — Anthony Davis might be the next one. They are skilled enough offensively to put up volume and efficiency in an outside offense — and they don't need to be optimized necessarily, usually allowing them to fit nicely with guards who can share the offensive load. Again, it's really hard to find these guys — although I'm wondering if the next generation of bigs with quality outside scoring Ashes makes might start to flirt with this type of mold just a little more. LMA is an excellent TC development story — can, say, Porzingis evolve to fit this mold? Time will tell.
Powerhouse Center
Key traits: Efficient inside offense, amazing strength, great defense and rebounding
Think: Shaq, Yao Ming, Eddy Curry, Al Jefferson
Absolute wide load guys who are going to overpower people on offense and have the ability to be optimized in an inside offense. There aren't many of them, but it's truly a rare archetype, as there aren't many players that can wreck the way they do, draw tons of fouls, and make an entire strategy that's traditionally been viewed as a bad one viable. I'm super curious to see whether Jokic and Embiid are built into this type of mold, or whether they'll be built more like a Unicorn big — or if there's some insane fusion of the two that will be game-breaking. Hmm.
Pure Butts
Key traits: Good stocks, good rebounding, ideally low turnovers, ideally quick and strong enough for both PF and C, low offensive volume
Think: Ben Wallace, Desagana Diop, Joakim Noah
You know the type: these are the guys Jesse dreams about in his sleep. They hate shooting, they love stocks, they usually hate turnovers, they usually have good positional defense. As we enter an era with more offensively-skilled bigs, we may see fewer of these guys come into the league, but when they are great, they are amazing. Lesser versions of this player can still be exceptional in shot-funnel contexts as well (think Johan Petro in his current role). This role also scales well historically, as there are plenty of guys like this that find homes off the bench. The lesser cases might be more rebounding or defense-slanted, but these guys usually just have blocks (and steals as a bonus), low turnovers, and just enough rebounding to make a traditional FBB player feel something in his loins.
Butts who like to score
Key traits: Good stocks, good rebounding, good strength, high inside scoring for better or worse, sometimes inefficient volume, usually some turnovers
Think: Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Greg Oden
These guys are sometimes even better at butt stuff than the Pure Butts, but they also like to score, which sometimes creates problems. There is some intrinsic advantage to having guys like this who get to the line and make other teams foul — and in elite cases, they're elite anyway — but they can also create team building challenges by shooting a little bit too much at a rate that is not typically super efficient. In the very high end cases, you will live with some of these issues due to the immense advantages they give you on the glass and usually on defense. Some GMs won't want to mess with these guys due to the bouts of inefficiency and shots they take away from guards.
Stretch big
Key traits: High outside scoring relative to position, enough inside scoring to produce volume, at least playable defense and/or rebounding.
Think: Mehmet Okur, Al Horford, Brook Lopez
Last but not least, this is the type of player I think we are going to see come into the league more and more, and I think Ashes is very curious to see if he can make them effective. Okur is a really interesting proxy. The game is programmed in a way where bigs just shoot fewer threes, so even if we wanted to fully optimize a guy like this for three-point volume, chances are he'd need to play small forward, which is obviously untenable a lot of the time. Defense and rebounding are somewhat less of a concern here, but it obviously helps to be good at one or both to help justify giving a guy like this starter's minutes. These types of role players are probably a big part of the future of the league, and I'm curious to see how this archetype shifts and expands in the coming seasons.
Anything I missed? Would love this to spark some fun discussion. There are obviously some guys who don't totally fit into any of these (maybe we need a true unicorn list for guys like LeBron), but I think this somewhat broadly captures it.
With that in mind I've come up with what is essentially a position rubric that goes beyond the traditional five positions that the game gives us. These are archetypes that a large portion of the game's *usable* players can fit into, with some players that are admittedly unicorns and can't neatly be put in a box. There are also players who don't fit into these boxes because they suck.
I think this might also be a useful lens with which to look at draft prospects — do guys have realistic pathways into fitting into one of these types of roles? Can a player be easily camped into one of these boxes? Obviously, some of these archetypes are rarer and much less scalable than others — superstars are superstars. There are plenty of guys who are somewhere in between.
