Using the NBA Draft combine and semifinals as a reset on positional size

When Jason Kidd entered the NBA as the second pick in the 1994 NBA Draft, he was a point guard — a pure point guard, the type of player who was a primary playmaker and distributor, while being the lead antagonist on defense.

During the next 19 seasons, Kidd built a résumé that put him among the greatest at the position in league history.

Yet, when he brought his Hall of Fame career to an end in 2013, Kidd, who was 6-foot-4, 210 pounds, was playing shooting guard — still trusted as a secondary ballhandler, but used more off of the ball as a shooter and connector to complement a shorter on-ball guard.

How did that happen? Well, the Dallas Mavericks coach has some thoughts about that and where today’s best players fit.

“The positions will keep evolving,” Kidd said. “These guys have gotten so good. You’re seeing guys shoot 3s and get their own rebound and make an assist. I mean, it’s incredible what these young players are doing at this level, at this time of the year.”

In an NBA era that has been defined as “positionless,” where players can play any position, a more accurate description may be “position versatility.” It’s not an absence of a position that is valuable; it’s being able to play multiple positions.

For its first three decades, NBA positions were well-defined. In terms of size, there were early outliers such as center Wilt Chamberlain, who was 7-foot-1, and point guard Oscar Robertson, who was 6-5. Not only were they bigger than their contemporaries, they had unique skill sets and athleticism. The combination of those attributes made them all-time greats.

But size variance became more prevalent as the league evolved. You can go to the 1970s to find undersized centers on championship teams such as Dave Cowens, Clifford Ray or Wes Unseld. Something similar applies to the 1980s and find a jumbo-sized point guard in Magic Johnson or whatever point forward Don Nelson was attempting to use. As brutal as the 1990s were, they produced a short Most Valuable Player in Charles Barkley (6-6, if that) and a lithe rebounding champion in Dennis Rodman at power forward. Allen Iverson was another undersized MVP playing at his respective position (shooting guard). The 2000s established LeBron James as a small forward despite a body type that has him as one of the bigger power forwards in the NBA today.

(Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)

Traditional positions are defined by three factors: offensive skills, defensive assignment and ideal lineup combinations. If you didn’t fit the prototypical size in these areas, you were considered a “tweener.” Whereas years ago, a tweener would be held from rotations or even not make a roster, teams are more open-minded as they head into the draft.

Because of the new collective bargaining agreement, all 83 players invited to the NBA Draft Combine were required to attend and participate, meaning even the top prospects, who in the past would skip the combine, had to get accurate measurements ahead of the pre-draft process. Only international prospects such as Serbia guard Nikola Topić and France forward Zaccharie Risacher haven’t been measured because of commitments with their current teams.

A basic survey of 2024 NBA starting lineups shows the five positions still look a certain way on average. I looked at the primary starter at each position for all 30 NBA teams this past season, using only the players who ended the season on the roster for each team.

Here are the average heights and weights for the five positions:

Size at point guard

The 6-foot-3 benchmark seems significant, as it is harder to get a lottery investment from teams as a small guard. Since 2019, the only lottery picks shorter than 6-foot-3 have been Ja Morant (6-foot-2, second pick in 2019), Darius Garland (6-foot-1, fifth pick in 2019), Kira Lewis Jr. (6-foot-1, 13th pick in 2020) and Davion Mitchell (6-foot-0, ninth pick in 2021). That’s a mixed bag; Morant is an All-NBA talent, and Garland is an All-Star, but Mitchell is a fringe rotation player while Lewis has had his career sidetracked by an ACL tear and multiple trades.

In The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie’s post-lottery mock draft, three guards are currently in the top-14 picks despite measuring in under 6-foot-3: Reed Sheppard of Kentucky (6-2), Rob Dillingham of Kentucky (6-1) and Jared McCain of Duke (6-2). Isaiah Collier of Southern California is also in Vecenie’s mock draft lottery with a height that rounds up to 6-3, while guards Devin Carter of Providence (6-2) and Tyler Kolek of Marquette (6-1) are in the first round.

The big point guard has featured prominently in the postseason, highlighted by MVP finalists Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder (6-6) and Luka Dončić of the Dallas Mavericks (6-7, 230 pounds). Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets is 6-4, 215 pounds. All-Star Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers is 6-foot-5. All of those players were lottery picks.

But perhaps the small guards entering the league can be inspired by the play of New York Knicks All-Star Jalen Brunson. Listed at 6-2, 190 pounds, Brunson was a second-round pick in the same 2018 draft that produced Dončić and Gilgeous-Alexander. All Brunson did this postseason is lead all scorers with 421 total points (32.4 average) while attempting 9.2 free throws per game before fracturing his hand in a Game 7 loss.

