Waiting for THE man in the middle

After the NBA Draft Lottery last week, the buzz around the top basketball prospects has gotten louder. After Blake Griffin, there's a clear drop off with the next 2 picks a reported toss up between the highly skilled Spaniard Ricky Rubio and UConn's shot-blocking specialist Hasheem Thabeet.

While scouts are careful to point out that Thabeet's offensive skills are underdeveloped, his stock is entirely based on his length and his potential to be a dominant big man in this league. That fact is - you can't teach 7 foot 3 inches. Whether Thabeet ends up as a Grizzly, a Thunder, or a King, there are going to be some unfairly high expectations placed on the big man to hold it down in the middle. No matter how good Thabeet ends up being, I am pretty certain he is going to fall short.

Why are our expectations for new bigs in this league so high? Why have centers like Greg Oden been such a disappointment? What exactly are we waiting for?

For argument's sake, let consider the two centers who are considered to be at the forefront of the 5: Yao Ming and Dwight Howard. (I am not including Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett in this discussion because they are listed as forwards. Sorry guys, but you wrote yourselves off by claiming that position.) Sure, Yao couples his skill with a grace that doesn't come naturally to others with his size, but his career has been ridden with injuries and his lack of killer-instinct has repeatedly been exploited. Howard's athleticism is unparalleled, but the majority of his offense is created off the boards and when the game is on the line, he's setting screens and clearing out of the paint for Hedo Turkoglu.

Yao and Howard are examples of how we are willing to overlook shortcomings and exaggerate effectiveness of a center just so we can have titans to marvel at. We give them the benefit of the doubt and consider them "dominant" without attaching any caveats. The truth - Yao Ming is a great center "for his time." Dwight Howard is dominant "for his time."

If you disagree with that, consider where they stand in the pantheon of NBA's big men? Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson account for numerous scoring titles, defensive player of the year awards, All-NBA selections, and all 4 the non-Bulls championships in the 90's.

The Hoya triumvirate of Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutumbo, Patrick Ewing represent the most resilient and durable group of centers the NBA has ever seen: Zo played 15 seasons, outlasted FSGS and a kidney transplant, and was perhaps the most intense and emotional player in NBA history; Deke played 18 seasons, won defensive player of the year 4 times, and intimidated the hell out of opponents with just a wave of his finger; and Chewing played 17 seasons, is considered the one of the best players in Knick's franchise history, and starred in his own Snickers commercial!

Looking back a few generations, and you'll find even more dominant big men. Wilt Chamberlain holds NBA all-time records for points (100) and rebounds (55) in a single game; Kareem Abdul Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scoring; and Bill Russell won 11 NBA championships in 13 years and is now the namesake for the NBA Final's MVP award.

I think we are desperately waiting to relive the glory days of the NBA when the best players in the league not named Micheal Jordan, Magic Johnson, or Larry Bird where larger than life, literally. It probably won't be Oden or Thabeet that brings those days back. I don't think Yao or Howard are cutting it today. But there will be someone, some newbie giant that someday will make the 5th position the most important position again.

Until then, we'll have to settle for the LeBron/Kobe/D-Wade show.