The Los Angeles Lakers have been to the NBA Finals for three consecutive years, they are the defending back-to-back champions, and are arguably the most successful franchise in NBA history.
Kobe Bryant has been instrumental in the success of the current Lakers team—he is the team’s MVP, best player, and crunch time assassin. However, the past success and future hopes of the franchise rests on the production of their big men.
Kobe Bryant will always be Kobe Bryant. As Kobe continues to get older and tinkers with his game, I have no doubt he’ll remain effective for many more years as an offensive assassin, defensive stopper (at times), and team leader. But if the Lakers want to win another championship and if they want to continue contending for championships after this upcoming NBA season, they need to take a look at history.
Next: Know Your History…
The history of the NBA can be traced through the dominance of historic NBA centers. George Mikan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan, almost every major NBA dynasty was built around a big man. On offense, big men setup shop deep in the low post, often times with their back to the basket.
All of the best centers have a dependable jump hook with various counters and alternate moves. Successful teams take advantage of the matchup problems created by having a player taking so many high percentage shots near the basket and creating foul problems for the opposing team which benefit the entire team.
Big men gobble up rebounds, score on offensive putbacks, finish dunk and alley-oop plays, and set giant picks. To win a championship, you need your big man to play defense. Having a defensive presence which can alter shots, intimidate players, and clean the defensive glass is a necessity. They don’t need to block every shot, but big men do need to clog the middle of the lane and help out on the weakside to prevent easy baskets.
Next: The Problem with Big Men Today…
The demise of the big man has not been more evident than in the past 20 years. Maybe I was spoiled growing up, but in the early 90s there was a plethora of tall, talented big men who were willing to bang down low and protect the basket. These guys were not only all-stars, but Hall of Fame worthy franchise players that you build your team around. Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, even Dikembe Mutombo.
In order to win a championship, you had to pass through a gauntlet of big men. Nowadays, the number of big men that fit this billing can be counted on one hand. In fact on two fingers. Dwight Howard and Yao Ming.
Despite all his deficiencies, Yao Ming is still one of the most skilled big men in the league, and his size alone can deter penetrators to the lane. He rebounds at a decent clip and has a polished offensive game which is effective, but more finesse than power. If Yao can return healthy this year, (I’m not really counting on it), then he will join Howard (more about him later) as the only other All-Star caliber centers in the league.
There are numerous other big men who are good, but have deficiencies in their game which prevent them from becoming franchise big men. Chris Kaman and Andrew Bogut are two good big men that are better than 80% of the centers in the league, both of whom are skilled scorers and are good defensive presences. However neither of them are Hall of Fame worthy, both of them are marginal all stars, and they are not players you build your team around.
Brendan Haywood, Roy Hibbert, Andris Biedrins, Tyson Chandler, Kwame Brown, Deandre Jordan, Kendrick Perkins and many other players have the size and physical tools to be great centers, but they will not ever be franchise players.
Dirk Nowitzki plays more like a small forward than a true big man, LaMarcus Aldridge is good but is far from being a superstar. Greg Oden was hyped as the next great center, but we all know how that turned out. Even if he recovers from his injuries and becomes a dependable starter, I doubt he’s gonna become the unstoppable force he was once hyped to be—I doubt he’ll ever be a perennial All-Star.
The list goes on and on: Kevin Garnett is over the hill and was never ever a dominant force on both ends of the court, even in his prime. Al Horford is good but not great. Carlos Boozer and David West are good scorers but they play little defense and are more Karl Malone than Tim Duncan.
Joakim Noah will likely develop into a defensive specialist, but averaging 20 ppg is out of the question for him. Nene is a solid player, but doesn’t fit the requirements. Chris Bosh is a very skilled scorer, but he’s not a great defender and he rarely scores with his back to the basket. Some of the younger players still might become dominant big men (Demarcus Cousins pleaaaaaase), but I’m not betting on it.
Next: The Enigma of Dwight Howard…
As for Dwight Howard, I was a big fan of his for the first couple years of his career, but now I’ve all but given up hope that he’ll develop into a legendary NBA center. He has the size and body, but he lacks the skill and patience to be a great player. In fact I’ll go so far as to say he’s one of the most overrated players in the game. Take away his size and jumping ability, and what does he have? Nothing.
Some might blame the demise of the big man on Michael Jordan. Because of Michael Jordan, every player growing up nowadays wants to be a guard, and few of them develop the big man skills necessary to be an effective center in the NBA. Often times they become so dependent on being taller, faster, bigger, and stronger than opposing players throughout their high school and collegiate careers that they never work on their low-post game or learn proper footwork.
Many players have good success following this prototype (eg: Amar’e Stoudemire, Dwight Howard, and many other players such as Tyson Chandler, Kenyon Martin, Tyrus Thomas, Darrell Arthur, etc.), but they don’t take that next step which catapults them into GOAT status.
Some people might argue that Dwight Howard is young (25 years old)and will gradually learn how to play with his back to the basket more effectively, but don’t forget that during Shaq’s rookie year, when he was only 20 years old, he averaged 23 ppg, 14 rpg, and 3.5 bpg—a better season than Dwight will probably ever have in his career.
