The New Orleans Pelicans can Learn from the Milwaukee Bucks’ Versatility
By Nathan Heck
“Positionless basketball” has been the hot phrase for most basketball writers of late and for good reason. The Golden State Warriors just won a championship with the tallest player in the starting lineup being six foot seven. It may be a bit hasty to declare positions dead, but positional versatility is definitely on the rise. Players are being asked to fill multiple roles in today’s game, and the Milwaukee Bucks are on the cutting edge while the New Orleans Pelicans are a bit behind.
Jason Kidd is a good coach. Forget the “hit me“incident and the power struggle in Brooklyn and realize that Kidd took the Milwaukee Bucks from the worst record in basketball to the playoffs in one season. It is true the front office has brought in an incredible amount of talent over the last few seasons, but Kidd was tasked with molding the roster into a cohesive unit. In this regard, Kidd has already accomplished his primary goal: transform the Bucks from laughing stock to respected franchise.
This offseason, Greg Monroe, one of the most coveted free agents on the market, chose Milwaukee over the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles and New York because he thought it made more basketball sense. So, how did Kidd turn the team around so quickly? Positional versatility.
The Bucks are not like your normal basketball team, and Kidd played to his team’s advantages. Featuring long and versatile players like Giannas Antetokounmpo, Michael Carter-Williams (acquired at the deadline), Khris Middleton, John Henson and Jared Dudley last season, the opportunity presented itself to put players in unconventional roles. The Greek Freak (Antetokounmpo), for example, played minutes at the one, two, three, four and five last season. His otherworldly athleticism and length coupled with his slashing ability allow him to play almost any position on the floor effectively. His best position, moving forward, is most likely the four, but he has the ability to move around the floor so that the most talented team can be put on the court.
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That is the real key, maximizing the amount of talent on the court at any given moment. The five best players for the Milwaukee Bucks this season, Antetokounmpo, Parker, Monroe, Middleton and Carter-Williams, can all share the court because of the versatility of the players, but they can also share the court with a variety of role players because they can play around the role players’ skill sets. This is critical to Milwaukee’s success; Kidd is able to move players around to maximize the team’s ability off the bench.
This idea of moving your best players around is the opposite of traditional wisdom that says a team should play the role players around the stars. Instead, Kidd seemed to plug the role players in first and fill in whatever blanks were left with players like Antetokounmpo and Middleton. The Pelicans are not currently built this way, but it should be a goal they attempt to achieve.
Using our own Pelicans Rank, the top eight players on the roster are Anthony Davis, Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday, Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon, Omer Asik, Quincy Pondexter and Alexis Ajinca. Of those eight, only three, Davis, Evans and Holiday, are capable of playing any position besides their natural one at any reasonable level of production, and none of them are capable of playing more than two spots (Tyreke Evans as a small forward was a failed experiment). This inflexibility severely limits the lineups available to Gentry. Not only does it limit the team when they are at full strength, but it severely hampers the team when the inevitable injuries occur.
The Pelicans will be without Asik, Pondexter and Ajinca to start the season, and Jrue Holiday will be limited. Having players like Antetokounmpo and Middleton that can play three positions effectively would greatly increase the team’s ability to cope with injuries to key rotational pieces. During the Alvin Gentry Show that airs on WRNO on October 8th, the coach made it clear that he wanted to have the five best guys on the court together, but that will be hard for the Pelicans to do because of the lack of versatile players on the roster.
Currently, the Pelicans are a collection of extremely specialized players such as Tyreke Evans (must be the ball handler to be effective), Omer Asik (can only play the five and the definition of one way), Ryan Anderson (can only play the four and also the definition of one way), Eric Gordon (provides spacing and literally nothing else), and the list goes on. To continue the progress towards building a contender, the Pelicans should look north and see what the Bucks have been doing. A versatile wing or a tweener forward could go a long way to pushing the Pelicans to the top of the mountain.
Next: Our Bucks Q&A With Adam McGee of Behind the Buck Pass
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