The NBA is Very Young at One Position

The NBA is really a guard league. There was one point in time where you needed a dominant Center or Power Forward to be a competitive team. The "big men" in the NBA were the main attraction, at one point, outside of the legendary Michael Jordan. When you think about the legacy of the NBA it's hard to think of a time when there wasn't a very good center or power forward on a good or great team. Think about it. You had Shaquille O'Neil, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley and this list goes on and on. Right now, there isn't one traditional center or power forward that I can even name or at least based on one thing that I noticed.

There are some really good centers and power forwards that are beginning to emerge around the NBA. DeMarcus Cousins, Dwight Howard, Jahlil Okafor, Karl Anthony-Towns and Anthony Davis, just to name a few. But these players are all relatively young and all of them were one-and-done players in college (except for Howard, he came out of high school) and their careers are still young, their story is just starting to be written.

 All good things come to an end, even when you don't realize it. Well, last year, two great things came to an end. After nearly 20 years a piece in the NBA, two icons of the power forward position, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett both called it a career. One thing I never realized is how much they still meant to the game. Even though they had both been past their prime. With both Duncan and Garnett now retired from the hardwood, there are no active players inside the top 25 of the all-time rebounds list. Duncan (6) and Garnett (9) were the last two active players on the list after hall-of-fame center Shaquille O'Neil retired in 2011.

The next active player closest to getting into the top 25 is Atlanta Hawks center Dwight Howard. 

The NBA is now recognized as being a "guard" league and rightfully so. But, the art of being a "big man" in the league is still very much relevant and much needed. One thing that this tells me is that we've got some young players in the league that we'll, hopefully, be able to watch grow and mature into great and maybe even legendary power forwards and centers. One day, you never know, it could turn back into a league dominated by the "big man".