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The Demise of the ‘Big Man’ in the NBA

Written by on 08/20/2010 in Editorials - 4 Comments

This past season he’s shown great maturity by doing the dirty work around the rim (defending the paint and grabbing rebounds) and not complaining about getting more touches. He’s worked on developing his game around the basket, and once he becomes more disciplined on offense (he turns into a black hole when he doesn’t get enough touches), he could easily be the second best center in the league.

June 17, 2010 - Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - epa02208259 Los Angeles Lakers' Andrew Bynum (R) and Boston Celtics' Rasheed Wallace (L) at tip-off during the first half of game seven of the NBA Finals at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, USA, 17 June 2010.

Most of the dominant NBA teams in the past have relied on an inside-outside combo, but the landscape of the NBA is changing. Nobody wants to play the slow-down grind-it-out feed-the-big-man style which has worked so well for so many teams in the past. The Lakers are lucky they had Shaq, and they’re even luckier now that they have Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

If the Lakers want to continue to be dominant as their current core of players reach their twilight years (Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, and Pau Gasol are all 30, and Kobe Bryant turns 32 next week), they will need Andrew Bynum to continue to improve. Bynum needs to relish his role as the big man, and he must realize that he’ll get more and more touches in the upcoming years as the rest of the team ages.

The success of the Lakers franchise has always depended on the production of their great centers. Bynum is about to enter the prime of his career, and if he works on his post game he could be remembered as one of the great centers in Lakers history. More importantly, he can continue the tradition of big men dominating the NBA and lead the Lakers to many more championships.

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  • Nonreality

    First Kwame never had the hands to play center. This and his desire stopped him from ever being good. Second: Duncan was never a center. He always played against power forwards. He never had to go one on one against the best in the league. Granted he is a great power forward but doesn’t belong in this conversation. Dwight Howard is as you have said not in the big man league. He has all the moves of a big man but not the size. Plus no skills. He gets by with being an incredible athlete. He is all power and no skill. Ask him to make a jump shot and watch him just throw it up. Bynum may end up being a great one, he has the size,the hands, the moves and I hope the desire to be one of them. He showed it last year as he played hurt and I hope this leads to great things from and an injury free season this year. I didn’t think much of him from the start but now I really think he might have all the skills and he has learned from the best. I hope anyway. He really should take a page from Kobe and go and talk to Akim who is the best center from a skilled point of view. No one was better at moves at the center position. (sorry if I messed his name up)

  • Nonreality

    First Kwame never had the hands to play center. This and his desire stopped him from ever being good. Second: Duncan was never a center. He always played against power forwards. He never had to go one on one against the best in the league. Granted he is a great power forward but doesn’t belong in this conversation. Dwight Howard is as you have said not in the big man league. He has all the moves of a big man but not the size. Plus no skills. He gets by with being an incredible athlete. He is all power and no skill. Ask him to make a jump shot and watch him just throw it up. Bynum may end up being a great one, he has the size,the hands, the moves and I hope the desire to be one of them. He showed it last year as he played hurt and I hope this leads to great things from and an injury free season this year. I didn’t think much of him from the start but now I really think he might have all the skills and he has learned from the best. I hope anyway. He really should take a page from Kobe and go and talk to Akim who is the best center from a skilled point of view. No one was better at moves at the center position. (sorry if I messed his name up)

  • Hello

    “Take away his size and jumping ability, and what does he have? Nothing.”

    Ok. I found this very interesting. The article called the “Demise of The Big Man” and you say,”take away his size”….hold on, hold on… Then he WOULDN’T BE A ‘BIG MAN’ anymore. This is one of the most over used and abused quotes amongst non-basketball players… “well if I were that tall” or “if i were that big” or an array of other excuses explaining someones success as a result of merely being tall(big).
    Any basketball player knows that being a successful Big Man has far more to do with skill than size. (Proved with people not considered ‘Big Men’ that in fact, played like big men… Rodman, Barkley and many others)

    Yes, the fact is that there is a Demise of Big men in the NBA, and its unfortunate. But your Dwight Howard comments are not only wrong, but unfounded. Compare his age, time in the NBA, and anything else to his statistics and the statistics of previous successful Big Men in the NBA and you will see, he is even and far ahead of most all of them. His improvement is crazy and his stats show it.

    And before you say, stats don’t mean everything, like predictably you will. Yes, rebound stats are something that cannot be manipulated. Truly good Big Men ALWAYS get rebounds, always.

  • hello

    “Take away his size and jumping ability, and what does he have? Nothing.”

    Ok. I found this very interesting. The article called the “Demise of The Big Man” and you say,”take away his size”….hold on, hold on… Then he WOULDN’T BE A ‘BIG MAN’ anymore. This is one of the most over used and abused quotes amongst non-basketball players… “well if I were that tall” or “if i were that big” or an array of other excuses explaining someones success as a result of merely being tall(big).
    Any basketball player knows that being a successful Big Man has far more to do with skill than size. (Proved with people not considered ‘Big Men’ that in fact, played like big men… Rodman, Barkley and many others)

    Yes, the fact is that there is a Demise of Big men in the NBA, and its unfortunate. But your Dwight Howard comments are not only wrong, but unfounded. Compare his age, time in the NBA, and anything else to his statistics and the statistics of previous successful Big Men in the NBA and you will see, he is even and far ahead of most all of them. His improvement is crazy and his stats show it.

    And before you say, stats don’t mean everything, like predictably you will. Yes, rebound stats are something that cannot be manipulated. Truly good Big Men ALWAYS get rebounds, always