Positions and Systems

A really good article that indicates with the influx of foreign players over the last 10 years or so (hats off to the Spurs) and different systems such as the Triangle and the Flex, that traditional positions 1-5 are really not as relevant today as in the past.  An excellent post with far more info than I know. Maybe the Spurs know they don't need a traditional backup for RJ.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/19365/positions-and-systems

"Austin Burton was on hand at Rucker Park in Harlem last weekend for the World Basketball Festival when Kobe Bryant addressed the media:
Kobe said the influence of international players in the NBA has helped create a “hybrid” culture, where players of all sizes possess skills in all areas and can conceiveably play any position on the floor.

“That’s the one difference I’d like to see us kind of shift to,” Kobe said.

This vision of five basketball players, devoid of traditional positional constraints, passing and cutting and posting and shooting and dribbling with equal aplomb, is near. The concept of players assuming a definite position on the floor and sticking to that role is fading away like one of Kobe’s jumpers, as a new age of hyrbids begin to take over the game." ............