Strength-4: Why the Position is Vital to NBA Success

Part One, on PJ Tucker, Jae Crowder, Dorian Finney-Smith, and how the 4 is the most crucial position to nail for roster construction

It’s a rare occasion when the stylistic tendencies in the NBA start to mimic those of lower levels of basketball. What we may be seeing now is a stretch of seasons where a longstanding principle at lower levels is influencing roster construction with the pros.

In my years as a coach, I’ve often said that the 4 is the position most important in roster construction. It’s not necessarily the position where you need to have the best player, nor is it necessarily the most consequential to winning. But understanding who you have at the 4 is what determines much about your team’s stylistic tendencies.

At the high school or college levels, there are many different ways to build a successful basketball team. One such way is to have two true bigs, and it wins at lower levels. At the Division III level, Swarthmore College made it to the 2019 championship game (and were 28-1 in 2020 before COVID canceled the tournament) with two true back-to-basket bigs in Zac O’Dell and Nate Shafer. They combined to make one 3-pointer in their senior seasons in 2020. In the midst of the deep ball revolution, the Garnet developed an identity of bruising teams down low and dominating the interior. They surrounded them with 3-point shooters and were fantastic on defense with that much size and rebounding. They crushed opponents who couldn’t trot out two bigs two defend, especially knowing if any team tried, it was likely their offense would fall apart.

Other teams find success by going smaller and spreading teams out with a ton of space and pace. Look at how Villanova has built contender after contender under Jay Wright for how that system can be impactful. Last year, the Wildcats went 30-8 while playing only one guy 6’8” or taller regular minutes (Eric Dixon). They shot the ball at nearly every spot, had immaculate spacing to stretch teams out, taught decision-making all around, and relied on the strength of 6’7” Jermaine Samuels to defend up in key situations. Because they were smaller at the 4, they were geared to apply more pressure with their defense and outscore teams from behind the arc: 2nd in the Big East in 3-pointers, best in turnovers committed, and first in scoring defense because they were solid in winning their one-on-one matchups.

These two drastically different programs in the Philadelphia area have become dominant forces at their respective levels and viewed their rosters through a drastically different lens. Regardless of what they committed to stylistically, they were plunged into identity by nailing what type of team they’d have by figuring out the 4. Go big and play a certain way, go small and play another.

At lower levels, identity and self-awareness account for so much. If you’re good enough, you can impose your will and style onto an opponent and not worry about adjusting to them. Both Landry Kosmalski at Swarthmore and Wright at Villanova were notorious for doing what they do, believing in their principles, and betting the house on success in that regard. But at the NBA level — especially now more than ever — versatility is required to deal with many types of teams or stars. The rigid commitment to one system or style can get you schemed out of success in the playoffs. Just ask Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz.

One of the many reasons the Warriors were dominant: two All-Star options at the 4

In the NBA, we’ve seen the proliferation of the small ball revolution over the last five seasons. It’s gone to impact what teams do, particularly with their closing lineups, at the 5 as they forego the traditional center in favor of a more switchable style on defense and greater spacing around individual scoring threats on offense. The Golden State Warriors won a title on the backs of this approach in 2015, the Houston Rockets emulated it under Mike D’Antoni to keep up with them, and nearly every team has a small ball lineup they can go to as a result.

What’s occurred to me is that those lineups happen not just because of the Draymond Green and PJ Tucker types to slide to the 5 or the unicorn guys like Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ben Simmons who are big enough to do and completely melt their opponents when surrounded by skill players. These lineups can be and are successful because the teams who deploy them have other bigger wings that can survive at the 4.

An increasing amount of top stars in the NBA are big, skilled wings. The swooning at the position is so much due to a revolution in skill development at lower levels thanks to watching guys like Dirk Nowitzki shoot as a seven-footer, everyone wanting to emulate Stephen Curry’s 3-point greatness, and a smarter way to teach the game at youth levels than simply sticking the biggest kid on the block and turning him into a dribble-less post-up threat. Now we are graced with ten All-NBA players from 6’7” or above who play like guards but are slotted on the wings — and for some, can go larger in a pinch.

The list is pretty long: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic, Zion Williamson. Perhaps guys like Paolo Banchero, Cade Cunningham, and Jaylen Brown reach that stratosphere of stardom soon. If they do, one-third of the league will feature All-Star number-one options on the wings 6’7” or taller.

How do opposing defenses strategize for such a common occurrence? All the talk about the 5-spot and what ball screen coverage you play as a result (switch vs. Drop vs. play at the level) helps protect bigs and smaller guards while defending the rim. But in order to stop these stars one-on-one in space, an NBA team needs big, strong, versatile wing defenders.

