🏀 Are Modern Bigs Too Soft or Just Smarter?

 

Let’s keep it 💯 for a second.

Back in the day?
Shaq was bullying dudes out the paint.
Hakeem was footwork wizardry.
Garnett was talking trash while blocking your shot.

Fast forward to 2025, and you’ve got bigs:

  • Shooting threes like guards

  • Avoiding post-up battles

  • Playing high pick-and-roll defense instead of anchoring the paint

And people LOVE to say:

“Bigs are SOFT now. No one wants to bang inside anymore.”

But… are they actually soft?
Or just smarter?

🧠 The Modern Big: A Different Breed

Giannis is a freight train in transition.
Embiid hits step-back midranges like a 6’2 guard.
AD lives off pick & pops.
Alperen runs an offense like he’s f***ing Jokic’s little brother.

Spacing is the name of the game now.
Teams want 5 guys who can shoot or drive.

So why would a 7-footer go crash into three bodies under the rim when he can:

  • pop out for an open three,

  • drag the center out of the paint, and

  • punish switches with face-up drives?

That’s not soft.
That’s basketball IQ.

🤕 Health & Longevity Matter Too

Let’s be real —
post-ups are brutal on the body.

Shaq, Dwight, Yao… they didn’t exactly age gracefully.

The modern big knows:
if you wanna play 15+ years, you pick your battles.

So Giannis euro-steps around contact.
AD lives off finesse midranges (plus… his body can’t take that pounding anyway).
Embiid mixes it up, but you can see he saves energy for 4th quarters.

🐐 What Would Shaq Think?

Shaq would call ‘em “soft cupcakes.”

But bro… Shaq also got swept multiple times before he finally cracked it with Kobe.

The league changed.
Spacing killed the paint.
Rules killed hand-checks.

If you dropped Shaq in 2025, he’d dominate… but he’d probably shoot 2 threes a game just because analytics told him to. 🤷

💬 My Take?

Nah man, bigs ain’t soft.
They’re just playing smarter.

In 2025, it’s all about:

  • staying healthy,

  • exploiting matchups,

  • and stretching the floor.

And that’s how you win rings today.
No more grind-it-out 85-80 slugfests.
It’s 128-122 shootouts.

I kinda miss the old school wars…
but I also love seeing a 7-footer hit a step-back three in crunch time.

🔥 What do YOU think?

Are modern bigs soft?
Or just smarter than ever?

Drop your thoughts below 👇
I wanna see who’s living in the past — and who’s evolved.

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