Listen closely to a modern NBA game and the old sound is back.
Not the slow, dusty version. Not a center pounding the ball while four teammates stare from the arc. This version moves fast. A big seals. The entry pass drops. A second big slides behind the help. One defender turns his head, and the possession is already gone.
That is The Post Entry Revival in its cleanest form.
For a decade, the league treated the post up like a flip phone in a smartphone world. Spread the floor. Pull the big away from the rim. Let a guard drag defenders through pick and roll math. That shift made sense. Bad post touches deserved to vanish.
Then the playoffs got tight.
Switches swallowed first actions. Smaller defenders fronted bigger players. Help rotations arrived early. Suddenly, the old paint touch had a new job: not to slow the game down, but to force the defense to show its hand.
Big to big passing is back because the smartest teams stopped using the post as a dead end. They turned it into a trapdoor.
The post touch got leaner and nastier
For years, everyone watched the raw post up numbers fall and assumed the play had lost its value.
The truth was sharper than that.
The bad post up died. The useful one survived.
A center no longer gets the ball just to prove he can back down for eight seconds. Coaches want the catch to start movement. The ball goes inside. The defense pinches. A cutter flashes. The second big dives from the dunker spot. A shooter lifts from the corner.
One catch creates four decisions.
NBA tracking has shown for several seasons that traditional post volume no longer drives the league the way it once did. Synergy Sports has also separated basic post scoring from post playmaking often enough to make the larger point clear: the first shot is not always the prize. The pass after the catch often hurts more.
That is where The Post Entry Revival lives.
It does not ask the league to return to mud. It asks teams to use size with purpose. The big man catches. The defense reacts. The next pass punishes the reaction.
Simple. Brutal. Modern.
Why the second big became dangerous again
Modern defenses switch to kill the advantage before the action grows teeth.
That works against lazy spacing. It works when the offense has one ball handler and four stationary teammates. It works when the second big cannot shoot, pass, screen or cut with timing.
Against a smart frontcourt, the switch can turn into bait.
A passer catches at the elbow. A finisher waits near the baseline. The weak side defender peeks at the ball. The passer sees the shoulders turn. The cutter goes. The ball arrives before the defense can yell its way out of trouble.
That is not nostalgia. That is geometry with elbows.
The formula asks for three things. One big must pass without rushing. Another big must move with force. The floor still needs enough shooting to keep defenders honest.
Miss one piece, and two big lineups turn heavy. Nail all three, and they become a problem the defense cannot solve with one coverage.
That is why The Post Entry Revival keeps showing up in different forms. Denver runs it like a language. Miami hides it inside movement. Oklahoma City is building a newer version around length, speed and grown man screening.
The common thread stays the same: size only matters when it moves the defense.
The ten blueprints behind the return
10. Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City did not add Isaiah Hartenstein to cosplay as a 1990s team.
The Thunder signed him in July 2024 on a three year, $87 million deal, and NBA.com’s transaction coverage made the message obvious. Oklahoma City wanted more than a backup center. It wanted muscle, screening, rebounding and another frontcourt passer next to Chet Holmgren.
That timeline matters.
Hartenstein and Holmgren do not have years of playoff tape together. They are not Jokić and Gordon with a championship scar tissue bank. They represent the next stage of the idea: a young contender adding a bruising connector without giving up speed.
The fit still jumps off the film.
Shai Gilgeous Alexander bends the first defender. Hartenstein catches in the pocket. Holmgren waits on the weak side, arms long, defender ball watching. One pass can turn a normal rotation into a layup.
Basketball Reference credited Hartenstein with 2.5 assists per game for the Knicks in 2023 to 2024, a strong number for a center who rarely owned the offense. The eye test says even more. He does not need fancy passes. He needs the right one at the right time.
For Oklahoma City, The Post Entry Revival does not mean slowing down. It means adding a half court answer when the playoffs make every first option harder.
9. Bam Adebayo and Miami’s movement maze
Nothing in Miami’s offense arrives clean.
Bodies collide. Shooters curl. Defenders trail handoffs with a hand on the jersey. Somewhere in the middle, Bam Adebayo catches the ball and decides who gets punished.
Adebayo’s passing does not always look like classic post work. That is the point. He catches at the elbow, turns into a dribble handoff hub, hits cutters and keeps Miami’s half court offense from turning stale.
NBA.com’s player data has long treated Bam as one of the league’s busier frontcourt hubs. His box score assists never fully capture the job. Many of Miami’s best possessions start with him touching the ball, screening with his chest and forcing a defender to chase through traffic.
Add another frontcourt player, and the fit only works if that player moves.
A second big cannot park in the lane and suffocate the spacing. He has to screen, duck in, cut behind the help and crash at the right time. Miami makes that work through motion, not decoration.
This version of The Post Entry Revival has sweat on it. It is not pretty for the sake of being pretty. Bam catches, the defense leans, and Miami starts pulling on the loose thread.
8. Alperen Şengün and Houston’s backbone
During the early rebuild, Houston had athletes everywhere and direction nowhere.
Alperen Şengün changed the tone.
He gave the Rockets a hub with footwork, nerve and a little streetball mischief. Şengün catches on the block and lets the defender get nervous first. One shoulder fake. One pivot. One pause. Then the pass slips to a cutter before the help can recover.
ESPN’s player data from the 2023 to 2024 season listed Şengün at 21.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. That is the statistical shape of a true offensive center, not just a big body near the rim.
Houston does not merely throw him the ball to score. It throws him the ball to organize the possession.
That matters for big to big passing.
A teammate near the dunker spot becomes useful when Şengün has the ball. He can hold the defense with his eyes, bait a dig from the wing and drop the pass into the paint. The second big stops being a clog. He becomes a threat.
There is real personality in it too. Şengün does not play like a spreadsheet learned footwork. He plays like he knows the defender has already guessed wrong.
The league needs that. The Post Entry Revival cannot survive on diagrams alone. Someone has to make the gym laugh when a no look pass leaves a defender spinning.
7. Draymond Green and Golden State’s split action bones
Golden State never buried the post touch. The Warriors disguised it with movement until half the league forgot what powered the machine.
Draymond Green catches at the elbow or on the block. Stephen Curry cuts around him. A screener clips a defender. Another big dives. The pass leaves Draymond’s hands before the defense finishes pointing.
That action built championship possessions.
Draymond’s numbers never told the whole story. His value lived in timing. He saw the overplay on Curry. As he saw the defender hugging Klay Thompson. He saw the big sitting one step too high. