Tyreke Evans of the Sacramento Kings: Life as a Positionless Basketball Player

Tyreke Evans was once the point guard of the Sacramento Kings, only insomuch as he was completely unlike a point guard and yet still managed to somehow fit the bill. Evans handled the ball (though not spectacularly well), scored proficiently (as no point guard should do, apparently), and did a reasonably effective job of setting up his teammates. And whether through necessity, convenience, or clerical error, this wonderful basketball player was made into something damningly hyper-specific.

Evans wasn't any more a point guard then than he is now, and he's no more a small forward now than he was then. Yet his nominal position has changed—as have his responsibilities relative to his teammates—even as Evans' overall game remains unchanged. It's a bizarre situation, but one that Sacramento Kings head coach Keith Smart is handling with particular grace (via Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee):  

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"I'm looking at Tyreke as a rookie in this role," Smart said the other day. "I told him, 'You are still going to handle the ball and initiate plays. You will still have a chance to drive and to shoot. The only thing that will change is that you are out there with a point guard (Isaiah Thomas). And also, you have to be our best defensive player.' "

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In a weird way, this is how positions have sometimes come to be defined (or undefined, more accurately) in the NBA: a player's nominal position often isn't always dictated by what he can or can't do, but by who he plays alongside. We've become so locked into the notion that basketball is a five-position enterprise that successful lineups simply have to feature one of each traditional position type.

It's perplexing that Evans was a highly effective point guard, but now will perform the exact same role and be deemed a small forward. The largest shift in Evans' game seems to be one of nomenclature, as he's attempting essentially the same number of field goals and committing the same number of turnovers per minute that he did as a primary ball-handler.

Yet he is now considered a small forward, despite the fact that this term is no more accurate than the last. There's simply no room in between or outside of the five empty positional titles, leaving wonderfully talented players like Evans to blindly shuffle between roles as they struggle to find the best possible fit.

Luckily for Evans, Smart seems to have such things already figured out. The Kings may not yet be playing particularly cohesive basketball, but Smart didn't use Evans' positional title to deter him from inserting Thomas into the starting lineup, nor has he let Thomas' strengths prevent Evans from accessing his.

There's still a lot to figure out in Sacramento, but such positional quandaries are not among them.

The Kings' players under Smart will be put in a position to succeed seemingly regardless of their positional designations on the roster—structurally free, as Evans is, to handle the ball, to initiate plays, to drive and to shoot.