The Trend Towards Tiny

I was going to just add this to the playoff thread, but then I decided that this is a bigger issue than this series. It's a league trend and with the draft coming up that affects how we (and every other team) will go forward. If the trend is towards small and whippet-fast shooters, and we go bigger and slower then we could turn into the Indiana Pacers, a team that has talent and size and couldn't even make the playoffs in the execrable east. Adapt or die.


http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/15/2015-nba-finals-no-bigs-allowed/



2015 NBA Finals: No bigs allowed
Dan Feldman Jun 15, 2015, 12:38 PM EDT






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As David Blatt fought off questions about his use of 7-foot-1 center Timofey Mozgov, Steve Kerr put it succinctly:

“It’s not a series for bigs.”

The Warriors and Cavaliers have combined to give players 6-foot-9 and taller just 12% of the minutes in the 2015 NBA Finals. That’s the lowest mark in the last 44 Finals and second-lowest for years Basketball-Reference.com has minutes data for the Finals (1955, 1957-2015):



And it’s not just one team dragging down the average.

This is the first NBA Finals in the sample where both teams are under 19%. The Cavaliers are at 11% and the Warriors 13%:




Game 5 took small ball to another level.

Mozgov played just nine minutes for the Cavaliers. Kendrick Perkins (6-foot-10) and Brendan Haywood (7-foot) didn’t get off the bench, and of course, neither did the injured Kevin Love (6-foot-10) and Anderson Varejao (6-foot-10).

The Warriors didn’t go big much more often. David Lee (6-foot-9) played nine minutes as a reserve, and Festus Ezeli (6-foot-11) got three. After starting every playoff game and nearly all his regular-season games to this point, Andrew Bogut (7-foot) didn’t play at all. James Michael McAdoo (6-foot-9) and Ognjen Kuzmic (7-foot) got their usual DNPs.

Single-game minutes data in the Finals goes back to only 1982 (though Game 1 in 1984 is missing). But that’s still a 34-year span.

In Game 5, Cleveland and Golden State posted the No. 1 and No. 2 lowest percentage of minutes given to players 6-foot-9 and taller. In fact, the 2015 Finals has produced the seven lowest scores in the sample:




Going small is a weapon Golden State and Cleveland have deployed this season. They’re both comfortable playing this way.

The Warriors kicked up a notch by starting Game 4 small, and the Cavaliers responded in Game 5 by going small more often. It resulted in a loss, but Blatt sounds as if he might stick with the strategy.

Will anything stop this arms race toward tininess?




bob

Bobh,
Thanks, interesting topic.
I wouldn't use this finals as a stat for the trend, thou. It's a pure accident that Love is out of the picture - I'd guess he'd get a lot of minutes had he played. Also, both GSW starting forwards are under 6-8. Also, both starting centers are mediocre at best.

AK

"Small" is a relative term.  Lebron James at 6'7" and at least 270 lbs of rippling muscle would have been regarded as a "huge" not so long ago and a huge with "small" skills superior to most smalls.

Or maybe it's a desire to find bigs who have both big and small skills. Witness the rage for stretch fours for instance.