In a league headlined by dynamic guards — Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Stephen Curry, to name a few — the notion that NBA big men are a dying breed is as common as ever. But that’s hardly the case.
While those gritty, back-to-the-basket power forwards and centers might be few and far between in today’s NBA, big men aren’t on their way to extinction. They’re just evolving, following the NBA’s three-point shooting trend.
“The NBA has always evolved from different eras,” Bill Cartwright, a three-time NBA champion center who played from 1979 to 1995, told USA TODAY Sports.