What ATHLETIC big man has had a relatively healthy, long career in the NBA? With injuries to guys like Amare, Oden, Swift etc. making them a shell of what they could have been or used to be, I 'm wondering which athletic big men have been healthy so far? 6'9 and up. Obviously Anthony Davis comes to mind, but he's still young and very skinny. He will put on weight and when he does, it could cause more issues like heavy Dwight. Even LeBron had to lose weight/change diet this offseason, struggle playing at a new weight, before coming back to MVP level. Can't help but think NBA training practices that stress bulking up for athletic big men are just hurting them.
I'd assume you're limiting the pool to big men with explosive athleticism? If so, then there just hasn't been many of those types of players to begin with and form a baseline. So any conclusions drawn from such a small sample size would be naturally skewed. Right?
I mean there have always been fairly bulky guys: Karl Malone and David Robinson come to mind. It's just the past injury guys you forget about as time goes on. Just the same as a lot of people will forget about Amare, Swift, etc. Duncan has stayed healthy forever, Shaq had a pretty long career and he was notoriously lazy about his weight. Big men are just often blessed with height, but have knees/feet that can't sustain all the running/jumping.
Furthermore, if explosive athleticism is what you're keying in on - ala Amare, DH, etc... Oden has absolutely no place on that type of list.
Welp... i mean... any nba sample size will be a relatively small pool. But these prized traits scouts look for - athletic, tall, really help these guys in the draft and have teams making big investments in them. So why ask them to bulk if their bones/tendons can't handle it? Blake Griffin has held up pretty well.Always had an NBA build though (like LeBron).
malone and robinson were workout freaks-- but they had bodybuilder body types as opposed to basketball player types. They were strong and smart. DRob was athletic, but managed to stay LEAN throughout his career. Younger Robinson occasionally worked out a few naval bases with an older colleague of mine, it was a very, very regimented and disciplined program he followed. guy never shut down or had off days.
Oden was very explosive in college. No debate about that. What makes you think otherwise, because he didn't have a 50"vertical?
I would say Garnett and Chandler. Chandler has had his fair share of injuries but he has lasted quite long. Griffin is someone who has surprised me. But he's only 25(?) so we'll see what type of health he is when he's like 28-30.
Two guys who stayed skinny throughout their entire career!! Chandler's bigger buddy Curry didn't fare so well!
It's definitely something to consider, I'm just not sure that there's a way to be conclusive. I have to disagree here. Oden's game was never built on athleticism in the light of the other guys you mentioned. Oden had extreme lower body strength that enabled him to get great position in the post and finish over defenders. Similar to Shaq and Yao. Plus, his injury issues began before he even entered the league. He's just not a guy that we can use in this comparison.
He also didn't play all that long (relative to most other all time greats). He was only in the NBA for 13 years (one he was out for almost all of, and 3 more where he averaged fewer than 30MPG).
Olajuwon is the obvious example. He did have injury issues, but nevertheless had a respectably long career and a lot of success. He definitely qualifies on size and athleticism.
True, he was a freak of nature but very slim and agile. There was no onus on him to change his body type to deal with ## demands of the nba## same with Bosh. relies on intelligence and a jumper as opposed to athleticism. Not in that category. duncan, noah, Gasol are all agile big men, not athletic . Demarcus is built in the Shaq mode. Big boned. I say let big men fill into themselves and not turn them into offensive linemen or carrot top...
