NBA: Why the term ‘system player’ doesn’t make much sense
By Zamir Bueno
The term system player doesn’t make sense in the NBA because the majority of players have a weakness preventing them from succeeding in certain offenses
"“He doing work like this because of the system.”"
According to CBS Sports, Kevin Durant made these comments after the 2014 NBA Finals in response to a fan saying that Kawhi Leonard was better than Paul George. Unfortunately, it isn’t the first time that a person within the NBA community has used the system player argument to diminish a player’s success.
Ethan Strauss, formerly of ESPN and Bleacher Report, used the same argument in a 2012 article to explain why Steve Nash entered his prime late:
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"” Nash found the perfect coach and system back in Phoenix. As a master of pick-and-roll pocket passes, Nash was well suited to Mike D’Antoni‘s spread style. It didn’t hurt that he could space the floor better than perhaps any point guard in history”."
However, one can argue that the majority of NBA players fall under the category of system players because they have significant flaws that prevent them from excelling in specific systems.
A prime example of this is superstar guard Russell Westbrook. His biggest weakness is 3-point shooting. Westbrook has a career shooting percentage of 31.1 percent from behind the arc.
As a consequence, Westbrook couldn’t play in a ball movement because it would require him to spend some time in the spot-up shooter role. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t thrive in the role because his 3-point percentage is significantly below the league average for this past season (36.2%).
This puts the opposing team in a good position defensively when Westbrook is in that particular role because they can afford to leave him open to provide help defense elsewhere.
Russell Westbrook isn’t the prominent player who would have issues thriving in a ball movement offense as similar shooting woes plague John Wall. Wall has a career shooting percentage of 32.7 percent from the 3-point line. His poor shooting percentage once again means that the opposing team will leave him when he is in a spot up shooter role.
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In conclusion, the term system player doesn’t make sense because the majority of players have a weakness preventing them from succeeding in certain offenses. If we were to be technical, nearly every NBA player is a system player.