Before the start of the 2023-24 season, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that All-NBA teams would no longer have fixed position requirements. It marked a logical move for the league, with the rigid ask for two guards, two forwards, and one centre feeling increasingly archaic.
To the casual fan, it felt like a response to the Embiid vs. Jokic MVP race, where it just felt wrong to have one of these players fall into the second team vote. But taking a wider view, the All-NBA change reflects the league’s new reality: the classic basketball positions, they’re gone (well, sort of).
The Old Five-Position System
Let’s start with an overview of basketball positions, because they’re still very much relevant in today’s basketball. Traditional concepts give structure, and at the very least, formalize roles within a team.
First, the point guard. This is the ball handler, the play caller, setting the tempo, and the one from whom the team’s play flows. The list includes Oscar Robertson and John Stockton.
The shooting guard is the free-flowing scorer, the one who spaces the floor, and is often the most noticeable player on the court. That certainly was the case with the 90s Bulls and Michael Jordan.
Small forwards are the most flexible, playing wing, possessing attributes of both bigs and guards. Scoring on the inside, but also posing a threat from outside. Scottie Pippen and Larry Bird are two notable examples.
Power forwards offer inside scoring and a physical presence, often acting as the secondary or even primary rebounder on the floor. Karl Malone and Charles Barkley differed in terms of size, but played with plenty of power.
Finally, the center. The center protects the rim, sets screens, is most often the tallest player on the team, and has the job of dominating the paint. Shaquille O’Neal needs no introduction, and he did all of these things.
Players Who Changed the Game
The NBA didn’t go from fixed spots to positionless basketball overnight. No, it started with teams bending the old rules, and certain individuals with the talent and imagination to break free from the shackles of their positions.
The clear original was Magic Johnson. He was a 6-foot-9 guard in an era where the average was around 7 inches shorter. He was built like a forward, handled the ball like a point guard, and had vision like no one else before him.
During the 1980 NBA Finals, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar out, Magic even started at center as a rookie. His production is the stuff of legend: 42 points, 15 boards, and 7 assists. Unsurprisingly, he won the NBA Finals MVP.
The game didn’t mean that Magic stopped being the primary playmaker, or that he switched positions constantly. But it did show that he was versatile enough to respond to what the game asked of him, thereby cracking the door open to a reinvention of how we think about positions in basketball.
Closer to the modern game, we have Mike D’Antoni’s “Seven Seconds or Less” offense. It pushed the next major step, with the system being radical for the mid-2000s period. Nash operated as the distributor, winning back-to-back MVPs. Amar’e Stoudamire played as a smaller center, Shawn Marion played far bigger than his physical size, and Boris Diaw added a strange mix, a guard seemingly trapped in a forward’s body.
These shifts slowly changed the collective understanding of what a position should (or shouldn’t) be, and how adding flexibility to the playbook approach can level up the game. That brings us to today’s game.
Positionless Basketball Today
Positionless basketball does not mean that positions have vanished entirely. It means skillsets and the role within the fabric of the team matter more, rather than a fixed label. Teams still need balance, which traditional positions provide, but the modern NBA is far more flexible than in previous eras.
Positionless players can do several jobs. Look at Denver’s superstar Nikola Jokić, listed as a center, but having very little in common with Dikembe Mutombo or Rik Smits, for example, archetypal players at the position during the 90s NBA.
He’s both a passer, a role usually seen with a smaller PG, and a presence in the pivot, the traditional big man role. This past regular season, he led the league in both rebounds and assists, almost an unfathomable video game-esque stat.
Now, there’s no one quite like the Joker. But the NBA now demands players who can survive different matchups, or they’ll be hounded on the defensive end. That’s why one-dimensional players like non-shooter Ben Simmons are increasingly disappearing in today’s game.
Looking Ahead: The Risks of Going Too Far?
Positionless basketball has clear benefits, but it can also be misunderstood; it can be taken too far. Not every player should try to do everything on the basketball court. Teams need flexibility and versatile players, but specialists still have their value.
Rewinding to Jokic. Think about Denver’s performance in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Without Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets were exposed. They didn’t have the rim protector the team desperately needed, perhaps more than most experts even realized.
It highlights that we may need to rethink how we approach the modern game. Broad skills are valuable, but does it create too many decent-at-everything but great-at-none level players? For a clear savant like Jokic to excel, he perhaps needs the facilitation of a single-focus player.
The next stage of basketball will continue blending old and new ideas, with the concept of positions always remaining part of the language, even if simply as points of reference. Ultimately, it’s about responding to a constantly evolving game, having players who can adapt, and it’s ultimately about talent over labels.