The NBA Center Is A Dying Breed

Today is the last day of the NBA regular season and we are about to see history.  For the first time ever in the NBA we will not have a player average 20 points and 10 rebounds in a single season.  Yes, you heard that correctly.  To me this is a clear indication that the NBA center is becoming extinct.  A position that once dominated games is now almost non existent.

It first came to my attention last week when the New York Knicks were trying to extend their 13 game winning streak against the Chicago Bulls.  It was a great game as the Bulls pulled it out in overtime 118-111.  But, it was obvious right from the opening tip when the Knicks 6'8 small forward Chris Copeland was jumping against the Bulls 6'7 small forward Jimmy Butler.  But when you start smaller players at the center and power forward spots you have no choice.  Then, later in the game we saw Carmelo Anthony and Butler playing the 5-spot on the floor.  I understand that the Knicks were playing with a lot of injuries on their front line (Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin) but this is a trend we are starting to see across the NBA.  Most teams start one "big man" and four guards or swingmen that can handle the ball.  The Knicks have been doing it all year with Anthony and the Miami Heat as well with LeBron James starting at the power forward spot.  Long gone are the days of starting a point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center.  The NBA has evolved into starting lineups that consist of the best five players on the team regardless of position.  But it's not entirely the league's fault that center's are disappearing.

Back in the 90s the league was filled with dominate players at the center position.  Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, and Alonzo Mourning all roamed the paint and were among the best players in the league.  Before them it was all-time greats Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone.  Every one of those players averaged 20 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks multiple times in their career and liked to play with their back to the basket.  All of these players were a threat on the offensive and defensive side of the ball and if your team didn't have a center to counter them, you had no chance.  Once Shaq's decline started in the mid-90s the position slowly started going with him.  You still saw guys like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett that averaged 20, 10 and two, but they were the start of the hybrid post player, not a true center.  Most recently Dwight Howard was starting to become a 20 and 10 staple, doing it four out of five years, but his stint with the Lakers this year has seen a decline in both categories.

This year, nine players are putting up 20 points a game but the closest to 10 boards is LaMarcus Aldridge with 8.9 a game.  Only eight players are grabbing 10 rebounds a game and the highest scorer is David Lee with 18.4 ppg.  Last year Howard, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin were all in the 20 and 10 club but have had their numbers drop for various reasons.  Howard's problem is being on a team with Kobe Bryant.  Love has been battling a broken hand all year and hasn't played since January 3.  Griffin has had a solid year (18 and 8) but has given up minutes and stats to a very deep Clippers team.  The other statistic all these players are missing, except Howard, are the blocks.  We just don't see players have the skill-set to perform extremely well on both ends of the court.

If you take a look at who the best true center's in the league are, it's a list of good but not great players.  Howard, Marc Gasol, Joakim Noah, Brook Lopez, Tyson Chandler and Al Horford all suffice in the role but again, other than Howard it's a big stretch for any of those players to reach 20 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks.  We'll have to see what guys like DeMarcus Cousins, Roy Hibbert, Andrew Bynum (if he can ever stay healthy) and Andre Drummond can do as they grow through the years.

But what's the reason why the center position is becoming a lost art?  In my opinion there's three main culprits and some are more fixable than others.

1. Players aren't developing their skills enough in college.  For a guy 6'10 or taller, he really doesn't know the limitations of his athleticism and body because he's still growing into his frame in his college years.  But players always want to make the early jump to the NBA without taking the time to refine their skills in school.  This in turn leads to players never panning out they way they should.
2. The European influence on the NBA is taking players away from the post.  Every big man that comes over from Europe wants to play on the outside and shoot jump shots instead of banging down low and dunking on people.  We are also starting to see that more often with players from the states as well.  For as great of scorers Dirk Nowitzki and Aldridge are, neither has ever averaged 20 and 10 in their career.
3. Injuries have slowed down some of the premier centers in the league.  Greg Oden, Yao Ming, Andrew Bynum, Kevin Love, and Andrew Bogut have all suffered from the injury bug.  Bynum, Love and Bogut are still in the NBA but have had injury plagued season's the last two years.  Bynum missed the entire 2012-12 season while Love only played 18 games and Bogut managed 33.

Will we ever see the re-emergence of the NBA center?  It's tough to say.  This year we won't see anybody with 20 and 10, and we might not see a player do it with more than two blocks for a very long time.  The days of O'Neal, Robinson, Olajuwon, and Kareem dominating the paint seem like a distant memory.  The NBA is evolving to a guard oriented game and with that, the center is slowly dying off.