Anyway — here are the 18 different positional roles I was able to separate after spending a lot of time thinking about it and parsing through rosters. Might refine this a bit over time as the league shifts.
***
Point God
Key traits: High volume, high efficiency, manageable turnovers, at least passable defense
Think: Terrell Brandon, Jason Kidd, Tony Parker
These are the rarest types of PGs — the guys who truly wreck games. They can lead the team in scoring without having to be a top option, they can do it efficiently, they take care of the ball, and they contribute on the defensive end. This is obviously a rare type of player and is kind of an FBB holy grail, but they do exist. Think of it as the final evolution of a point guard prospect — guys can evolve and gradually land in this archetype over time, and no Point God arrives fully baked. It takes TC luck, shooting camps, etc to hit this pinnacle.
Game Manager
Key traits: Low turnovers, useful efficiency, good defense
Think: Devin Harris, Shaun Livingston, Mike Conley
The defining trait of a game manager is, you guessed it, taking care of the basketball. These guys are usually positive offensive threats - maybe you can play them as a third option - and they are also usually good to very good on defense. The key thing here is having either close to neutral steals to turnovers, or more steals than turnovers. They may not have the volume to take over every game, they might be a little more pass-first, and they might have a down shooting season here and there, but you can easily build an infrastructure around any guard in this mold. While three-point shooting is always nice, it's not a requirement. This is a role that also scales fairly well — you can certainly find a solid game manager as your backup.
Microwave PG
Key traits: High volume, high efficiency, high three-point volume, manageable turnovers
Think: Jamal Crawford, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard
Defense is not a requirement for these types of players — only buckets. They are elite scorers who can create a huge competitive advantage by being too hard for opposing PGs to handle. You can anchor an offense to one of these guys and win plenty of games. But they are also usually giving away turnovers and/or points, and it might require a lot of quality infrastructure around them in order to contend for a title. Another important distinction is that these guys are also typically not good enough at rebounding or lack the strength to truly shine at the two. We also often see guys like this find success off the bench providing useful scoring in short spurts as combo guards. (think Courtney Alexander or George Hill).
Combo Guard
Key traits: Able to play point guard, scores and/or defends at an elite level to get on the floor, turns the ball over a little too much
Think: Jeff McInnis, Deron Williams, Early Steve Francis
Sometimes we see guards wind up in this zone where they end up going back and forth between both guard spots over the course of their careers, usually because of a turnover problem or some other extenuating circumstance. Sometimes it works out just fine, sometimes it can really hurt a player's utility. Will John Wall wind up in this bucket? He'll need to score it well enough to justify playing the two. Michael Carter-Williams presents a similar conundrum in this year's draft.
Superstar wing
Key traits: Great volume, great efficiency, great defense
Think: Manu Ginobili, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant
Obviously there's a narrow pathway to actually ascending to this level, but these are the game's best wing players. They are basically good at everything, adding value as an offensive option who at minimum plays solid defense with some form of stocks. They are typically but not always good enough to play both SG and SF. Not every player may not be able to sustain Hall of Fame level peaks like this, but this is the pinnacle. Guys like Kawhi and Paul George are hoping to sniff this rarified air, but if they don't, they can still easily fall into a different role bucket and succeed.
Pure scoring SG
Key Traits: Good shooting, good volume, solid handles, average to below average defense and/or average to below average rebounding
Think: Ray Allen, Ben Gordon, Willie Green
These guys will contribute massively to your offense as viable options and are outside oriented, which can create a massive leg up in the scoring department. They also might limit you a bit in terms of constructing a lineup due to positional constraints: these guys might lack the strength to guard stronger threes, or lack the rebounding to slide down to small forward. But ultimately, you want them in the game for offense. Lesser versions of this player typically wind up more in a combo guard role, backing up PG and SG, but as long as you can score it well enough, you need to be in the game.
