Traditional centers on the decline in the NBA.

[bstein14]

We're one of very few teams with a traditional center on a huge contract.

The NBA has completely moved away from just having big tall guys without an actual NBA skillset play center just because they're 7 feet tall. With the increased emphasis on the 3 point shot its becoming less and less important to actually have a defensive anchor in the middle and also as far as rebounding goes, more rebounds go long off 3 point misses which is why you're seeing athletic guards and forwards who will hustle to the rebound becoming some of the best rebounders in the NBA.

Now more than ever its become important for bigs to be able to both step out and hit a jump shot and or have the agility to be able to step out and defend other bigs on the perimeter who have the ability to hit from distance.

With Andre's skill set he's the type of player that wouldn't even be in the NBA if he was only 6'8" or 6'9" because he isn't the insane hustle player like Ben Wallace was and he doesn't have the skill set of a PF. He's only even in the NBA because of his size and athleticism but with the way the NBA has shifted to perimeter play traditional bigs like Drummond are becoming less and less impactful on the NBA game.

[MotownMadness]

They are but Drummond is still a athletic freak at that size so he needs to just worry about the off ball stuff like he used to as that's good in any era.

[Cowology]

I'd argue the decline of traditional centers makes them even more valuable. In the 90's Dre would be a role player who got abused on a regular basis. In today's league he actually has the ability to have an impact because there are so few guys who can match up with him physically.

Unfortunately he doesn't play with intensity and has yet to figure out how to use his size and quickness to his advantage, but a fully realized big man could still dominate.

[Arp590]

Well we're not going to win by matching what the other teams are doing.. we're not going to find the talent to beat Durant, Curry, Lebron, etc.
Our only chance at coming close to winning in the next 5 years is by Drummond realizing his potential and becoming dominate down low.
A center that can actually do some damage in the paint would be a problem for these teams playing without traditional centers.
We're not going to win by trading away Drummond unless we are focusing on 5+ years in the future.

We have 2 options..
Option 1: Stick with Drummond, hope he realizes his potential. (even if it's unlikely)
Option 2: Trade all of our players for future 1st round picks, by future I mean 2022 & onward... because nobody is beating the Warrior's for many years.

[Spider156]

Thing with big men is they can be unstoppable. I mean imagine Shaq playing against golden state. It wouldn't be fair. He'd average 50 pts and 20 rebs a game. Eventually guys like Cousins, Davis, and KAT will take over the league in the right situations and they'll be unstoppable. Teams will beg for Drummond size if can actually give effort. Drummond was an All Star once for a reason.

[BadMofoPimp]

Leuer will be spending some time at center.

[whitehops]

for me personally, i consider players like valanciunas, monroe, boban etc. "traditional centers", but i consider players like drummond, gobert, etc. to be "anti-stretch 5" centers. that means they have the ability to defend stretch 5's and other players on the perimeter well enough AND still have the size+ability to be a big mismatch offensively, usually as the roll man in the pick and roll.

athletically i think drummond is the prototype "anti-stretch 5" center but he obviously has a long way to go defensively to be relied on to defend on the perimeter consistently.


i think stretch 5's are useful right now but teams will adapt and it's easier to switch and keep the defense's shell intact, whereas if you have a roll man that puts enough pressure on the middle of a defense it causes them to collapse which opens up three point shooters. joel embiid and karl-anthony towns are the perfect specimens to be both stretch 5 and deadly roll man. anyways, golden state is probably the most advanced team (it helps having draymond green) in more or less playing man-to-man on the strong side and a complete zone on the weakside, keeping perimeter players defending the perimeter and keeping draymond as close to protecting the paint as possible.