The new wave: big and benched
As the NBA trends toward a position-less brand of basketball, the Warriors’ two prototypical centers — Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee — face a tricky question: How do they stay relevant in a league in which their skill sets are increasingly less needed?
Pachulia, who’s 6-foot-11, and McGee, a 7-footer, are choosing to stay optimistic. Instead of dwelling on their dwindling playing time, they have stayed late after practice for games of 3-of-3, worked on defending guards and forwards, and hoped that their professionalism would be rewarded with more minutes.
However, such efforts won’t suddenly fix the problem. In the modern NBA, in which speed and versatility are prized over size, the traditional center — a lumbering, slow-footed brute who sets screens and blocks shots — is becoming more niche than necessity.
“The old-school ‘5’ is almost becoming a dinosaur,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said recently. “As a ‘5-man,’ you have to be able to cover
three-point shooters. You’ve got to be able to cover point guards on dribbles, on isos. The job description is changing.”
Two and a half years after it hastened the league’s smallball craze by riding an undersize lineup to the 2015 NBA title, Golden State has six centers — Pachulia, McGee, David West, Jordan Bell, Kevon Looney and Damian Jones — under contract.
West, Bell and Looney, all of whom excel at switching off screens to guard multiple positions, have carved out roles as small-ball centers. Jones is a developmental project being brought along slowly in the G League. Meanwhile, Pachulia and McGee have experienced the brunt of the numbers crunch.
Pachulia’s minutes have slumped from 18.1 in 2016-17 to 14.4 more than a third of the way through the season. Kerr likes having his size and screen-setting ability for seven-minute bursts to start the first and third quarters, but seldom plays Pachulia down the stretch in close games.
A fan favorite last season as a change-of-pace option off the bench, McGee is averaging a career-worst 8.1 minutes per game. His shaky perimeter defense has overshadowed his penchant for throwing down alley-oops and swatting shots. In the Warriors’ past three games, McGee has played seven minutes in one and sat out the other two.
“I’m just staying professional and trying to get better at the situations where they’re going small,” McGee said. “In the near future, hopefully I’ll be able to be out there in
“The old-school ‘5’ is almost becoming a dinosaur.” Steve Kerr, Warriors’ head coach
those situations. I’m just here being patient.”
The NBA’s affinity for versatile big men is the result of rule changes in the early 2000s that enabled teams to play zone defense. Suddenly, coaches could stick one player in front of a traditional center, another behind him to snuff out the lob pass and a third nearby to defend against a spin move.
It wasn’t until the 2015 Finals — when Kerr supplanted Andrew Bogut in the starting lineup with Andre Iguodala and started Draymond Green at center — that the rest of the league began to see the merits of going small. Cleveland center Timofey Mozgov found himself in a no-win scenario: hang near the rim and watch his man hoist three-pointers, or chase him to the perimeter and leave the rim unattended.
Thriving on some of the most wide-open three-pointers in postseason history, Iguodala averaged 20.3 points, seven rebounds and four assists as Golden State rebounded from a 2-1 deficit for its first NBA title in 40 years. Now, 30 months removed from that lightbulb moment, teams are chasing the next great stretch center.
Having that basketball unicorn, a long-limbed interior defender who also can hit three-pointers, pass and guard any position, is the only way to ratchet up the speed without sacrificing the inside presence old-school centers provided. The pace of the 2004-05 Phoenix team credited with popularizing uptempo offenses would rank 19th in the 30-team NBA this season.
It all has forced players like Pachulia and McGee to adapt to a style of play that doesn’t suit their fundamental strengths. They have worked diligently on switching off screens to defend shooters along the perimeter, only to watch Bell — the prototypical small-ball center — eat into their minutes.
After playing at least 20 minutes only twice in the Warriors’ first 27 games, Bell has averaged 24.7 minutes over the past seven. In Golden State’s Christmas Day win over Cleveland, with Pachulia finally back from a lingering left shoulder injury, Bell got the start.
As Pachulia and McGee watched from the bench, Bell posted eight points, six rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal in a personal-hightying 26 minutes. Kerr later explained that he leaned heavily on Bell to combat the Cavaliers’ small-ball lineup.
The problem for Pachulia and McGee? Most of the league is going small.
“That’s the situation, unfortunately,” said Pachulia, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily after a postgame run on the treadmill. “You have to stay with it because it’s a long season. Injuries are a part of the game. Things might change.”