Once upon a time, the old hoops adage was that you needed a dominant, low-post big man to contend in the NBA. This may be a bit surprising to any younger readers raised on a league that now regularly features teams attempting 30-to-40 threes a game, but it"s how many front offices approached team building and why center remains the position with the most MVP awards given out in the league"s history, even with a 20-year drought of winners at that position before Denver Nuggets wunderkind Nikola Jokiu0107 won this past season.
Indeed, the Miami HEAT long adhered to this line of thought, acquiring Alonzo Mourning in 1996 and Shaquille O"Neal in 2004 in trades to build teams around.