CLEVELAND, OHIO – MARCH 26: Evan Mobley #4 celebrates with Jarrett Allen #31 of the Cleveland … More
“Time is a flat circle” in the NBA (and in life, for that matter). Anything that happens has already happened and will continue to happen until the end of the time.
Trends are cyclical. They come in, go out of style, and then, eventually, come back into vogue.
The best illustration of this phenomenon from the 2024-25 NBA Season is the reincarnation of the double big lineups.
A Brief History Of Double-Big Lineups
For most of NBA history, every team played two big men in their five-man lineup. The reason for this is the game was biased toward size. So, it behooved teams to field as much of it as they could.
The only thing that matters more than size is skill. And when forced to choose between the two, pure skill wins out against pure size more times than not.
As the Pace and Space revolution stormed the league, players became more and more offensively inclined. More players could shoot and handle the ball than ever before. It got to the point that it was more valuable to play smaller lineups that prioritized shooting, speed, and spacing over abiding by conventional wisdom and playing unskilled bigs. The dynastic Golden State Warriors and their revered “Death Lineup” were the epitome of this paradigm shift.
How Bigs Made A Comeback
Things got so bad that teams started to omit centers from lineups altogether. Why waste one of your five precious spots on the court for a relic who serves no purpose other than to honor the past way of doing things?
To avoid full-on extinction, up-and-coming bigs decided to combine their God-given physical gifts with the tricks of the modern game. Yes, pure size is better than pure skill. But do you know what trumps both of those things? Size and skill.
Fast forward to today’s game, it’s littered with dynamic seven-footers who can put the ball on the floor with the best of them. From Nikola Jokic to Alperen Sengun to Evan Mobley, today’s best centers are versatile enough to score in the post, make quick decisions in the short roll, initiate offense from the perimeter, be the ball handler in pick-and-roll, etc.
As a result, coaches have gone back to including at least one center in their lineups, but many teams have experienced a great deal of success with the double big lineups that were once thought to be antiquated.
It’s no coincidence that the top eight double big combinations belong to teams that currently sit in the top eight in their respective conferences (six of those teams are also top ten in offensive rating). In today’s game, the team that can put together the best blend of size and skill is usually the one that emerges victorious, and playing two centers at once is a great way to accomplish this.
Why This Postseason Will Be Interesting For The Future of Double Bigs
Like I said, a lot of the teams slated to be in the 2025 Playoffs have profited off the double big model. So, we will get plenty of opportunities to see how this experiment works on the biggest stage.
You may have noticed from looking at these tandems that one or both of the bigs in the pairing is a below-average/non-shooter. This was the main cause for teams turning away from this formula in the first place. It is hard to find two centers good enough to shoot and defend in a way that avoids serious floor spacing issues.
However, this year, it seems that teams have figured out other ways to extract spacing from these non-shooters by leveraging the use of physicality (for offensive rebounding and contested finishes), interior passing, and cutting (the Cleveland Cavaliers are the poster child of this movement). Meanwhile, on defense, teams are using more zones to negate the lack of foot speed on the perimeter (i.e., the Houston Rockets). So, in theory, teams can reap the benefits of these lineups without enduring the drawbacks.
The verdict is still out on if these trends are merely regular season fixes, or if they will hold up against higher-level effort/competition in the playoffs.
Can defenses come up with counters to diligent cutters/offensive rebounders that offset the size advantage of this lineup, putting attention back to their lack of shooting? Will offenses dissect junk defenses and force teams to play traditional defensive coverages with two bigs on the floor? Or will all this skepticism be a moot point when all is said and done?
To be honest, I’m not sure how any of this will unfold. But one thing is for certain, this postseason will play a huge role in the future of the double big lineup.
