The San Antonio Spurs won this year’s lottery and took Victor Wembanyana of course. The 7-4 (whatever) young star is expected to become a great player.
In the modern era, big men are discounted if they don’t have a complete set of skills which really changes the game. A couple of decades ago, other than Don Nelson’s eccentric lineups, small ball was not even considered.
The truth though is that there just aren’t that many great big men today. That was not the case in the 1980’s and ‘90’s when lots of big men roamed the paint: Patrick Ewing, an aging but still deadly Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon.