I have to admit that whole position-less basketball thing does not sit well with me. What does it mean and where has it been successful?
Perhaps I don't understand what Position-less basketball means. My fear is that it is a re-hashed version of Nellie-ball.
position-less basketball is nellie ball to me.
I can think of essentially two examples of relatively "position-less" basketball
(1) The actual Princeton offense, as played at Princeton under Pete Carrill.
(2) The Miami Heat with LeBron James.
In the first case you need 5 players who can all handle the ball, pass and shoot. Any given player can be posting up, cutting, passing, dribbling, shooting etc. It relied on efficiency and execution to combat size and athleticism. That and slowing the pace way down. When Adelman adapted principles for the Kings he still had the two bigs primarily posting up, he still used the pick and roll, two man game and occasionally isolation plays. It was a large part of the offense and not the entire offense. Reason being - on the NBA level you still had to play to the strengths of your roster. Vlade and Webber could occasionally hit threes, but they were far more effective near the basket. And the reverse was true of Bibby and Peja. It was a beautiful, ball sharing offense that was very efficient, but it wasn't position less.
In the second case LeBron is the hub of everything that happens and can be playing off the ball, as the main ballhandler/distributor as a post up option etc and every other player has to react to what he is doing. And quite obviously there has only ever been one LeBron James who is a 6'8" 250lb locomotive with amazing speed, agility and athleticism for his size not to mention very good shooting, ball handling, and low post ability to go along with great passing and a highly analytical mind with through the roof basketball IQ. And that's without even mentioning Wade & Bosh who are chameleon like themselves as a SG who excels posting up and a PF with range to three. The Kings don't have anyone of LeBron's talent and the most talented player they DO have should be operating from the high post and closer.
Here's the other thing about position less basketball. You still have to defend the other team who does play normal, positioned basketball. It's why the Grizzlies were such a tough matchup for the LeBron Heat. When you have Shane Battier or James trying to guard Zach Randolph it's going to be a long night.
It's why stretch fours and centers who regularly shoot threes are only usually useful starting next to a dominant big (Horry to Olojuwon etc) or as bench players. Because they are usually soft defensively and get abused on the other end.
If the Kings want to share the ball and try to get back to something akin to what Adelman did then I'm all for it. But if the Kings are looking at Nellie-ball as a longterm strategy then I'm not down with that. And unfortunately when I hear PDA interviewed he often references the old Kings but in terms like "getting out and running" and "fast paced" and "outside shooting". Yes, the old Kings ran fast breaks when the opportunities were there. And they had good outside shooting. But more importantly they were about offensive execution, player movement and passing. When I hear D'Alessandro talk it sounds to me like he's talking about Nellie's Warriors or the old Denver Nuggets teams. Not remotely the same types of teams as our old Kings. I sure hope I'm just imagining things.
And just to get back on topic, prior to CWebb's knee injury the 2002-2003 Kings team looked like the strongest one put together. And it's not a coincidence that Petrie added some defensive toughness with Jim Jackson and Keon Clark for that season. Moreland could be that Keon Clark like player.
