For years, the NBA was dominated by the big man. Size was everything if you were building a team, and your star player wasn't a big man, you were doing something wrong. Going back to 1984, the year Michael Jordan was drafted, no one believed that he could be the savior for the Chicago Bulls because he was a 6'6" guard and not some 7'0" giant. MJ flipped that narrative and slowly started trend of guards and forwards being able to be stars too.
This trend continued to progress into what we know today as positionless basketball. Many different fads had happened, like the small ball era, where every team was trying to have maximum spacing by not playing a center. And while size still had its place in NBA history, as double big duos like Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon for the Rockets and David Robinson and Tim Duncan for the Spurs dominated. It was a trend that was fully fazed out until one team brought it back.
On February 20th, 2017, the Sacramento Kings traded DeMarcus Cousins and Omri Casspi to the Pelicans for Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, and a 2017 first-round and second-round pick.
This trade paired Cousins with Pelicans star Anthony Davis and brought back a concept the NBA hadn't seen in over 15 years. During this time, small ball was a massive trend as most teams were scaling their lineups down to create more spacing. However, the Pelicans did the exact opposite with this deal by pairing the league's two most skilled big men. While this trend didn't necessarily catch on right away, it foreshadowed the future of the NBA.
The Cousins and AD duo finger prints are all over the modern NBA
In today's game, every team is trying to get as much size as possible in their lineup, as it creates unfair mismatches that are easy to expose. During the 2024-25 season, the two teams that finished with the top two records in the league both used double big man lineups.
The Cavs, who won 64 games, used a double big tandem of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. These two giants dominated the paint on both ends and were a huge reason why Cleveland had as good a year as they did.
The same thing goes for the Thunder, who won 68 games last season and the NBA finals, running a duo of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. While OKC does have the reigning MVP of the league in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the threat that both of their bigs caused, especially on the defensive end, was crucial to their success.
We will likely never see a duo like AD and Boogie again
While the trend of double big is slowly coming back to the NBA through the Cavs and the Thunder, it's likely fair to say we aren't ever going to get a tandem better than AD and Boogie. Even though the Cousins tore his Achilles, resulting in this duo only playing 48 games together, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch. At the time the trade happened, there was no dispute. These two were the league's best two bigs, and they got to team up.
They were regularly posting 30+ point, 20+ rebound games, and opponents didn't have an answer. If it weren't for injuries, I seriously believe they could have knocked off the Warriors.
While it's disappointing that it was such a short stint, it is also important to remember that not only did this duo predict the future of the NBA, but it was also something we'll likely never see again.