Pat Riley once registered his skepticism with positionless basketball by saying that it was an offensive concept, and that you still had to play defense. And you know what? Riley was correct, positionless is mainly an offensive concept.
A roster constructed for positionless basketball is pretty homogeneous, top heavy with 6'8"-6'9" springy interchangeable parts. The "Heat" has had a glut of those guys the last few years: James Johnson, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Chris Silva, on and on. In the patois of previous basketball thinking that would be a roster of "tweeners," a bunch of guys who aren't quite this and who aren't quite that, squarish pegs in roundish holes. The whole point of positionless is to get rid of precise pegs and holes. Everybody is supposed to be able to do everything: drive to the rim, shoot from the outside, pass, rebound, defend. Positionless basketball was thought up by Erik Spoelstra in conversations with LeBron James. LeBron, 6'9", is the archetypal positionless player. He can do everything but there's only one of him. With a roster of more typical, less archetypal, players positionless can still work beautifully on the offensive end: the term "guerrilla basketball" captures the versatility and difficulty of defending.
So what does positionless defense look like? A lot like a group of tweeners. A lot of help defense: rotating, trapping, zone. (For many years the NBA outlawed the zone defense; You had to play man-to-man.) This "Heat" roster are below-average man-to-man defenders. The wings are not quick enough to stay in front of their man and prevent drives to the rim; they are not quick enough to rotate to the perimiter man left open by their help defense; the interior defenders are not tall enough to deter drives. Miami plays so much zone in order to mask its players defensive deficiencies. LAC coach Doc Rivers explained after Friday's game that if you're patient and wait out the "Heat's" trap you can make them pay by hitting from the outside. Last night the "Heat" played a lot of zone defense and today this was the headline in masslive.com:
Boston Celtics bust Miami Heat zone defense, and a question arises about the future of NBA offense
From that article:
MIAMI - The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat, in part, because they were able to beat Miami’s zone defense.
“We came in the locker room and watched some film," Kemba Walker said after the game. We got guys moving, getting to the middle, moving the basketball."
...
...Miami plays a ton of zone. They’re one of a few teams to really embrace it, and maybe the poster-team for how to do it well. Zone defense is different from man-to-man, as the name suggests, because players are assigned to zones on the floor rather than players. They basically guard whomever passes through their zone.
Called a two-three zone:
“The key was trying to get it to the middle there,” Gordon Hayward said after the game. “We started to get into the teeth of the zone and we were getting some easy stuff.”
Look at that. The "Heat" players are staying in their zones and the green bean has acres of space in the middle, in the "seams", of the zone.
...
Or Another way a zone can backfire is if the defenders are not as disciplined as the "Heat" defenders are there, if two or more converge on the ball. Then there's an open man somewhere. Masslive:
So when a team plays zone and guys are defending areas on the floor, getting into certain areas creates a natural overreaction to the ball. Getting into the middle of that 2-3 zone, somewhere around the bottom of that free throw circle, forces three guys to cover the player because he’s in three different zones.
...
“We had to change our attack at halftime,” Brad Stevens said after the game. “Guys did a really good job of attacking it and then once we got a comfortable rhythm against it we were a little bit better.”
So right now we’ve got ourselves the basic story from this Miami game. They played a zone, Boston spent a lot of time before the half not attacking gaps and getting into the middle, they adjusted, and scoring came easier.
The article then quoted Rodney McGruder, then of the "Heat", last year:
“We’re just trying to not have easy blow-bys where guys can get into the paint and make easy sprays and stuff. Other teams just pass the ball around the zone. They don’t really try to penetrate it and get in the middle of the zone. Sometimes they’ll just pass it around and just shoot a 3. They play the way we want them to play.”
...
Teams can’t rely exclusively on zone defense because it’s terrible once a team figures it out and at that point it can be destroyed pretty easily.
...the way to beat it is almost always by attacking it and getting into the middle of the lane, then what happens to the future of NBA offenses if teams are asking players to specifically catch the ball in the least efficient spot on the floor?
If more zone is being played, then more guys will be going to the middle of the floor with the ball. If teams are to protect the rim at all costs, decisions have to be made. If those decisions are to protect against the dump-offs to the baseline, then the offensive player will have to shoot from that 10-15 foot area.
Suddenly the mid-range artist might have more purpose. This phased out element of the game might have some use after all.
...