Finding versatile star wings

Boston Celtics All-Stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have been teammates for seven NBA seasons with this season being the most successful.

When the Celtics won the Eastern Conference finals in 2022, Brown was starting at shooting guard as Tatum started at small forward while the Celtics started two bigs in Al Horford and Robert Williams. It was similar to Tatum’s rookie season in 2017-18, when he teamed up with Brown while the Celtics started Horford and Aron Baynes up front.

Under head coach Joe Mazzulla, Brown and Tatum have been at the two forward spots. It’s the first time in their careers that Brown and Tatum have started at the same positions in back-to-back seasons. All three of Brown’s All-Star selections have come in seasons where he starts at small forward:

The positional versatility offered by Brown (6-6, 223 pounds) and Tatum (6-8, 210 pounds) has allowed the Celtics to smoothly fit the guards and bigs around them. In this year’s case, it’s been big guards Jrue Holiday (6-4, 205 pounds) and Derrick White (6-4, 190 pounds) along with center Kristaps Porziņģis (7-2, 240 pounds).

The only other team in the league with All-Stars this season at both the small forward and power forward positions were the LA Clippers, with Paul George (6-8, 220 pounds) and Kawhi Leonard (6-7, 225 pounds). But George and Leonard are older and less durable than Boston’s duo.

Building around big wings is something teams will continue to look to do in part because of the viability of those players on both ends of the floor, even if they don’t become stars. Of the 70 lottery picks in the last five drafts, 19 were players listed at 6-6 or 6-7.

Vecenie currently has three players in the lottery who officially measured in that range in Connecticut’s Stephon Castle (6-6, 210 pounds), G League Ignite’s Ron Holland II (6-7, 196 pounds) and Colorado’s Cody Williams (6-7, 178 pounds). Three more players who did not measure at the combine but have the expected height of big wings that Vecenie included in his lottery mock are Topić (6-6), Risacher (6-9) and France’s Tidjane Salaun (6-9).

What is a power forward now?

The power forward position now is one of the hardest to define. It’s the second frontcourt position, but many NBA teams have elected to treat it like another wing position. Many “power forwards” are simply masquerading small forwards. That shows up in the measurements, as the average height of power forwards this season wasn’t far off from the average height of small forwards. There are teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder that roll out undersized wings such as Jalen Williams (6-foot-5, 211 pounds) at the four.

Kidd himself questions what makes a power forward now.

“Yeah, it’s hard, that’s a great question,” Kidd said last month. “We have 6-foot-9 point guards, we have 7-foot point guards now, we’ve got guys who bring the ball up. So, is there really a power forward in the league? Small ball has kind of taken over here. And, when I say small ball, you still can have a 7-footer out there who can put it on the floor and shoot the 3 and run the offense.”

When Kidd was on the Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff that won the 2020 NBA championship, Anthony Davis was the power forward while playing next to traditional centers in JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard.

Now, Davis plays most of his minutes at center while LeBron James is at the power forward spot. Kidd, as a player and coach, has seen the many archetypes of power forward, over the years and currently, who fit that spot:

• the rebounding bruiser (Popeye Jones with the Mavericks in the ’90s)
• the premier athlete (Kenyon Martin with the Nets in the aughts)
• the tall shooter (Dirk Nowitzki with the Mavs late in Kidd’s career)
• the bucket (Carmelo Anthony with the Knicks in Kidd’s last season in ’13)
• the driver (Giannis Antetokounmpo, as Bucks coach)
• the roving defender (Anthony Davis with the Lakers)

In Dallas this season, Kidd has overseen a revolving door at power forward that was certainly bolstered by the Mavericks replacing offseason signing Grant Williams with another 2019 first-round pick in P.J. Washington. While Williams had the bulk at 6-6, 236 pounds, Washington offers more height, length and athleticism at 6-7, 230.

The Mavericks weren’t the only team to benefit from a significant upgrade at power forward. The Indiana Pacers ended the 2022-23 season with Aaron Nesmith (6-6, 215 pounds) at power forward; Nesmith now starts at small forward.

The Pacers knew they had to address the power forward position, landing Jarace Walker (6-7, 235 pounds) with the eighth pick in the 2023 draft and trading for Obi Toppin (6-9, 220 pounds). But like the Mavericks, the Pacers leveraged a top free-agent signing (Bruce Brown) to trade for a legitimate starting power forward in Pascal Siakam (6-8, 245 pounds).

All Siakam has done for the Pacers is lead them in scoring and rebounding while upsetting two higher seeds.

Kidd mentioning physicality is something that will be under consideration for this upcoming draft class, as none of the non-centers that Vecenie has in his mock draft measured close to the 228.8 pounds that the average starting power forward was listed at over this past season.