Despite Dwight Howard’s monster stats and defensive intimidation, he has very little skill on the offensive end and his game is far from polished. Instead of thinking of Dwight as a Shaq-clone, I’d consider him more like a shorter Mutombo (because of his defensive specialty), with more explosiveness and athleticism, yet with worse defensive fundamentals (Mutombo was much better at anticipating shots and reacting to the defense than Dwight).
Amar’e’s problem stems from his unwillingness to develop much of a back-to-the-basket game or play any defense. The list goes on and on, and the bottom line is that no center today plays a game reminiscent of any of the pivot men who dominated the paint throughout NBA history.
Next: The Last Big Man Left?
Shaquille O’Neal was right when he said he was The Last Big Man left in the league. First of all, I’d like to say there have been so many articles written about players such as Rasheed Wallace, who never played consistently up to his potential and reached superstar status, but not enough articles written about Shaq being too lazy to live up to his OWN potential.
Think about it, here’s a guy who’s already a top 5 center of all time, but he could have been better. He only has as many regular season MVPs as Dirk Nowitzki and Allen Iverson, but less than Steve Nash! At his peak, he single-handedly makes your team a championship caliber team.
The only other big man still in the league who can say that is Tim Duncan. Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, and Hakeem Olajuwan are the 3 best big men of the last 20 years. Shaq had his freakish athleticism, quick feet, overpowering strength, and skills to complement his physical tools. He had a dependable jump hook, with an assortment of drop steps and counters, and when all else failed he would just back his man down and dunk over him.
Tim Duncan has his fundamental game with a plethora of low post moves, midrange jumpers, and his patented bank shot. He is also the best defender of the 2000-2010 era. Finally there’s Hakeem Olajuwan with his dream shake, amazing post moves, awesome fakes, and a fierce commitment to defense.
None of the big men in the league today come close to matching the skill level of Shaq, Hakeem, or Tim Duncan. Many of them play face-up games or play outside the paint. The Lakers are lucky that they have two skilled 7-footers who aren’t afraid to play with their backs-to-the-basket or defend the rim.
Next: The SoCal Advantage…
Pau Gasol is an underrated all-around player who has drawn comparisons to Kevin McHale, and is the perfect sidekick to Kobe Bryant. However at this age, what you see is what you get and he likely won’t improve much more throughout the rest of his career.
Andrew Bynum is the other piece to the puzzle for the LA Lakers. In his first two seasons in the league (as an 18 and 19 year old), Bynum played sparingly. He got a few minutes here and there and mostly rode the bench as a backup to Kwame. But in the little playing time he did get, here’s what I noticed:
He’s big and athletic. Legitimately 7 feet tall with a long wingspan and strong build, he has the size to be an all-star center. As a rookie (and before his injury problems), I actually thought Bynum was an extremely explosive player. Not quite on the level of Dwight, but I’d put him closer to Tyson Chandler than Eddy Curry. He’s got a quick enough second hop and he can explode for alley oops.
He’s got good hands and feet. Unlike Kwame, I immediately noticed Bynum gobbles up almost every pass thrown his way. His footwork was still something to be desired, but he’s light on his feet and has potential for improvement.
He’s raw, but he has good touch around the rim. I don’t wanna keep bagging on Kwame (no really, I don’t), but every time Kwame caught the ball down low and squeezed off a shot, I felt like he was either rushing it, not aiming, or both. He rarely threw up a shot which went above the rim, bounced around, and then dropped in.
In fact, for some reason I have memories of Kwame tossing up layups which bounced off the backboard and didn’t even hit the rim. Bynum’s the opposite—he tosses his shots up lightly and they all have a decent chance of dropping in.
I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. He’s no kitty cat. This is probably the biggest factor that kept Kwame from being a good player. Both Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson had called him out on it before. Although Bynum isn’t Shaq or even Dwight for that matter, he’s a lot more aggressive than Kwame ever was. (It’s the same knock on Yao, although Yao’s talented enough to score with his finesse moves. Besides, Yao has gotten better over the years, sorta).
Over the next two years or so, I saw the breakthrough of Bynum as he went from a “wasted lottery pick” to an extremely talented player with loads of potential and nearly limitless ceiling. He went from being a no-name to gradually becoming more and more hyped to the point where he was overhyped and everybody was talking about him carrying on the legacy of great Lakers centers.
Now? I think he’s judged at about the right level. He still has the potential to be a great all-star player, but he’s more likely to be one of those fringe players who’s a great starter and makes the all-star team every now while averaging 18-10 than a superstar center that drops 25-12.
He still has many holes in his game, on offense he has yet to develop counters to his go-to moves, he rarely overpowers defenders even when he has smaller players guarding him, his footwork and passing are mediocre, he doesn’t utilize fakes, he doesn’t re-post if the first post is unsuccessful, and most importantly he often doesn’t react to what the defense gives him.
Next: The Development of the Next Great Center…
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.
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.