In the meantime, it’s pretty clear. As the zone becomes more prevalent, someone who is comfortable working in that middle space is necessary. Boston has those guys on this roster, and they can use them to attack and punish zones.
A roster constructed for positionless basketball is pretty homogeneous, top heavy with 6'8"-6'9" springy interchangeable parts. The "Heat" has had a glut of those guys the last few years: James Johnson, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Chris Silva, on and on. In the patois of previous basketball thinking that would be a roster of "tweeners," a bunch of guys who aren't quite this and who aren't quite that, squarish pegs in roundish holes. The whole point of positionless is to get rid of precise pegs and holes. Everybody is supposed to be able to do everything: drive to the rim, shoot from the outside, pass, rebound, defend. Positionless basketball was thought up by Erik Spoelstra in conversations with LeBron James. LeBron, 6'9", is the archetypal positionless player. He can do everything but there's only one of him. With a roster of more typical, less archetypal, players positionless can still work beautifully on the offensive end: the term "guerrilla basketball" captures the versatility and difficulty of defending.
So what does positionless defense look like? A lot like a group of tweeners. A lot of help defense: rotating, trapping, zone. (For many years the NBA outlawed the zone defense; You had to play man-to-man.) This "Heat" roster are below-average man-to-man defenders. The wings are not quick enough to stay in front of their man and prevent drives to the rim; they are not quick enough to rotate to the perimiter man left open by their help defense; the interior defenders are not tall enough to deter drives. Miami plays so much zone in order to mask its players defensive deficiencies. LAC coach Doc Rivers explained after Friday's game that if you're patient and wait out the "Heat's" trap you can make them pay by hitting from the outside. Last night the "Heat" played a lot of zone defense and today this was the headline in masslive.com:
Boston Celtics bust Miami Heat zone defense, and a question arises about the future of NBA offense
From that article:
MIAMI - The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat, in part, because they were able to beat Miami’s zone defense.
“We came in the locker room and watched some film," Kemba Walker said after the game. We got guys moving, getting to the middle, moving the basketball."
...
...Miami plays a ton of zone. They’re one of a few teams to really embrace it, and maybe the poster-team for how to do it well. Zone defense is different from man-to-man, as the name suggests, because players are assigned to zones on the floor rather than players. They basically guard whomever passes through their zone.
Called a two-three zone:
“The key was trying to get it to the middle there,” Gordon Hayward said after the game. “We started to get into the teeth of the zone and we were getting some easy stuff.”
How to win playing one-against-five.
...
Or Another way a zone can backfire is if the defenders are not as disciplined as the "Heat" defenders are there, if two or more converge on the ball. Then there's an open man somewhere. Masslive:
So when a team plays zone and guys are defending areas on the floor, getting into certain areas creates a natural overreaction to the ball. Getting into the middle of that 2-3 zone, somewhere around the bottom of that free throw circle, forces three guys to cover the player because he’s in three different zones.
...
“We had to change our attack at halftime,” Brad Stevens said after the game. “Guys did a really good job of attacking it and then once we got a comfortable rhythm against it we were a little bit better.”
So right now we’ve got ourselves the basic story from this Miami game. They played a zone, Boston spent a lot of time before the half not attacking gaps and getting into the middle, they adjusted, and scoring came easier.
The article then quoted Rodney McGruder, then of the "Heat", last year:
“We’re just trying to not have easy blow-bys where guys can get into the paint and make easy sprays and stuff. Other teams just pass the ball around the zone. They don’t really try to penetrate it and get in the middle of the zone. Sometimes they’ll just pass it around and just shoot a 3. They play the way we want them to play.”
...
Teams can’t rely exclusively on zone defense because it’s terrible once a team figures it out and at that point it can be destroyed pretty easily.
...the way to beat it is almost always by attacking it and getting into the middle of the lane, then what happens to the future of NBA offenses if teams are asking players to specifically catch the ball in the least efficient spot on the floor?
If more zone is being played, then more guys will be going to the middle of the floor with the ball. If teams are to protect the rim at all costs, decisions have to be made. If those decisions are to protect against the dump-offs to the baseline, then the offensive player will have to shoot from that 10-15 foot area.
Suddenly the mid-range artist might have more purpose. This phased out element of the game might have some use after all.
...
In the meantime, it’s pretty clear. As the zone becomes more prevalent, someone who is comfortable working in that middle space is necessary. Boston has those guys on this roster, and they can use them to attack and punish zones.