The only power forward prospect in that mix as of now appears to be Matas Buzelis of G League Ignite, who measured at 6-9 but only 197 pounds.

Going big at center

In December, I asked Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown about positional size. Brown’s Kings have enough size on the wings and a speedy point guard in De’Aaron Fox.

While center Domantas Sabonis was the league’s leading rebounder in 2023-24 and the hub of Sacramento’s DHO-heavy offense, he is relatively undersized at 6-foot-10, 240 pounds and lacked the length or vertical to affect rim protection.

Sabonis’ size is in sharp contrast to some of the other teams Brown saw at the top of the Western Conference: the Nuggets are led by three-time MVP center Nikola Jokić and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who had the NBA’s top defense and beat the Nuggets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.

As Brown noted, both teams were built by former Nuggets and current Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly. In 2022, Connelly left Denver for Minnesota and added now four-time Defensive Player of the Year winner Rudy Gobert to a frontcourt that already had Karl-Anthony Towns.

“In terms of positional size, I mean, it’s evident,” Brown said in December. “You can look at what Tim Connelly started to build at Denver, and everybody says, ‘Well, Michael Porter Jr. can’t play D, or this guy can’t do this right…’ Michael Porter is 6-foot-10. Aaron Gordon is 6-foot-10, whatever he is. Jokić is 7-foot-1. (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) is 6-foot-6. That’s a big team right there.

“And Tim takes that same deal up to Minnesota — ‘That ain’t going to work with KAT and Gobert.’ And they’re kicking everybody’s ass, you know. Those big teams have shown that there’s some value to it, because the current NBA champions and at least the current leaders in the West… are big, and the blueprint came from the same guy. Yes, Tim, I just gave you a lot of credit.”

Brown may have exaggerated measurements somewhat — Jokić is 6-11, 284 pounds, Gordon is 6-8, 235 pounds, and Caldwell-Pope is 6-5, 204 pounds — but his point remains about how big the best teams can be. Gobert is 7-1, 258 pounds and starting next to a 7-foot, 248-pound power forward in Towns, while Minnesota has the Sixth Man of the Year in 6-9, 264-pound Naz Reid.

Is Nuggets-Timberwolves the future at the top of the West? pic.twitter.com/SqHIfQvx3H

— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) May 20, 2024

The only MVP award Jokić did not receive in the last four seasons went to Joel Embiid, the 7-foot, 280-pound center of the Philadelphia 76ers. Jokić and Embiid are huge centers, but their dribble-pass-shoot skill set make them elite.

The centers who don’t have that complete offensive package still have certain elements of one or the other. Oklahoma City center Chet Holmgren (7-1, 208 pounds) can shoot with range but also has a drive-game that fits the Thunder offense. Indiana center Myles Turner (6-11, 250 pounds) is efficient inside and outside of the paint, and New York Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein (7-foot, 250 pounds) is an exceptional passer. Staying out on the 3-point line is something a player like Porziņģis can do, but his improvement as a postup mismatch gives Boston’s offense much needed versatility.

Being offensively skilled is a key separator for centers, but even without a special skill level, centers can stand out by performing the basic tenets of the position. Gobert is a strong screener, a vertical threat on offense and a no-fly zone at the rim defensively. The Mavericks don’t have a center with exceptional ball skills, but they have 48 minutes of verticality in the form of midseason trade acquisition Daniel Gafford (6-10, 234 pounds) and 2023 lottery pick Dereck Lively II (7-1, 230 pounds).

The 2024 draft doesn’t have a Victor Wembanyama, a 7-4, 210-pound phenom who is already an elite rim protector with a limitless ceiling of offensive skill. The two centers who are likely lottery picks, per Vecenie, are Alexandre Sarr (7-foot, 224 pounds) out of Australia and Donovan Clingan (7-2, 282 pounds) out of Connecticut. Both project to be more effective defensively than offensively.

This draft also happens to have Purdue center Zach Edey, the largest player available at 7-4, 299 pounds – that’s heavier than every NBA starter and taller than every starter except Wembanyama. Edey has more defensive questions than Sarr or Clingan, and he isn’t an accomplished passer (more turnovers than assists) or shooter (only made one 3-pointer in four years in college), but he scored more paint points (559) than any other college player this past season. For context, Jokić led all NBA players with 542 paint points, in 40 more games than Edey.

Player measurements will always factor into a game played on a 10-foot hoop. While it is becoming somewhat taboo to define players by position, it should still be considered and how those players fit together, based on their sizes and skill sets, will also be under constant evaluation and evolution. That will be the case in the postseason, in the draft and throughout eras.

(Top photo of Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)