It's no secret that the NBA is a copycat league, meaning that whatever a successful team does well, other teams will try their damndest to replicate it. This often leads to trends in the way the game is played.
Whereas the early 2000s relied on the stellar play of big men like Tim Duncan , Shaquille O'Neal, and Kevin Garnett , the 2010s marked a pivotal era that saw Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors weaponize the three-point shot and revolutionize the league.
It was around this time that Milwaukee Bucks big man Myles Turner entered the league and saw firsthand how this shift in play made traditional, back-to-the-basket big men extinct.
With the Warriors winning it all in 2015 using a perimeter-oriented style that maximized the skills of their spectacular backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson , teams immediately sought to ride that wave by targeting big men who could stretch the floor and give their teammates more space to work with.
Turner fit that description to a tee. Standing at 6-foot-11, he was blessed with a smooth shooting stroke and an impressive ability to knock down shots from the perimeter.
"It's a very trendy league. When I first got into the league, bro, bigs weren't really shooting threes like that. There was maybe a couple of forwards out there stretching the floor," he said .
"But bro, I came in the league, it was me, Karl Towns, Kristaps Porzingis — like we were really the bigs. I throw Bobby Portis in there. We in the same draft class. We were the bigs that kind of started stretching the floor, like the wave of the big right there," he added.
Unfortunately, the arrival of big men with perimeter shooting skills, such as Turner, has also led to a decline in traditional post play. With teams placing more value on floor spacing and three-point shooting, the low-post game has become diminished, and as a result, back-to-the-basket players like Al Jefferson , Jahlil Okafor and Greg Monroe have become less relevant.
"So it pushed out the guys like the Al Jeffersons of the world. Like, you know, I came in with Jahlil Okafor, he was more of like, you know, a back-to-the-basket type of big. Those guys kind of became extinct because you had to be able to, one, guard at a high level, and two, be able to stretch the floor," Myles explained. "When I first got to the league, it was the Golden State Warriors rush. Everybody wanted to shoot threes. Everybody wanted to kind of play fast. So it ran bigs off the floor."
Jefferson was a burly 6'10" big man who had a soft touch around the basket. A legitimate double-double machine and All-NBA Team member during the 2013-14 season, he was already out of the NBA four seasons later.
The same can be said for Okafor, who was the third pick of the 2015 NBA Draft. Despite a promising start, the 6'10" center couldn't find his footing in the league and has bounced around to five different teams.
The league has gone through several trends since the 2010s. As the Warriors stacked the deck by loading up on numerous MVPs and All-Stars, teams around the league tried to follow that blueprint.
"It was everybody had to get all-stars. Everybody wanted all-stars on the same team. You know what I mean? Everybody wanted the super teams and whatnot. Then that fizzled out," Turner noted.
It's undeniable, though, that the NBA is thriving in the pace-and-space era. Turner should know, as he and his former team, the Indiana Pacers , rode that wave to the NBA Finals and came within a win away from hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy.
"The way we played in Indiana last year… the league's starting to get back to that. Playing fast. Guys playing fast. Guys are picking up full court. Guys are guarding. Guys are playing smaller now," Turner pointed out. "So yeah, bro, it's a very trendy league. And whoever wins a championship, honestly, that's usually where it goes to."
With the reigning champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder , setting the bar high with their balanced roster led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , it will be interesting to see how teams adjust and evolve in the coming years. The pace-and-space style may continue to dominate, but there will always be teams that find success with a different approach.
Related: Myles Turner sides with the old heads in cross-era scoring comparisons
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 5, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
