If Bob Dylan played basketball: small forward, rated 76

Bob Dylan as a basketball player: scouting report

Bob Dylan walked onstage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 with an electric guitar and changed what everyone thought he was. That instinct for the unexpected is how he would play small forward: as a point forward who brings the ball up, posts a smaller defender and then hits a cutter nobody was watching. His basketball IQ is the best part of his card and his playmaking comes next, so the offense runs through his hands more often than his position suggests.

He grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota, and in 2016 he became the first songwriter awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, a reminder that his best work happens between the ears. He also toured almost nonstop for decades on what fans call the Never Ending Tour, so stamina for a long season is not a concern. His shooting and defense sit level with each other as workmanlike tools; he hits the open shot and holds his own on the other end without being a stopper. He scores most often from the mid post, where his vision lets him punish double teams.

Rebounding is the honest weak spot, the lowest mark on his card, and athleticism is not far above it. He will not beat younger forwards to the rim or win many battles on the glass, so he needs athletic rebounders around him. Point guard is a reasonable second spot given his passing, and shooting guard is a step further down. Draft him in the later middle rounds as a secondary creator, pair him with a bruising big and a quick guard who can run, and let him keep rewriting the offense.

Plays like A cerebral point forward who keeps the defense guessing

Put Bob Dylan in your lineup

8 rolls, a starting five and a bench, 82 games. Can you go 82-0? Free, no account.