At the 2014 draft, everyone was talking about the genius named Andrew Wiggins.
He is 2.01 meters tall, 1.12 meters vertical bouncing, and far superior to his peers' basketball skills.
Let him be called "the rookie closest to LeBron James".
In the end, he and Jabari Parker, the "scoring kaleidoscope" from Duke University, were selected by the Timberwolves and Bucks in the top two, respectively, perfectly reproducing the draft picks of "Golden Generation" LeBron Anthony twelve years ago.
No way, it was already the world of strikers.
Durant just got his first regular season MVP. LeBron already has four and has won two championships at the Heat with a +fmvp "double yolk egg."
Whoever wants to make a difference must have a talented striker.
However, this year was the beginning of the NBA's "center recovery".
The Philadelphia 76ers picked third overall in the first round with the university of Kansas rookie center Joel Embiid.
The Denver Nuggets picked the 41st pick in the second round with a young center from Serbia, Nikola Jokic.
The NBA center, who has gradually decayed since the shark O'Neal, will once again go to the center of the stage because of the two of them.
In the 2014-15 season, the rebuilding Jazz improved from 28 wins the previous year to 37 wins and 45 losses, and the defense also rose from the previous league's penultimate to 14th.
This is not only because the new coach Schneider coach is well-equipped, but in the second half of the season, they gradually let a second-year French boy who is 2 meters 16 tall but thin like a bamboo pole play the starting, Rudy Gobert.
He actively ran at both ends of the court, grabbing every opportunity to block, jam and grab rebounds. Despite his rough offensive technique, he will cherish every opportunity given to him by his teammates and use his long arms to shove the ball into the basket.
Jazz fans seem to see in him the shadow of the team's ape Tarzan Mark Eaton thirty years ago. The same giants, the same defensive mountains, the same offensive brothers, all of which people can't say love.
But no one imagined at the time that the "French long stick" (Nicknamed Gobert's rookie season) would surpass Eaton as the best defensive player in three years.
That year, sophomore Gobert had already made a starter, while Embiid and Jokic, despite being selected, did not play a game.
The result was hilarious, Embiid was directly reimbursed for the rookie season because of the stress fracture in his right foot, otherwise he was fully capable of competing with Wiggins with the talent he showed in college.
And Jokic is because, too fat.
When the Nuggets were selected, he weighed 290 pounds, grew up out of control, claiming to drink three liters of Coke a day, and when the Nuggets first gave him a physical test, his plate support lasted less than 10 seconds.
Jokic didn't make it to the NBA until the 2015-16 season, and Embiid even spent two consecutive years playing for Philadelphia.
And next year's NBA champion, finally a center, Carl Anthony Downs.
Before he entered the NBA, he was touted as a hope for the future of the American interior with "thick eyebrows" Anthony Davis.
He shocked the nation with just one year of playing at the prestigious University of Kentucky, with a height of 2.13 meters, an arm span of 2.22 meters, and thick lower limbs.
A perfect inner line embryo.
What's even more peculiar is that he condensed various basketball skills into his body at a young age.
His feel is impeccable, and the shooting at the three-point line is almost dead.
His pace is dexterous and solid, and he is even more like a small striker when facing three threats.
He is willing to pass the ball, can play high blocking, and even can hold the ball himself.
If Thick Brow showed his dominance defensively in college, Towns conquered all kinds of scouts with unparalleled offensive talent.
Jokic, Embiid, Gobert, Downs.
If you compare the four major centers of the 1990s, they can be called the new four centers of this era.
First, Jordan is in charge, why is it still called "center forward prosperity"
No one would deny that the NBA of the 1990s was Jordan's domain, with six championships and six Finals mvp. However, except for his Bulls, other teams still use the internal line as the basis for the establishment of the team.
The most prominent of these are the four centers of Olajuwon, Ewing, The Admiral and the Sharks.
Olajuwon, the second man in the league in the nineties, Jordan retired in the 94-95 two years, he played overtime O'Neal, admiral, Ewing, Barkley, Malone and other interior superstars one by one, two consecutive championships.
He has the most perfect center pace and interior skills in history, and what few people notice is that he is the king of NBA history blocks (averaging 3.1 per game).
Patrick Ewing, a symbol of the decade in New York City, a lifelong enemy of big dreams, was the first center in the East from 1984-1994. 11 All-Stars, seven all-time Best Team.
Shark O'Neal, at his peak, was the most powerful center in history. At that time, he was a small number of the four centers, but he was among the superstars almost as soon as he entered the league.
In the third year of his career, he led the team to the finals,
Played four seasons to become one of the NBA's "Fifty Top Fifty in Fifty Years",
He was also the only superstar to kill Jordan in the playoffs of the nineties.
Admiral David Robinson, with the most perfect interior body type. Duncan's biggest spurs before him, the regular season mvp, the best defensive player, and 71 points in a single game, these achievements he has achieved alone.
In the first half of the nineties, he overpowered Big Dreams four times and became a league center.
Without Jordan, the four of them could have replicated the pomp and circumstance of Bill Russell, Chamberlain ruling the Alliance completely, and the giants ruling the world.
That's not counting the four-time best defensive player "African Mountains" Mutombo, the Cavaliers' 1986 champion Dahdy, Ewing's Georgetown University disciple, known as the "fifth center" Alonzo Mourning, the Jazz's ape giant Mark Eaton and so on.
At that time, the NBA, if there was no reliable center, you could not mix.
