The Cleveland Cavaliers have redefined what a successful lineup is in the modern NBA - and now teams are trying to copy them.
A lineup with two seven-footers is not supposed to exist in the pace-and-space era of basketball. The Golden State Warriors taught the NBA that you needed to be as small as possible to win championships. For years, teams emulated them, shifting players down the lineup; small forwards became 4s, power forwards played smallball 5. Everyone wanted their own Draymond Green.
Even the Cavaliers followed the trend, going from Kevin Love as a stretch-4 and LeBron James as a small forward to playing LeBron at the 4 (and even the 5 at times) and Love as a stretch 5. That's how they continued driving at success during LeBron's second stint in town.
Yet even while teams chased what the Warriors have -- the modern Boston Celtics are a hybrid version of that dream -- many of the teams winning championships did so with size. LeBron won another title with the Los Angeles Lakers with Anthony Davis at power forward next to another center. The Milwaukee Bucks have a massive human being playing power forward next to Brook Lopez.
Perhaps that reality emboldened the Cavaliers, who didn't panic when two of their best players turned out to be seven feet tall. They even pressed the envelope for a season with three seven-footers, installing Lauri Markkanen at small forward beside Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
That was a novelty; the present is domination. The Cleveland Cavaliers are dominating the league with two "centers", neither of which is a high-volume shooter. They have the best record in the league and have put together a high-octane offense even with the two bigs.
The Dallas Mavericks publicly admitted part of the reasoning for trading for Anthony Davis was to try and emulate the two-big success of the Cavaliers. And now one of the Cavs' most bitter rivals is trying to do the same.
The Miami Heat are trying the two-big approach
The Miami Heat barely snuck into the playoffs last year, planting their first-round pick at 15th, the lowest non-lottery pick in the draft. That put them in prime position to add help to the roster, ideally a player with positional versatility to fit in around their centerpiece player Bam Adebayo.
Instead, the Heat drafted a big man, former Oregon and Indiana center Kel'el Ware. Center seemed to be the position that Miami had locked down, but using a mid first-round pick on a backup wasn't the end of the world. If Ware hit, he could be a valuable trade chip or provide the Heat with 48 minutes of solid center play.
Yet what the Heat have stumbled into is not playing their rookie big man behind Bam Adebayo, but playing him alongside their star big. Years after revolutionizing the NBA with small lineups around LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Heat are now flexing a new muscle and copying the Cavaliers with a two-center look.
And it's working. Despite being a mid-round pick, Ware has hit the ground running as a rookie. In limited minutes, Ware is shooting 62.4 percent on 2-pointers as an excellent lob threat and finisher, while also shooting 41 percent from 3-point range. His block percentage would fit into the back-end of the TOp 10 if he had played enough minutes to qualify.
When Ware and Adebayo are on the court, the Miami Heat have a defensive rating of 100.0, which would lead the league if they played every minute. The offense has not been elite, but the theory of the concept is there, with Adebayo and Ware both able to shoot from outside -- Bam more from the corners, Ware as a pick-and-pop threat from the top -- and Adebayo is a shot creator and handles from the elbow with Ware a vertical threat at the rim.
This should not be a surprise -- teams chase greatness, and the Cavaliers are great right now. For teams to point to Cleveland and say "what they are doing is working; can I do it to?" is only natural.
Will it work for Miami? For Dallas? Time will tell. It's certainly working right now for the Cavaliers. Whether it ends up working well enough to win a championship is still a future unknown. For now, however, it's inspiring mimicry around the league.