Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[F Gump]

I have read a lot on here that size is coming back and that is where the NBA is heading.  But it still looks to me like space is what wins in the playoffs, not size.  Its not just the Warriors, we just watched two teams in the finals play with more space than size.  Same with the prior champion.  Size is great, but I don't think trading space for size is a winning formula.  I guess we will see.

"I have read a lot on here that size is coming back and that is where the NBA is heading." --- It's not OUR analysis. It's what the NBA itself is doing, so apparently they have perceived that there's a good reason to go there. Hoops at the NBA level is so multi-faceted, and an advantage can be gained in many ways. 

"But it still looks to me like space is what wins in the playoffs, not size." --- I think there is a tendency to search for these grand declarations of what is the ideal winning formula, when instead there is really no such thing. That's the NBA, where a team finds an advantage and uses it to win a title, then some other teams mimic that and try to outdo them at their own game BUT other teams try to find a contrasting style that's better. In the end, either can be the answer.

And sometimes we even mis-identify what advantage the winner used -- for example, with OKC, was their difference-making special sauce really spacing? or was it defense? or was it SGA getting ridiculously favorable treatment by the refs? If they had been without any of those 3, would we have seen a different winner?

Don't forget that a year ago, it was BOS who had invented basketball. Millions of 3s. And now they are an afterthought. And a year prior to that, it was DEN who was unstoppable. A dominant big who is so versatile that he can't be stopped. And so on. It's been 8 different winners in the last 8 seasons.

Maybe OKC will repeat. They are the heavy favorite. Then again, recent history says next year's winning formula is still TBD.