Is Height as Important as it Used to be?
Most professional organizations have a diversity of opinion on a given issue or philosophy. Many of those inside front offices who have espoused a broader interpretation of what it means to be an NBA power forward, shooting guard or center feel vindicated by the way in which the Miami Heat won the title.
“The NBA is a pick-and-roll game, not a post game, so you need guys who have defined skills regardless of their size,” one scout said. “The league has been that way for a long time, but we ignored it because the Lakers and Celtics were winning, so size seemed like it matter. We told ourselves that you needed to be big and long to win.”
It’s not that rebounding and height aren’t valuable commodities. Watching your 6-foot-2 shooting guard rotate to close on a 6-foot-10 sharpshooter is as painful as ever, but coaches, execs and scouts uniformly maintain that valuing — or devaluing — a player strictly because of his size is an antiquated exercise.
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