LeBron James and Luka Doncic are the best point guards in the NBA…but they’re also forwards.
We’ve seen positionless basketball take hold of the league since the days of LeBron James’ Miami Heat. The Warriors were the apex of that with Curry playing off ball and Draymond Green running point.
Now, we see that style of play more than ever in so many different ways. It isn’t just centers stepping out and playing the perimeter like Chris Bosh did back then. Now, we’ve got small forwards shifting to the four, everybody switching every thing on defense and gigantic centers stepping out and shooting threes.
Maybe the most impressive trend, and probably the one we take for granted the most, is the evolution of the lead ball handler in the NBA. No longer is it just reserved for guards. More and more, teams are just handing the ball to their best player and letting them cook.
It’s been a joy to watch over the last decade and, honestly, it’s something we probably don’t think about so much because we’re so spoiled by LeBron James.
Just taking a look at the league’s leading ball handlers over the last decade, though, shows us that this isn’t what we’re used to.
Ball handler isn’t the same as point guard anymore
Let’s hop back in time for a bit. Five years ago in the 2014-15 NBA season, there was only one non-guard that ranked in the league’s top 20 assist leaders and, of course, it was James.
He and Blake Griffin were also the only two non-guards ranked in the top 20 in touches per game around the league. They were 10th and 12, respectively.
Let’s fast forward back to today. Five years later, three forwards are the league’s leaders in touches per game starting with Luka Doncic (103.3), James (97.1) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (91.0). It’s not a coincidence that those three are leading most people’s MVP conversations right now.
There’s more. James and Doncic rank first and second in the league in assists. Antetokounmpo ranks 17th and leads his team with 6.5 assists per game. Those three, along with Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler, are the only non-guards that rank in the top 20 in assists.
If we go buy the old school basketball rule of “you are what you guard” then, technically, all of those guys with the exception of the 6’10 Simmons are playing forward. Yet, they’ve all got the entire offense at their fingertips.
It’s not just a gimmick, either. They’re all actually good at it. I mean, look at these numbers from James the other night.
And this creativity from Doncic here is insane — for anybody, not just a forward.
And those two are just the tip of the iceberg. We haven’t even talked about Draymond Green, Nikola Jokic and Kawhi Leonard, who have all run point at front court positions this season.
This is the game’s natural evolution
As things have become more spread out and teams are thinking about how to best utilize their talent, they’ve begun to trust their best playmakers to actually make plays no matter what position they’re playing.
There have always been solid passers from bigger positions. Think about Arvydas Sabonis back in his hayday or even someone like Al Horford, who is proficient but has never played that “point center” role like a Nikola Jokic is right now.
Some of that is a matter of coming up at the wrong place and wrong time. Most of it is just the evolution of modern basketball and putting players in the best positions they can to thrive.
Spoelstra put it perfectly in this ESPN piece seven years ago.
“We have to view this team in a different lens,” Spoelstra said. “When we try to think conventionally and put guys in certain boxes or positions, it really hamstrings us. Not only in terms of our flow but mentally, too. We developed that term [position-less] just for guys to understand our versatility and how we need to play.”
Now, instead of it just being one team that is positionless, it’s multiple. And the game of basketball is so much better because of it.
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