RealGM

A lot of young 7-ish footers have always had injury issues early in their careers. They don’t enter the league after 3-4 years of college like Kareem, Hakeem, Shaq, Duncan etc. Strictly speaking of 7ft players entering the league straight out of HS or 1 year of college how do/did they compare/project durability wise?

The best 'body type' we've seen in the NBA is either Lebron or Giannis. You should probably include them.

Garnett averaged 79 games(pro rated for 77 games in the strike year) and 38 minutes per game for his first 13 seasons. We’ll probably never see anyone near that again, especially a super athletic big that is anchoring both ends. That’s all time iron man stuff from a star player.

Dwight probably had the best body frame to sustain durability and was an iron man himself.. partially because he wasn’t all that tall(6’9 with no shoes) but was really long armed, and thick and sturdy instead of just being a big twig. He had a great build in terms of getting the advantages of being a big man, while also not getting some of the big man detriments.

I like KD the most for current NBA... just long arms, quick, wingspan, control, etc. plays both SF/PF. He can bother both offense and defense with that type of body. He's a bit on the skinny side, but that works ok for modern NBA.

The durability of players can really vary and depends quite a bit on their play style. For example, Tatum and Jokic have possibly been the two most durable stars of the last few years, despite having very different body types and styles. The most durable player in terms of games played might be Mikal Bridges, who is notably slimmer than both Tatum and Jokic and is probably as sleek as a starting wing can be.

Many of the injuries that keep players sidelined are non-contact related. I don't necessarily attribute this directly to the impact of going against bigger guys bumping into them. Perhaps, you could argue there is a downstream effect where skinnier players might have weaker core strength or worse biomechanics, leading to poor balance at times (higher center of gravity issues), which ultimately places more stress on the body.

To answer your question, the ultimate body types is Luka's.

KG, KD and Giannis just looked young and skinny

Chet and Porzingis looked awkward and disproportionate

Wemby is incomparable

Dwight wasn’t close to a 7 footer at that age