The NBA offseason is over. Media day and training camps are behind us, preseason play has begun and teams now have roughly two weeks to finalize their rosters for Week 1. Overall, there’s a good idea of how teams should look by late October.

Now is a good time to bring back the team position group rankings. This is the first time I am doing the team position group rankings since I became the shepherd of the NBA Player Tiers at The Athletic. In my methodology for that project, I emphasized that I’m always going to use the overlay of the five traditional positions. But I also acknowledge that those traditional positions are more of a guide toward building a complete roster and having lineup optionality than it is a way to fit players in a box or to even describe every five-man lineup combination that you will see over the course of a 48-minute game.

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I look at the traditional positions as roles that teams need to have filled. What I look for at each spot:

Point guard: Primary pick-and-roll ballhandlers, playmakers, passers, pace-setters and caretakers.

Primary pick-and-roll ballhandlers, playmakers, passers, pace-setters and caretakers. Shooting guard: On- or off-ball players with shooting ability across various levels, especially off the catch from 3.

On- or off-ball players with shooting ability across various levels, especially off the catch from 3. Small forward: Primary perimeter defender, fast-break finisher and half-court cutter.

Primary perimeter defender, fast-break finisher and half-court cutter. Power forward: More size than a wing, especially to rebound on both ends, without always having the primary interior responsibilities of a center.

More size than a wing, especially to rebound on both ends, without always having the primary interior responsibilities of a center.