Is The NBA Not Basketball Anymore?

Big Men Are Letting It Fly

If you think that centers still play in the paint, you’re wrong. (No, YOU’RE passive aggressive!).

While there are some traditional bigs that can be found on NBA rosters (Big Al, Jahlil Okafor, etc.), you will most likely find them on the bench; even if the team they’re playing on isn’t ‘competitive’; which, by the way, is a relative term in the NBA. More on that in a bit.

Now, what do DeMarcus Cousins, Marc Gasol, and Brook Lopez all have in common?

Besides all being at least 6-foot-11, they’re also all shooting over 36 percent from three-point land.

Cousins is shooting 40.8 percent from 3 while attempting 4.2 3’s a game. Gasol is hitting a blistering 41.1 percent while taking 3.5 a game. Lopez is shooting 36.8 percent while attempting 5.4 a game.

Did I mention they’re all centers and big men?

If you’ve watched SportsCenter or read an article from any major sports outlet in the past few years, you’ve probably heard or seen the phrase “the league is evolving”. Whether you believe in evolution personally, it applies to the NBA.

The league no longer plays from the inside out, it plays from the outside in. In other words, teams live and die by the three-point line. (Okay, not literally, but let me exaggerate! I’m a writer.)

While watching a big man bully his way down in the paint and throw down a dunk can be just as exhilarating as a half-court buzzer beater shot, (and trust me, Cousins is quite good at the first), by spacing the floor, more space opens up. That means more lanes for guards to break down their defenders, more opportunities for people to be posterized, and more long-range 3’s attempted (by big men too now!)

The bottom line: it makes the game more exciting than bringing the ball up the court, passing down to the big man, him scoring, and repeating. Yawn.