This ultimate dominance is most evident in the two years since Jordan retired midway.
In the 1993–94 season, the top five players in the MVP vote were Big Dream, Admiral, Pippen, Sharks and Ewing, four centers.
The top three points on the table are the Admiral, the Sharks and Big Dream.
The final finals were Big Dreams Vs Ewing.
In the 1994-95 season, the top five MVP polls were still Admirals, Sharks, Malone, Ewing and Big Dream, only to replace Pippen.
The top three on the scoring list are sharks, big dreams and the general.
The finals were replaced by Baby Shark Vs Big Dreams.
When Jordan retires, the torch in his hand will still be replaced by giants,
O'Neill and Duncan divided up eight of Jordan's nine seasons after his retirement, four for each.
In that era, although Kobe, AI, Maddy and other four major quarterbacks competed for the wind, the golden generation such as LeBron and Wade had entered the league, and even Nash blew a small-ball storm for the NBA.
But the NBA, after all, belongs to the Giants.
It wasn't until O'Neal got older and Duncan ceded the offensive core to Manu and Parker that people discovered that the great centers and interior lines had entered the era of "dinosaur extinction".
Yao Ming was the last restricted-zone dinosaur, but injuries forced him to retire after breaking through the first round of the playoffs for the first time.
Howard has been in charge of the best defensive player and a center for several years, but still just a super blue collar.
Cousins had high hopes, but he couldn't even lead the team to the playoffs when he was at the core.
By the 2015-16 season, the league even had to select Jordan Jr., who couldn't shoot in the three-second zone, as a center.
The center is dead.
This argument was made until a new group of center forwards took the stage.
Second, the new four major centers, the two are dominant, each with its own charm
Of the new four centre-forwards, the best are undoubtedly Jokic and Embiid.
In the history of basketball, you have never seen a center like Mr. Yo.
He is well versed in all the techniques of a traditional centre forward, but at the same time he is cramming into the soul of an organizational defender.
You've probably seen a center throw all sorts of subtle passes, but rarely see a center with the ball and a quick attack, which is already the norm for him and the Nuggets.
You've probably seen Sabonis, Gasol big and small, and Divac deliver all sorts of subtle assists. But that was only a tiny part of their great game, and that had become Jokic's reserved show in every game.
His brilliant collection of passes alone is almost much more than the sum of these great sages.
And in addition to the wild passing, Mr. Jo has surprised us almost every season in recent years.
In the 2018-19 playoffs, he played 64 minutes and 58 seconds in the second "four overtime" game against the Blazers in the Western Conference semifinals, setting a single playoff time record. And we remember him as a fat man.
In the 2019-20 playoffs, he led the Nuggets to eliminate the biggest favorite of the time, the Los Angeles Clippers led by Leonard Paul George.
Last season, in the case of Murray's halfway reimbursement, he still led the team to the third place in the West, the first regular season MVP.
This season, even Porter Jr. is gone, still playing 46 wins and 31 losses to the fifth place in the West, in fact, it is one game worse than Philadelphia with Harden Embiid (46-29).
You won't find a center like him in NBA history, he's not the new Sabonis, Divac or Bill Wharton, and the way he influences the game and the endless ideas that come up with it only reminds me of Larry Bird.
He's more like a big-sized "big bird."
Embiid, on the other hand, is not as talented as Jokic.
If it is about the outstanding teacher comes from the imagination of the imagination and the unattainable sense of the ball. Then the great emperor's extraordinary comes from his amazing learning ability.
He was only introduced to formal basketball training at the age of 14, but when he appeared on the NCAA field in his freshman year, he was already the most skilled big man at 18.
After waiting for Volkswagen for two years, he met expectations of a super center as soon as he debuted in the 2016-17 season.
Perfect footwork, precise judgment, and a wide range that covers the entire three-point line.
He can dream of a wonderful pace, can shoot accurately like Ewing, can play the inside like the sharks, and can run fast with the outside like a general.
In addition to being a little brittle, he almost immediately became the leader of the league.
Once gasol jr., Horford and other physical and mental tough men were his bitter masters, but in the past few years, he can deal with almost all types of opponents in the league.
This season against Towns, 42 points and 14 boards,
To thick eyebrows, 26 points 17 plates,
For letters, 42 points 14 plates
For the teacher, 37 points and 9 boards.
He, along with Alphabet Brother and Durant, may be the three offensive killers in the league today that most ignore defense.
And Carl Anthony Downs, this season's performance is not much more than let go.
From the beginning of entering the league, Downs was considered to be the most in line with the era, the first year 18+10, and also won the All-Star Skills Game championship. The next year he scored 25+, and no one doubted his offensive firepower ever since.
But before his problem was, he liked shooting three-pointers too much.
He averaged 4.1 outside shots per game in his career, up to 7.9 in a season, which is too much for a center forward.
Combined with the pull-across his back, he could not move Cousins, Chandler and even LeBron, and was once considered the "softest center".
But this season, as Edwards matured, especially with his friend Russell, he became more skilled, and both Towns and the Timberwolves underwent a secret and gratifying change.
He cut back on his shots from the outside, but played the second best defensive game of his career. Led by him, the Timberwolves played the league's third-highest offense (115.2 points per game), third-place blocks (5.7) and the most turnovers against their opponents (16.3).
He himself, too, played more like a super center.
This year's Towns is likely to squeeze out Gobert, who has dominated three consecutive centers and three best defensive players, and enter the best team again after four years.
And this time, he is the team's well-deserved boss and leader.