Fort Wayne Mad Ants utilizing positionless basketball to excel on both ends of the court
Often the phrase positionless basketball has a direct correlation to offense, but the Mad Ants are showing it’s effectiveness defensively too.
Successful organizations are constantly looking for an edge over their opponents. It could be a new acquisition, new scheme or simply pushing the envelope in certain facets of the game.
The trend over the past few seasons has been a slow, steady morph into positionless basketball. Teams are searching for versatile players who are not pigeonholed into one particular skill or position on the floor.
This has been a popular campaign in the NBA G League for years, but it’s mainly come from happenstance. Teams don’t generally have a low post big man to build around, because most of those players are overseas or in the NBA. So, teams generally play the best five guys regardless of position. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
General manager Brian Levy of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants has positionless basketball working on all cylinders early in the season. Fort Wayne has vaulted out to a 5–1 record behind strong play from Walt Lemon Jr. and Jarrod Uthoff, and perfect complimentary players around them.
This isn’t happening by accident.
Levy was recently on Fox Sports Indiana to discuss the team.
“We’re doing a little bit more positionless basketball. In years past we’ve always had a traditional 5 man, traditional center. We really don’t have a lot of that this year. A lot of guys are similar sizes, similar positions, can switch defensively, can play multiple positions. We’re just trying to get the five best players we can on the floor at any given time
Clearly Levy and the Mad Ants looked at their available personnel and made a poignant decision to run with this burgeoning style.
Their starting five is Walt Lemon Jr. (6-foot-3), Stephan Hicks (6-foot-6), C.J. Fair (6-foot-8), DeQuan Jones (6-foot-8) and Jarrod Uthoff (6-foot-9). Their reserves are Tra-Deon Hollins (6-foot-2), Je’Lon Hornbeak (6-foot-3) and Ben Moore (6-foot-8).
Uthoff is playing the 5, but is far from a traditional center as his natural position — especially at the next level — is the 3 spot. It’s basically Lemon Jr. with five interchangeable players on the court at any point in time.
Right now, the Mad Ants are utilizing Lemon’s quickness and ability to penetrate to pick defenses apart. Almost all of their halfcourt sets involve Lemon and Uthoff in a high pick-and-roll with the others lining the 3-point arc waiting to pounce.
Lemon rejects the Uthoff screen, but still has the ability to knife to the basket with a spin move. Instead of throwing up a prayer he has two options on the left wings, so he hits DeQuan Jones for a wide open 3. The spacing is the key. There hasn’t been a guard who can stay in front of Lemon so far this season, so it’s really a pick your poison scenario — let him dissect your defense and score, or collapse on him and force others to make shots.
Here, Lemon doesn’t even need a screen. He eyes Marcus Paige, drives right by him and finds Uthoff for the open 15-footer. Lemon’s penetration forces Mathiang Mangok to step up, which leaves Uthoff open. Notice that Fair, Moore and Jones help keep the lanes open for Lemon by staying around the arc. This might seem like they are settling, but it’s by design. They’re using gravity to pull defenders out and give their dynamic duo of Lemon & Uthoff room to work.
Some teams will try and combat Lemon’s penetration with a hard show in the pick-and-roll, but if it’s with a traditional 5, good luck. On the two plays above Kennedy Meeks gets placed on an island and Lemon has his way with him. He also has open kick outs on each drive if he needs them.
Their scheme is relatively simple, but their personnel is the ideal match for this type of offense, so it’s hard to guard. Once the simple pick-and-rolls start opening the defense up, other options become available.
By playing a basic 4-out around Lemon’s driving ability, Uthoff is constantly drawing the opponent’s big man out of the post. Here he sets a nice down screen on Hicks’ man, which leaves a wide open lane on the curl.
Again, look at the spacing. Uthoff is above the arc and is wide open off the pick, Moore’s man has to help over fear of Uthoff knocking down the 3, and Moore has a wide open lane to cut for the dunk.
With all this praise the logic would be Fort Wayne is operating at an all-time high on offense, right? Negative. They are actually scoring almost five points less per game (106.7 this year compared to 111.6 last season) and they are 25th in the league in 3s made at 7.3 per night.
Most teams utilize spacing to open up additional outside shots, while the Mad Ants are leaning on Lemon’s attack-first mentality and everyone else is adapting on the fly. They rarely run set plays, but when coach Gansey does call a set out, it’s based around their 4-out principles shown above. Until teams show they can consistently stop it, there’s no reason to complicate a great thing.
Now, the important impact is on the defensive end.
The opportunity to switch every screen, and still have success is the main benefit to this style on the defensive end. Uthoff has the ability to guard most 1–5 pick-and-rolls on the switch — at least in short bursts — as do Jones, Fair, Moore and Hicks. The only issue I’ve noticed is when Lemon gets switched onto a big in the post, but so few teams have dominant low post threats, it won’t really matter in the long term.
Ben Moore has been a revelation in this scheme. Moore is a talented rookie out of SMU who is thriving in this anyone-can-guard-anyone style they are employing. His lateral foot speed stands out on defense and though he’s coming off the bench, it’s an ideal situation for him as a 22-year-old. He’s still playing 31 minutes a night and while his blocks and steals are minuscule, he’s creating havoc in other ways.
Loads of team want to run a style like this, but few have the talent and size to really do it. Fort Wayne has been special so far, but there’s plenty of season left and things change in an instant in the G League, so we will see if it lasts.
Do yourself a favor and watch at least one game while they still have these six key players with the team. It’s beautiful to watch them move, screen and pop for open looks in tandem with one another and Lemon is the conductor moving the defense with his every move. You won’t be disappointed.
