Heard in the Cheap Seats

As my brother so astutely pointed out in the previous post, what seemed a forgone conclusion in recent days came to fruition last night when Kobe and the Lakers put the proverbial nail in the coffin.  In the end, youth and energy trumped savvy and experience.  Bellyache all you want about non-calls, conspiracy theories and injury problems–it doesn’t change the fact that the Lakers simply were the better team and proved it emphatically.

So for the first time in eight years, we will watch an NBA championship that does not contain men by the name of Duncan or O’Neal.  So the question then becomes, did we just witness the end of an era–both in the sense of the closing of the window on the Spurs dynasty and the era of big men dominance in the NBA?

Each point warrants its own examination (and potentially its own post) so let’s take them one at a time.

The Spurs:

Call it what you want: dynasty, prolonged success, it really doesn’t matter, it’s impossible to deny the success of the Spurs over the last decade.  This is a team that has won four championships during that time and has been a legitimate contender every year.  But their demise this year felt a bit different didn’t it?  This is a team that has never been shy about finishing games that seem to be out of reach–something they failed to do twice in this series with the Lakers.  More than that, the Spurs seemed to be outworked and out willed, something I have never seen happen in my time watching the current variation of the Spurs.  Part of that is a result of simply running up against Kobe Bryant.  Say what you want about him, but the man can play.  He wasn’t going to let his team leave the Staples Center without a Western conference title.

So was this the end of the Spurs?  Are they finally too old?  Is Tim Duncan no longer able to carry a team?  Has the wear of a decade’s worth of extended seasons finally taken its toll?  If you looked at this past series in a vacuum, the temptation would be to write off the Spurs next year.  That would be a mistake.  This is a team that has its entire core group of players signed for at least the next two seasons.  Sure, Tim Duncan might be on the decline, but he isn’t finished yet.  A quick injection of youth and athleticism will have the Spurs right back in the thick of the race next season and possibly one more beyond that.  Let’s not  make this one series out to be more than it is for the sake of manufacturing some drama.

The Fall of the Big Man:

This question is a little bit tougher to answer.  Slowly but surely over the past decade, the NBA has been methodically moving to a different brand of basketball that favors athleticism and agility over size and strength.  It started with the European invasion.

When Europeans began entering this league in bunches, they brought with them a brand of basketball that favored a broad set of skills over specialty players.  Players like Toni Kukoc, Detlef Shrempf, Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis typified this brand of basketball.  Over time, this philosophy had a trickle effect across the league and as players like Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson retired–the face of the game looked quite different.

But even in recent years, teams with dominant big men have gone on to win titles (with the notable exception of the Detroit Pistons).  This is probably why teams continue to put a premium on size by drafting Greg Oden and Andrew Bynum with number one picks.  This year is different.  Whatever team wins this year will do so without a traditional dominant big man (apologies to Gasol and Garnett).

I would contend that this year’s NBA playoffs have been a microcosm of the shift that has been taking place over the past few years-the game is moving toward a more guard-dominated league.

Now I know the next argument: the Suns tried the small ball approach and abandoned it in favor of adding the traditional big man to the mix.  To that I would say: “yea, how’d that turn out?”  The Suns abandoned the small ball approach–not the guard dominated approach.  There is a significant difference.  The Suns’ offense was based on the premise that a shot had to go up in seven seconds or less.  Ultimately, this created a tempo of basketball ill-suited for the playoffs and for teams that could impost a physical presence.

As players like Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and next year, Derek Rose continue to emerge, you will see teams grow more comfortable with the idea of a guard dominated team.  If this most recent playoffs was any indication, you better get used to the idea, because it’s already here.