The league has switched a little. Back to the basket bigs aren't as successful. However, we're seeing the importance of a very skilled big man. Al Horford has completely unlocked what the Celtics offense can do. Draymond's playmaking helps the Warriors a lot. If you're a big who can't dribble or pass, the NBA is becoming harder for you. Even people like Rudy Gobert have had to improve their play in space. So I don't agree with the premise that talented bigs are fools gold. What has needed has changed. And a bigs solo impact on an offense has decreased.
You give me a big with Dream or Shaq abilities and you will see the big man rise from the ashes. Will that ever happen? Who knows, but until then the big man era is over.
Its really more of the rule changes. Before even you would have to guard a non 3 point shooter at the 3 point line. Now you can just help and sag of a guy. So you can just crowd someone in the paint.
I see y'all only care about the offensive aspect of it. Big surprise. Anyways. The right answer is today's bigs aren't elite at offense anymore, but also, the game has changed... @ThatBoyNick made a good reference to Dirk's recent championship. That team still played inside-out. Dirk only took two 3's per game. He was never high volume. Cousins takes almost SIX per game - SIX. There really are no big men right now that bring consistent elite offense from the post without getting rattled in big moments. And even fewer that know how and when to pass out of trouble. Davis can easily drop 50 with his athleticism, but does anyone really trust dumping it into him with his back to the basket in a tied game with 7 seconds left on the clock? Dirk wasn't a center in 2011, but he had the attributes of great offensive centers from the past and essentially played where center's of years past would play on offense. If anything he took lower % shots than previous elite big men (longer 2's). But the consistency, ability to manipulate the defense, decision making from the paint - he had all of that. He was the last post player you could dump it down to in the closing seconds of a game and feel confident about. The other problem.... The rules changed. Post play has been neutered. It was (and still is) common for NCAA guards to enter the NBA and have their stats diminished compared to their college numbers - Jimmer for example. But with good big men, their stats would inflate dramatically. Barkley averaged 14ppg in college. Hakeem 13ppg. Ewing 15ppg. Meanwhile Xavier McDaniels was dropping 30+. The NBA rules trended towards the NCAA's and now you have problems. Excellent post play can still exist today. I know this because Cleveland started running some Jerry Sloan style PnR sets with Williams & LeBron recently. LeBron looks unstoppable to me out of that set. If LeBron wanted to play the 4 he'd be an all-time great, in THIS era, scoring buckets from the same places Malone used to. And he wouldn't have to shoot 3's. He only took about one 3 per game last season. Webber & Barkley had a higher career attempts average than that.
Nowadays, there are two kinds of bigs teams covet. 1. Offensive bigs who can shoot 3s and can pass like a PG, who also can score in the low post occasionally if needed. 2. Defensive bigs who can protect the rim, rebound, and defend the PnR, who also can catch the alley-oop on PnR offense. If a guy can do both, he is a superstar.
I was thinking about this after a Twoloves game. If you replace Ryno with KAT do the Rockets actually get better? So much of our success is supposedly predicated on Ryno's ability to space the floor and open up the paint for Harden. So if you replace him with a far better scorer and rebounder but more of a paint clogger and non 3 point threat do it truly make this Rockets team better?
Inside - out 2 star lineup can absolutely still win given that you have tons of talent and depth and veteran help. You can't just pair T-mac and Yao and hope Ryan Bowen is enough help.
Hell yeah we'd be better... rebounding and defense are consistent and important. 3 point shooting % is random. If MDA cant change the system to fit KAT vs Ryno, then he's a bad coach with limitations. But history shows he'd be fine.
KAT isn't clogging the paint anyhow and hitting the 3s and midrange with a very respectable percentage, he's one of the better examples for the new generation of bigs.
