“One of the most important things for me was, I wanted to establish right away that you are a long guy, you are a shot blocker. I would get the ball here and just make one hard dribble to the middle and shoot my jump hook right over the top of you. Now whether I made it or not, didn’t matter, I wanted you to know I could go over the top of you. So when I got here and I put that pump fake next time, you thought you had to go up and I came underneath you.”
These are words uttered by the best post player of all time, Kevin McHale, and are ones that do not apply to many contemporary NBA big men.
The low post in 2018 is a wasteland. What used to be an abundant jungle home to many bigs has now been destroyed by analytical deforestation. This type of scoring has been ousted as an inefficient shot and one that should be utilized by only the best post players in the league.
Low-post mind games like McHale used to shred defenders with are essentially no longer used as the NBA has become more long-ball oriented. This has now eliminated the low post, which to most would signify the end of a long romance with post moves, but they are not completely gone.
Like all of the best things, they have adapted and moved.
As the NBA game has expanded farther away from the basket, so has the post. Big men now have to occupy most of their time in the high post. Their big bodies are being used as shields for guards in dribble-handoff situations and as a temporary point forward while actions fly around them.
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Now this playing style may seem unbelievably mundane, but NBA big men have made it their own. Because of it, some players are being allowed to decide where the ball goes more often and centers are garnering more assists as a result. This year, seven centers are averaging over three assists per game and four centers are averaging over four assists.
Big men have also figured out how to can score in these situations. Defenders are so conditioned to focusing on the offensive guard in this play that they sometimes overcommit and the big can fake the handoff and hustle to the rim for the slam.
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And now, with bigs expected to shoot with decent proficiency, they’re even starting to fake dribble handoffs into 3-pointers.
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When they do dump the ball off to the streaking guard beyond the 3-point line, it can create an opportunistic switch for the offense. The big man can overpower the smaller guard all the way from the high post onto the block, using his size to drop the ball into the hoop or spinning baseline for a hook shot.
These sets are often sprung into a pick and roll, where the big man hands the ball off and then jets down the center of the paint.
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And, as previously discussed, bigs are learning to shoot and are even popping off of these dribble-handoff sets and getting open jumpers in the midrange.
These moves are not nearly as beautiful as those Kevin McHale used to abuse defenders with, but big men are still finding their footing in this new terrain. This is simply the beginning of their usage in the high post and they will certainly develop more moves as time goes on.
Post-ups were easy to fall in love with and, for many, were even harder to say goodbye to. Luckily, they have not completely vanished from the game of basketball, they have simply moved a few feet away.
