Tramel's ScissorTales: New CBA deal finally gets rid of positions on All-NBA teams

The NBA’s just-completed Collective Bargaining Agreement is getting rid of positions on the all-NBA teams, starting with the 2024-25 season. Hopefully, the All-Star Game is next.

The designations are outdated. Positions mostly are a thing of the past in the NBA.

What position does Luguentz Dort play?

What position does Jalen Williams play?

Who’s the point guard when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey share the court?

The answers are, several, all of them and both/neither.

“It’s a positionless game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said.

And the positional designations have become silly.

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I get it for football. Pick between Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow. They can’t share the field.

But why must NBA voters pick between Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic? Both are centers, sure, but they are versatile, do-everything post men. If Jokic and Embiid were teammates, you think one of them is coming off the bench?

“The best time to plant a tree is like 10 years ago, and the second-best time is like today,” Daigneault said, agreeing the positional designation has been passe’ for some time.

“I always felt uncomfortable commenting on things that are more important than I am,” Daigneault said. “I’ve been in the NBA for a very short period of time.

“But it is a positionless game. I think that switch is reflective of the way the game is now. Even guys like Jokic, who are centers, I mean, the guy brings the ball up the floor. He’s like the best passer in the league at center. It’s totally fluid at this point.”

The policy change has some real meaning. All-NBA honors have ramifications on contracts. All-star voting has ramifications on legacy.

The constant waltz on all-star voting is ridiculous. If Jaylen Brown a guard or forward. Is Jayson Tatum? Is Jimmy Butler?

Truth is, the NBA is down to three positions – point guard, wing, center. And teams often play without the latter. The wings and point guards often are interchangeable. Paul George apparently will be listed as a guard for all-NBA voting, even though he’s a classic forward.

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“It’s a testament to the talent of players,” Daigneault said. “It’s crazy how dynamic these players are now.”

It’s what most teams seek and what the Thunder hopefully has. Gilgeous-Alexander is a point guard who defends forwards. Giddey is half point guard/half power forward. Williams is a whole lot of everything.

“That’s what we’re after,” Daigneault said. “If you look at the best teams, the best teams have duplication of skills.

“You think you need this diversified portfolio of skills. But duplication’s not a bad thing. I mean, you look at Golden State with (Steph) Curry and (Klay) Thompson. Traditional thinking would say, ‘they’re basically the same player. Go get something else.’ But what made them so unguardable for all these years, especially at the beginning, was the duplication of the skills.”

When Kenrich Williams was healthy, and since, with Aaron Wiggins, the Thunder plays five-man units that are centerless. All can handle the ball, all can drive, all can shoot.

“We’re leaning right into that,” Daigneault said. “We don’t care if we have multiple guys that can play with the ball. We see that as a strength.”

Better yet, players now will be rewarded with honors that are not tied to positional designations. The best five players can make first-team all-NBA and the best five players from each conference can start the All-Star Game, regardless of artificial tags that mean nothing in modern basketball.

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UConn flourishes back in Big East

The Big East won another NCAA men's basketball championship Monday night. The title came courtesy of a program the Big East left behind a decade ago.

On December 15, 2012, the Catholic 7 — Villanova, Marquette, Georgetown, Providence, DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John’s — voted to secede from the league that had migrated to increasing emphasis on football.

Soon enough, the Catholic 7 added Butler, Xavier and Creighton to form a 10-team league.

With Rutgers headed to the Big Ten, and Syracuse and Pittsburgh headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference with Louisville not far behind, the remaining football schools scrambled to form the American Conference, allowing through negotiation for the Catholic 7 to keep the Big East name and branding.

Those remaining football schools were South Florida, Cincinnati and Connecticut.

The latter won the Big East’s latest title. Connecticut beat San Diego State 76-59 for the championship, and the Huskies’ decision to make basketball the priority is instructive for a variety of decision-makers in college athletics.

In June 2019, the Big East voted to allow UConn’s return, breaking the private-school-only makeup of the conference. The Big East schools that fielded football teams did so below Division I-A.

Connecticut changed that. But the Huskies played as an independent, in effect de-emphasizing football.

UConn’s athletic department was a mess financially, as it tried to play big-time football. The 2010 Huskies had made the Fiesta Bowl – losing 48-20 to OU – and showed promise. And Connecticut’s remarkable string of NCAA basketball titles hadn’t withered. UConn won NCAA championships in 1999, 2004 and 2011 with the Big East, then won again in 2014 in the American.

But UConn basketball was not flourishing after that 2014 title, for a variety of reasons, and campus leaders and the fan base longed for the old Big East.

Now the Huskies are back on top.

Programs in Power Five conferences have to make decisions based on football. And at lower levels, staying the course with football emphasis can pay off. That’s what happened with Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston, which in a few months will become Big 12 members.

But not every program has to keep football as the priority. Would Tulsa have been better to go all-in on basketball 25 years ago, when the Golden Hurricane was riding high, with three Sweet 16 appearances in a seven-year span? Would Alabama-Birmingham? Memphis?

It’s a delicate decision. Football sucks massive amounts of resources from athletic coffers. Sometimes it pays off. Sometimes not.

Connecticut tried its hand at football excess and found the rewards lacking. It cost the Huskies their association with Georgetown and Villanova and Seton Hall.

