6'5", 6'4" & 6'3" | Page 2 | The Boneyard

6'5", 6'4" & 6'3"

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I know what wing means, thank you. Have you ever heard the term in men's basketball at any level? I never have. A wing is a player who plays to the left or right of the center in hockey. A wing is part of an airplane or what a bird uses to fly. Some teams use a three guard offense at times. The term wing should be excised from women's basketball. Traditionally you had a point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and a center. Traditions have changed, but I still don't like the term wing. How do you categorize LeBron James or Kevin Durant? Traditional descriptions no longer work, but I can't stand the term wing.
 
Isn't a wing just another word for "swingman"? Can play the 2 or the 3?
 
chrissaran said:
Have you ever heard the term in men's basketball at any level? I never have.
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I have. It's quite commonly used on the men's boneyard to describe one player or another. I've also seen it used in journalism, e.g. this article about NBA draft prospects.

j66kicker is correct, I think: it's not about positioning on the court, which makes sense because guard-forward players usually only stick to one part of the court if they're offensively limited. It means that they can play a guard or a forward role, which does seem to describe KML.
 
It's funny that you think wing (in basketball) is a only a term for girls basketball...
 
chrissaran said:
I know what wing means, thank you. Have you ever heard the term in men's basketball at any level? I never have.
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Then you probably need to get out more. Yea, they use wing quite a bit in men and women's basketball. It's been around for many, many years.

j66kicker said:
Isn't a wing just another word for "swingman"? Can play the 2 or the 3?
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Yes, a wing is generally a 2/3 player. Not quite a small forward, but similar.

Besides the 1,2,3,4,5, you have Point Guard, Shooting Guard, Combo Guard, Wing, Swingman, Small Forward, Point Forward, Power Forward, Post, Pivot, Center. In a motion offense it is not quite as important or as easy to distinguish who plays what.
 
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xHunt3r, the terminology referred to a position on the floor not a player. I know where the wing is. I don't need to get out more. I have never heard it used in reference to a player. I have heard it used in reference to a position on the floor. In the N.B.A. players are point guards, shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards, centers and swingmen for those who "swing" between more than one position.
 
chrissaran said:
xHunt3r, the terminology referred to a position on the floor not a player. I know where the wing is. I don't need to get out more. I have never heard it used in reference to a player. I have heard it used in reference to a position on the floor. In the N.B.A. players are point guards, shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards, centers and swingmen for those who "swing" between more than one position.
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Fine, don't get out more. You just won't know.

You probably never heard of Google either, huh?

http://basketballhq.com/5-things-every-basketball-wing-player-know

http://www.my-youth-basketball-player.com/basketball-positions.html#.U9KCLmNCz1s

http://basketball.isport.com/basketball-guides/how-to-be-a-great-wing-player-in-basketball

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swingman

Channeling a little doggydaddy. :cool:
 
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The definition of exactly what position one plays has become a huge deal in the NFL. A team can put a 1-year "franchise" tag on a player with whom they have not agreed on a contract extension, and pay the player the average of the top 5 players at that position in the league without this salary affecting their salary cap. Recently Jimmy Graham appealed the New Orleans Saints franchising him as a tight end, and claimed he was more of a wide receiver, a position that
meyers7 said:
Then you probably need to get out more. Yea, they use wing quite a bit in men and women's basketball. It's been around for many, many years.


Yes, a wing is generally a 2/3 player. Not quite a small forward, but similar.

Besides the 1,2,3,4,5, you have Point Guard, Shooting Guard, Combo Guard, Wing, Swingman, Small Forward, Point Forward, Power Forward, Post, Pivot, Center. In a motion offense it is not quite as important or as easy to distinguish who plays what.
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In the NFL it is now becoming hugely important to distinguish who plays what, for business reasons. A team can put a 1-year "franchise" tag on a player with whom they have not agreed on a contract extension. In return they have to pay the player the average of the top 5 players at that position in the league, but this salary increase (if any) doesn't affect their salary cap that year.

