The Warriors won their title with Bogut and Ezeli. The Spurs had Duncan. The Cavs beat the Warriors only when Bogut went down. Having at least a good Center is essential to winning a championship. If both Nurk and Ezeli were healthy we'd be much better
The Cavs beat the warriors only when Green was suspended...... IMHO That series would have been over in 5
The NBA game has changed how centers are used. One of the reasons maybe connected to the average size of the players. In the past, 7’ centers had a huge size advantage over the other positions. Today the average player is taller than in the past. In 1947, the average height of all NBA players, including centers, was just less than 6’2”. For the 2015 season, the average height was 6’6”. The 2015 NBA season average height without shoes by position Center 6’10” PF 6’ 9.4” SF 6’ 6.3” SG 6’ 4.4” PG 6’ 0.9” When you consider the average SF is only 3-4" shorter than the average center. There is not that much difference in height until you get to PGs. The average weight has also increased.
I'd be curious to see how heights today stack up to heights in the 80s/90s. Seems like players have gotten shorter across the board, but especially at the extremes (PG & C). As someone pointed out (HCP?) today we have PFs masquerading as Cs. This is because, IMO, there was a total lack of talent at the position, outside of a couple players, for about a decade (just taking a guess at that time frame). A few teams managed to turn a weakness into a strength, which lead to small-ball being the flavor du jour - everyone is always trying to emulate the last champion. And even though we're seeing an influx of talent at C, so far none of those players have made their way to a contending team. Unfortunately for KAT, Drummond and Jokic, I don't see MIN/DET/DEN ever putting together a strong enough team for them to be the one to start a big-man arms race...they'll have to get moved to a more legit franchise in order to leave a mark on the league. We'll see what happens over the next few years, but if the talents align, there's a real possibility that players like Embiid, Towns, Gobert, and Nurkic make the C position a vital part of the game at the highest level once again. But we already know just how important a C is to our roster - whether Nurk makes us a contender is to be determined, but we know we're NOT gonna be a contender without him.
You are correct. There was a steady increase in height until a peak in 1986. The second and tallest peak was in 2002. However in 2010 the average player was 2” shorter.