Two-Way Wing
Key traits: Positive offense, positive defense, useful volume, useful rebounding
Think: Marvin Williams, Tayshaun Prince, Tony Allen
Most great teams have at least one player like this as part of their foundation — if you don't have a star wing who guards at a high level, it's almost a necessity to have a guy like this holding it down on the perimeter. These guys don't necessarily have to play as options, and you may not want them to, but they won't hurt you in any serious capacity and are capable of winning games on their own. It's a role that scales very well and there are somewhat wide margins to fit this box. Finding a guy who can hold his own on both ends is usually a coup for building a team.
Offense-first wing scorer
Key Traits: Lots of efficient buckets, good strength and inside scoring, not a ton of defense
Think: Jamal Mashburn, Carmelo Anthony, Michael Beasley
These guys are always slanted toward offense, but typically provide quite a bit of it. On the very high end, these guys can lead the league in scoring. On the lower end, they can still find quality roles on teams and play as offensive options (like an Adam Morrison type of guy). Some teams have much higher tolerance for these types of players than others, and they usually require some level of defensive insulation around them if you want to win big. You may not be able to roll out too many of them at once unless they're really, really good. Some of them are twos, some are threes and some can play both spots — it matters less so long as you can score at plus levels.
Glue Guy Specialist
Key traits: Playable shooting, good defense with stocks, low scoring volume
Think: Shane Battier, Julian Wright, PJ Tucker
These types of guys don't always pan out, and they are prone to variance in play due to what is usually limited volume. At bare minimum they have to have enough offense to be efficient with the touches they get. They are especially useful in shot funnel type of contexts — and these guys typically have great stocks, which is what justifies them getting minutes in the first place. For example, I'm hoping Kent Bazemore can develop down this route, where the volume is a slight drawback, but the other skills cover for that. These guys are often bench pieces, but can be optimized quite well in winning contexts.
Superstar Forward
Key traits: Positive offense, great stocks, good rebounding, viable at SF and PF
Think: Peak Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Tracy McGrady
Many of the game's best players have at one point or another fit into this bucket: they can play both small forward and power forward, they're good scorers at bare minimum, they chip in stocks at a high rate, they rebound well, and their versatility allows for maximum pathways to constructing an elite team. These are the guys you dream about having on your team, and they are not easily acquired as a result. Giannis might wind up in this group, in a perfect world.
Swiss Army Knife forward
Key traits: Playable offense, good defense with stocks, great rebounding, good strength and quickness
Think: Kris Clack, Yi Jianlian, Lamar Odom
Sometimes these guys wind up best used as supersubs, sometimes they're starters at SF or PF, but they're usually excellent in either capacity. This is a broad-stroke way to classify all these players who can be deployed creatively and are extremely fun to mix and match with. You can sometimes use them to attack matchups, or you can use them to plug holes. It's one of the more unique things you can find — and some superstar players often scale back into this type of mold due to how good they are to begin with (think Shawn Marion and KG). They can play across positions thanks to their rebounding and stocks, and still create offensive advantages.
True Power Forward
Key traits: High inside scoring, good jump shot, solid defense and rebounding, not enough sheer strength to max out at center
Think: Pau Gasol, Blake Griffin, Chris Webber
I classify these guys as true PFs (and I acknowledge that Blake is playing small forward this season to positive effect, albeit maybe not forever) due to the fact that they probably need to play the four and not the five to have a maximum strength advantage. You want these guys to shoot and score and use their quickness and strength — and they are going to do it whether you like it or not — but if you can optimize for efficiency, these guys are unicorns unto themselves. It's not always the easiest task, however, as history has shown.
Offense-first big
Key traits: High inside scoring, good strength, good rebounding, typically more steal-slanted than block-slanted
Think: Carlos Boozer, Zach Randolph, Amare Stoudemire
There are very wide error bars for this type of player, but they are undeniably useful if you can optimize for them. Building a winning team around them has often been a different story, but it can be done. They usually ask for too much money, which makes it harder to neatly fit them into a role, and they don't usually rack up blocks. But a creative GM can sometimes find a way to get more out of these types of players. It's one of the more difficult player types to work with sometimes, but sometimes they still thrive as non-options. These guys tend to be better suited for PF due to the likely strength advantage they can glean there, but it varies.
