Slam Dunk: Selecting elite talent – what physical attributes does NBA talent selection prioritise?

Pune: It is the 2015 NBA finals, and the Golden State Warriors are down 2-1 to the Cleveland Cavaliers led by LeBron James

Pune: It is the 2015 NBA finals, and the Golden State Warriors are down 2-1 to the Cleveland Cavaliers led by LeBron James. With a basketball hoop that is 10 feet above the ground, height has usually been a premium advantage to each team. However, in this pivotal Game 4, coach Steve Kerr opts to replace a 7’1 starting centre with a 6’7 wing player in the starting lineup.

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The Warriors go on to win the game and the championship in six games. A few decades earlier, a move like this would have been unthinkable. What caused the evolution of playing styles in the NBA and how has this impacted the current NBA game?

In the 1980s decade, the most valuable commodity in basketball was size, specifically height. The best teams were usually the teams that had the most talented and biggest athletes playing close to the rim, scoring the majority of their points in the painted area close to the goal.

Teams that ruled the decade such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers featured multiple superstar big men such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale and Moses Malone. In fact, even in the 1984 NBA draft where Michael Jordan was picked with the number 3 pick, the two players selected ahead of him were both centres.

Through the 1990s, height was still prioritised heavily in constructing NBA lineups. The more frequent adoption and common usage of the 3-point shot made it so that smaller teams could compete and attempt to outscore bigger teams. However, with the dominance of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, this was the first time that a team featuring a guard (Michael Jordan) and a wing (Scottie Pippen) as the primary offensive and defensive players won multiple championships.

Height was still regarded as a premium commodity, emphasised by teams consistently selecting big men with higher picks in the NBA Draft.

With the success of the Chicago Bulls, there was a paradigm shift towards talented wing players who could score, pass and defend all over the floor in the 2000s. The NBA started to emphasise the skillsets of versatile players such as Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Jason Kidd and Kevin Garnett. The two best teams of the decade were both led by hulking big men in Shaquille O’Neal for the Lakers and Tim Duncan for the Spurs. Despite this, more and more franchises started shifting towards a style that emphasised versatile skillsets for traditionally different positions. Big men who could shoot further away from the rim like Dirk Nowitzki, pass the ball like Chris Webber and guard multiple positions like Kevin Garnett became the first in a wave of players to prove that a paradigm shift was occurring in the talent selection of the NBA.

Finally, in the era of the 2010s the league started to see a complete shift towards versatility in athleticism and positional length. Looking at the current NBA, the most impactful players and lineups played by coaches feature players with above average hand sizes and wingspans, with the athleticism to cover the entire court quickly and move fast laterally.

In fact, the average NBA player has never been shorter in comparison to the past 39 seasons. Players that have the most impact and have won championships in today’s NBA like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard all possess these elite physical attributes.

In fact, there are a number of NBA Drafts that have now selected wings or guards as #1 picks in this era. This is how the NBA has evolved in its talent selection compared to previous eras, which consistently prioritised height over athletic versatility.

Adi Vase is the first Indian to work in the physical coaching and sport science departments of NBA teams. Born in Pune, Vase charts the course and the basketball realities that took him from Pul gate, Pune to the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers and now, the Golden State Warriors. Email: adi.vase@gmail.com