Where have all the big men gone?

Recently a friend of mine was arguing with me about why Duke is not going to go undefeated this year, or even win the National Championship. 

His reasoning. "They have no dominant big man!!"
My rebuttle:  "They didnt have one last year and look how they did"

That got me thinking.  Years ago you needed a dominant low-post threat to win.  Last year Duke's three best players were all either guards or point-forwards (Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler, and John Scheyer)  So what changed? 

I think the way players play the game has changed.  Players that were normally not allowed to leave the low-post can now shoot 3's and shoot them well.  The past few years players like Kevin Love, Kevin Pittsnogle, and Austin Daye have proved that now no matter how tall you are, you can still have a sily stroke that is good from downtown.  Tall kids now a days are spindly thin and instead of getting in the weight room  to bulk up so they can bang down low, they work on their outside shot so they can be more "versatile".  They are taking the way out of trying to improve their stroke instead of getting big and becoming a bigger force in the paint.  I think the NBA with players over 6'10 like Dirk Nowitzki and Channing Frye being able to fire bomb from all over the court has had an influence on the tall players of America.  They would rather shoot like Kevin Durant and play outside then bang inside like Dwight Howard. 

I also think that the speed of the game has changed.  Players like John Wall and Kyrie Irving, and Darren Collison get up the court so fast that the big men either have to be in great shape to run with them, straddle behind and not get their touches, or stay out on the wing.  Scoring has gone up from what it was just 10 years ago, and it is because the game has sped up.  Shooting percentages are similar to what they were 10 years ago but the amount of shots taken has gone up because teams are now flying up the court and getting to the hoop quicker.  This has turned the attention from getting the ball down in the low post to the big man to having the guards get in the lane to either shoot kick out to a shooter on the wing, and give the ball to the big man down on the post.  That has greatly decreased the amount of touches a big man gets during the game. 

So between improved conditioning and the player not hitting the weight room is often so they can perfect their shooting touch, those are the two main reasons why the game of basketball has evolved into what it is today.  Still a beautiful thing, just a different type of beautiful.