Now UConn is back in the Big East, and the Huskies seem fine with their decision.

Connecticut football has struggled as an independent. But it struggled in a conference, after that Fiesta Bowl year.

2010 was UConn’s most recent winning season. UConn is 37-97 since that Fiesta Bowl. The Huskies didn’t even try to play in the pandemic year of 2020.

But new coach Jim Mora Junior led the Huskies to a 6-7 record in 2022. UConn even made the Myrtle Beach Bowl.

Connecticut is not headed to football glory anytime soon. But the Huskies are back on top in basketball. And that’s a trade UConn will make every time.

It’s a cautionary tale. Big-time football is not always the answer.

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Women trump men in Final Fours

Strange Final Fours in the last few days. The women’s Final Four generated more excitement – much more – than did the men’s.

I assume the men’s Final Four will finish with much better television ratings, because habits are hard to break, though the women’s TV numbers came in at record numbers.

But in terms of national buzz and water-cooler talk, the women’s Final Four trumped the men’s. Part of that is because Connecticut seemed all but crowned when the Huskies got to Houston, and because the women’s Final Four produced fantastic drama and storylines, with great performances and rowdy spats and defiant attitudes.

A large segment of the American sporting public hadn’t heard of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark until this NCAA Tournament. Few had heard of Louisiana State’s Angel Reese.

But Clark’s Hawkeyes beat South Carolina, then Reese’s Tigers beat Iowa, all with plenty of dramatics and theatrics.

Their trash-talking went viral, as did Reese’s post-game celebration, and now they’re all the rage of not just radio shows and bloggers, but but sociology classes. Race, gender, backgrounds, it’s all fertile ground for spirited discussions and emotions.

Which is nothing but good for women’s basketball.

Fox Sports Radio’s Doug Gottlieb wondered if the Reese/Clark rivalry could spark women’s hoops the way Larry Bird and Magic Johnson launched men’s basketball into a new era with their 1979 NCAA Championship showdown.

Probably not but you never know.

Reese leaning in to the villain’s role doesn’t hurt.

Both Clark and Reese can return next season and probably will. If the sport’s marketers have any financial sense, which I assume they do, an Iowa-LSU rematch is being set up at an opportune time next season.

Meanwhile, Connecticut’s men are a great champion, and San Diego State is a great story. And nobody’s talking about them much.

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Mailbag: Austin Reaves

Former Sooner Austin Reaves is a hot topic with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Richard: “Wow, Austin Reeves is now a beloved Laker. When he starts dribbling and dealing, the Lakers fans start chanting ‘MVP.’ He is a special talent.”

Tramel: Well, I don’t know if Reaves is a special talent, but he is many things.

∎ An example of right-place-right-time. Reaves went undrafted in 2021, and that turned out to be a blessing. That allowed him to sign with any franchise. Had Reaves been picked in the second round, he could have ended up with a franchise that wasn’t the fit the Lakers were.

The Lakers, then and sort of now, were a top-heavy team with a lack of quality players. A place like Denver or Philadelphia had/has a much deeper roster than did the Lakers.

Reaves signed on with LA, carved out a niche early and has built from there.

∎ Improving rapidly. Reaves was a 27.7% 3-point shooter in two years at OU after making 45.1% at Wichita State. Who knows why he shot so poorly with the Sooners?

And Reaves struggled from deep as a Laker rookie (.317). But he’s up to .385 this season, and that makes him a multi-dimensional threat, since he’s always been a rim-attacker. Reaves is up to 4.1 foul shots per game; in the last nine games, Reaves nine times has reached double-digit foul shots.

∎ Reaves is trusted by Laker coach Darvin Ham. Reaves is fifth on the team in minutes played and minutes per game (28.1).

None of us saw it coming, but salute to Reaves, who indeed is doing something special.

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The List: NCAA basketball runs

Connecticut’s 76-59 victory over San Diego State gave the Huskies their fifth national title. All since 1999.

Here are the best stretches of championships by schools in NCAA history:

1. UCLA 10 in 12 (1964-75): UConn’s success is incredible. The Huskies have won five of the last 24 NCAA Tournaments. But John Wooden’s Bruins won twice as many titles in half the amount of time. Ten NCAA championships, failing only in 1966 (Texas Western’s Glory Road year) and 1974 (losing to North Carolina State 80-77 in a double-overtime national semifinal).

2. Kentucky 4 in 11 (1948-58): In the dusty days of college basketball history, Adolph Rupp’s Wildcats won four titles in 11 years: 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958. Sort of UCLA light.

3. Connecticut 5 in 24 (1999-23): In this age of parity, the Huskies’ titles in 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014 and 2023 are remarkable. The first three under Jim Calhoun, the fourth under Kevin Ollie and now under Danny Hurley.

4. Duke 5 in 25 (1991-2015): The Blue Devils’ five titles -- 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015 – fall shy of UConn by one season. Connecticut’s span is the same number of years, but it’s one fewer NCAA Tournament, courtesy of the 2020 pandemic.

5. North Carolina 4 in 25 (1993-2017): We don’t think of the Tar Heels with some kind of great era. They just generally always are good. But UNC won in 1993, 2005, 2009 and 2017.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: NBA CBA lets positionless basketball finally emerge for All-NBA teams