The New York Knicks are embracing a positionless style of basketball. Knowing that to be true, who are the top five combo guards in the 2018 NBA Draft?
The Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors have embraced a style of basketball that ruled the NBA in the 1960s and 1970s. Rather than attempting to define positional roles, they’re playing like the championship-era New York Knicks, embracing ball movement and defense.
That leads to all five players being trusted to convert open shots, defend their assignments, and rotate with verbal and non-verbal communication.
Those seem like basic principles, but that positionless style has overwhelmed teams around the NBA. One could blame that on rival coaches and general managers, or the players who are failing to develop the necessary skills to adapt.
The reality of the Association, however, is that teams that move the ball and defend at high levels have always managed to rise to the top.
Recently hired head coach David Fizdale has noticed this to be true, and will thus bring the positionless approach back to New York. That’s an intriguing statement, but it beckons a question that should be asked more often than it is.
If the New York Knicks are going positionless, then who are the positionally fluid guards whom David Fizdale and company should be looking at in the 2018 NBA Draft?