Unicorn Big
Key traits: Efficient offense with volume, great defense with stocks, above-average to great rebounding
Think: Hakeem Olajuwon, Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge
These guys are the most idiot-proof players you can have, and they are few and far between — Anthony Davis might be the next one. They are skilled enough offensively to put up volume and efficiency in an outside offense — and they don't need to be optimized necessarily, usually allowing them to fit nicely with guards who can share the offensive load. Again, it's really hard to find these guys — although I'm wondering if the next generation of bigs with quality outside scoring Ashes makes might start to flirt with this type of mold just a little more. LMA is an excellent TC development story — can, say, Porzingis evolve to fit this mold? Time will tell.
Powerhouse Center
Key traits: Efficient inside offense, amazing strength, great defense and rebounding
Think: Shaq, Yao Ming, Eddy Curry, Al Jefferson
Absolute wide load guys who are going to overpower people on offense and have the ability to be optimized in an inside offense. There aren't many of them, but it's truly a rare archetype, as there aren't many players that can wreck the way they do, draw tons of fouls, and make an entire strategy that's traditionally been viewed as a bad one viable. I'm super curious to see whether Jokic and Embiid are built into this type of mold, or whether they'll be built more like a Unicorn big — or if there's some insane fusion of the two that will be game-breaking. Hmm.
Pure Butts
Key traits: Good stocks, good rebounding, ideally low turnovers, ideally quick and strong enough for both PF and C, low offensive volume
Think: Ben Wallace, Desagana Diop, Joakim Noah
You know the type: these are the guys Jesse dreams about in his sleep. They hate shooting, they love stocks, they usually hate turnovers, they usually have good positional defense. As we enter an era with more offensively-skilled bigs, we may see fewer of these guys come into the league, but when they are great, they are amazing. Lesser versions of this player can still be exceptional in shot-funnel contexts as well (think Johan Petro in his current role). This role also scales well historically, as there are plenty of guys like this that find homes off the bench. The lesser cases might be more rebounding or defense-slanted, but these guys usually just have blocks (and steals as a bonus), low turnovers, and just enough rebounding to make a traditional FBB player feel something in his loins.
Butts who like to score
Key traits: Good stocks, good rebounding, good strength, high inside scoring for better or worse, sometimes inefficient volume, usually some turnovers
Think: Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Greg Oden
These guys are sometimes even better at butt stuff than the Pure Butts, but they also like to score, which sometimes creates problems. There is some intrinsic advantage to having guys like this who get to the line and make other teams foul — and in elite cases, they're elite anyway — but they can also create team building challenges by shooting a little bit too much at a rate that is not typically super efficient. In the very high end cases, you will live with some of these issues due to the immense advantages they give you on the glass and usually on defense. Some GMs won't want to mess with these guys due to the bouts of inefficiency and shots they take away from guards.
Stretch big
Key traits: High outside scoring relative to position, enough inside scoring to produce volume, at least playable defense and/or rebounding.
Think: Mehmet Okur, Al Horford, Brook Lopez
Last but not least, this is the type of player I think we are going to see come into the league more and more, and I think Ashes is very curious to see if he can make them effective. Okur is a really interesting proxy. The game is programmed in a way where bigs just shoot fewer threes, so even if we wanted to fully optimize a guy like this for three-point volume, chances are he'd need to play small forward, which is obviously untenable a lot of the time. Defense and rebounding are somewhat less of a concern here, but it obviously helps to be good at one or both to help justify giving a guy like this starter's minutes. These types of role players are probably a big part of the future of the league, and I'm curious to see how this archetype shifts and expands in the coming seasons.
Anything I missed? Would love this to spark some fun discussion. There are obviously some guys who don't totally fit into any of these (maybe we need a true unicorn list for guys like LeBron), but I think this somewhat broadly captures it.