Recently Jimmy Graham appealed the New Orleans Saints franchising him as a tight end and claimed he was more of a wide receiver, a position that averages a much higher salary. He is very talented and is able to play in ways characteristic of each position. He prepared to demonstrate he was a wide-out, showing how many times he lined up wide vs. tight, etc. The team prepared to demonstrate that other tight ends nowadays do pretty much the same thing, etc. But in the hearing the team just showed that Graham listed himself as a tight end on his own Twitter and Facebook accounts - duhhh. He lost the appeal and it cost him big bucks. (And then the Saints gave him a big raise anyway $%#&*????)
 
You find one basketball announcer who when they announce the starting lineup says, "And now starting at wing . . ."
 
When I was growing up my dad, my older brother and I used to listen to the Knicks on the radio, long before the N.B.A. was televised the way they are now. I'll always remember Marv Albert talking about the match up of "wings" Bill Bradley and Jack Marin as always being an interesting clash of perpetual motion players.
 
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chrissaran said:
I know what wing means, thank you. Have you ever heard the term in men's basketball at any level? I never have. A wing is a player who plays to the left or right of the center in hockey. A wing is part of an airplane or what a bird uses to fly. Some teams use a three guard offense at times. The term wing should be excised from women's basketball. Traditionally you had a point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and a center. Traditions have changed, but I still don't like the term wing. How do you categorize LeBron James or Kevin Durant? Traditional descriptions no longer work, but I can't stand the term wing.
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You asked the question, I answered.

I think it is a good word to describe players that play the 2 or 3 interchangeably. LeBron is forward. He can play the 3 or 4. Durant is a pure 3, imo. Jimmy Butler is a wing, a 2 or 3.

I agree that it is equivalent to "swingman" swingwoman? swingperson?
 
xHunt3r said:
It's funny that you think wing (in basketball) is a only a term for girls basketball...
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I think he's referring to how often that term is used in men's basketball versus how often it's used in women's basketball. I agree that you rarely hear it discussed anymore in men's basketball but it's still used somewhat frequently in the women's game. My impression of a wing player is someone who has the size to play shooting guard or small forward, a "tweener" type player. I'm not sure there is an exacting description of the term and it's definition varies from person to person.
 
meyers7 said:
Fine, don't get out more. You just won't know.

You probably never heard of Google either, huh?

http://basketballhq.com/5-things-every-basketball-wing-player-know

http://www.my-youth-basketball-player.com/basketball-positions.html#.U9KCLmNCz1s

http://basketball.isport.com/basketball-guides/how-to-be-a-great-wing-player-in-basketball

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swingman

Channeling a little doggydaddy. :cool:
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I read the first item listed above (basketballhq.com/5-things-every-basketball-wing-player-know and it struck me as being one persons version of a "wing player". There was nothing in it that I read that suggested that it was written in stone as the law of the land, just his interpretation and in reality, there may not be a definitive description. It really isn't a big deal, anyway! You could have a few guys at a bar discussing this until they're turning blue and probably never have a consensus. Does it really matter????
 
It isn't important, Buzzyboy, but it is kind of fascinating and fun. :p

Many words go through definition shifts over time. It's not so much a question of finding the definition that trumps all others, but trying to figure out if there's a trend with one definition gaining precedence over another.

Even if we limit ourselves to the Boneyard, we find: 1. The term "wing" is used frequently in the Men's BB board. (see http://the-boneyard.com/search/14082095/?q=wing&o=date&c[node]=3+18+34) 2. A majority of those uses refer to a wing as a classification for a player, rather than a reference to play on the "wings" of the court. 3. The men's board's average age of poster is considerably younger than the women's board, suggesting the term is here to stay.

We can say with fairly robust certainty that this alternate definition didn't come from women's basketball - terminology and cultural trends in basketball move from men's to women's basketball, not the other way around. Furthermore, it's not difficult to imagine how "swingman" might turn into "wing" over time. Even in basketball there's a more extreme example: the shortening of "jump shot" to "J."
 
Man, as a coach, that is something we all drool over. Having that much height, with talent, is scary good. I can't wait until the season starts.
 
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CLE802A, were you referring to UConn or USC? As much as UConn doesn't always have traditional positions, Breanna, Natalie and Katie Lou don't play the same position.
 
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