Thus what we’ve seen over the last few years is an increase in the value of a very small and specific type of role player built to stop opposing wings: the strength-4.

Ryan Anderson became one of the most lethal stretch-4s in the mid-2010s

Years ago when getting away from the two big styles in the NBA where true power forwards were present on every team, players like Nowitzki helped usher in the stretch-4. We saw stars like Kevin Love, Rashard Lewis and Chris Bosh reinvent their games to bomb away from deep to keep up with the trend. Tons of role players carved out careers on playoff teams by being 6’10” and snipers from deep without having rim protection qualities: Ryan Anderson, Mirza Teletovic, Steve Novak, Matt Bonner, and Andrea Bargnani all filled that niche a decade ago.

As the small ball revolution ramped up in the middle part of the 2010s, that position faded out quickly. The Andersons and Novaks of the world got exposed on defense; they were too slow to defend more agile 4s in space. The marginal advantage of sucking away bigger 4s was neutralized because, well, those players weren’t on the floor anymore. Now the position was just bigger, stronger 3s aging into the spot as their career aged on. Guys like PJ Tucker, Jae Crowder, Robert Covington, and Jeff Green all slid up the lineup while the rest of the roster around them became smaller and based on skill and shooting. For their defensive aptitude and play as a strong-chested big wing, I’ve labeled these guys the strength-4.

Wings became en vogue. Switching 2 thru 4, if not 1 thru 4, neutralized opponents at the point of attack. But these bigger wings, strong enough to guard the LeBrons and Kawhis of the world (as best as possible) on the blocks while not being a sieve on the perimeter if defending JR Smith or Norman Powell.

What’s so underrated when looking at some of the most notorious players over the last few seasons is how frequently they’ve won basketball games. Look at the teams the best of the best have been part of and it starts to feel like no coincidence that they’ve nailed this position:

PJ Tucker

2021-22: Miami Heat - 53-29 (1st in East), Eastern Conference Finals
2020-21: Milwaukee Bucks - 46-26 (3rd in East), NBA Champions
2019-20: Houston Rockets - 44-28 (4th in West), Western Conference Semifinals
2018-19: Houston Rockets - 53-29 (4th in West), Western Conference Semifinals
2017-18: Houston Rockets - 65-17 (1st in West), Western Conference Finals

Jae Crowder

2021-22: Phoenix Suns - 64-18 (1st in West), Western Conference Semifinals
2020-21: Phoenix Suns - 51-21 (2nd in West), Lost in NBA Finals
2019-20: Miami Heat - 44-29 (5th in East), Lost in NBA Finals
2018-19: Utah Jazz - 50-32 (5th in West), Lost in First Round
2017-18: Utah Jazz - 48-34 (5th in West), Western Conference Semifinals

Tucker and Crowder have been traded multiple times over the five-year span, and even traded in-season. Successful teams without a strength-4 have recognized the need for one and been propelled to success as a result. In 2020, the Miami Heat traded for Crowder mid-season and made a run to the Finals in the bubble. The next season, the Milwaukee Bucks made a similar move for Tucker and won the championship. Tucker only averaged 2.6 PPG for the Bucks, but when ownership decided not to bring him back in 2022 for tax reasons, it left a void on Milwaukee’s roster.

A decade ago, there were incredibly impactful role-playing stretch-4s found strewn across the league’s most successful teams. These guys have replaced them. Still, the most impactful mode of winning is to have an elite player who can do this and be a perennial All-Star. While Bosh and Love played that role for years next to LeBron James, Draymond Green has done it now next to Stephen Curry. Green is the textbook bigger wing defender, a versatile piece who has transcended just the positional mold due to his elite passing and greatest-of-all-time help defensive IQ.

While Draymond is the ultimate and All-Star version of this player, success can be found with lesser iterations. Robert Covington has been on a few strong playoff teams of late. Grant Williams and Dorian Finney-Smith may have set themselves up as the next generation of strength-4 early in their careers; both are vital cogs to their franchise’s success and indispensable role players.

Noticing this trend, and how play at the NBA level is contingent on the type of (and quality of) player at the 4 is only the beginning. The purpose of seeing trends in basketball is to do two things: identify talent that match the trend to fulfill it, and attempt to stay ahead of the curve by anticipating the next shift before it happens.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series where we will dive into the specific attributes guys like Tucker, Crowder, Grant Williams, DFS and Covington have, work to identify a crop of college prospects with the same traits, and give our prognostication on what the next trend to overtake the 4 will be.