Urgelt
Urgelt
Aug 9, 2017 · 3 min read

Strange that the article didn’t mention Kevin Durant. But perhaps that’s because he’s just not playing like any 7-footer we’ve ever seen before. He handles the ball, creates his own shots, makes plays for others, nails 3-pointers, sets screens, runs the pick-and-roll, plays excellent defense; he plays like a skilled guy half a foot shorter, but with the advantages his length adds.

So you can see that height still matters in the NBA. The shift isn’t away from height; it’s away from poor shooters who rely on their post games offensively, who are slow, can’t handle the ball, can’t create their own shots or shots for their teammates, and who can’t defend on the perimeter as part of a robust switching defense.

Most NBA big men don’t have the skill set to be effective in the fast-paced, spread-the-floor game that has evolved. Howard was great, until he wasn’t; the game left him behind. Height can’t compensate for a lack of basketball skills. The NBA is too talented now for that to work.

But when big men do have those skills, watch out.

This is what the future portends: big men with advanced skills and athleticism are going to be in demand just like all players with advanced skills and athleticism, with the added bonus that they’re really tall, which is great. But let’s be honest: there aren’t many guys that size who can acquire those skills. There aren’t that many guys that tall to begin with in the population; sheer statistics will suggest that a Kevin Durant is going to be a rare beast. On the Bell Curve, he’s way the hell off on his own.

The NBA will keep trying to find the next Kevin Durant. 7-footers who don’t have those skills are going to be marginalized in favor of shorter players who do have them.

That’s the story behind Draymond Green’s Defensive Player of the Year award. He’s only 6' 7" (or maybe a bit under that), but his speed, athleticism, hustle and skill level are good enough to let him defend almost anyone, from guard to center. Would you rather a guy like that be 7 feet tall? Yeah, sure. But it won’t work if the skills aren’t there. It’s a fast game now, and most 7-footers don’t have the skills and aren’t able to keep up. None of the NBA’s big men got that award this year; the award went to the guy with the best skills.

Those big men who do have well-rounded skills, like Durant, are correctly termed ‘unicorns’ because they’re so darned rare. They’ll always be rare. And amazing, too, precisely because they’re doing what few on Earth ever could, taking advantage of their height and skills to dazzle our eyeballs.

There won’t be a pendulum swing back to emphasizing centers. This shift away from traditional centers isn’t an aberration. The teams that excel now are the teams that can put the best skills on the floor. Bully ball is out; the rules against it have been tightened significantly, and may be tightened again going forward. Teams that try to go the other way, like New Orleans, who used a lot of cap space on big men, will have a very steep uphill climb to the playoffs.

Height is good in basketball; that hasn’t changed. But absent the advanced skill set required of NBA players, height, by itself, doesn’t mean much in today’s fast-paced, spread-the-floor game.

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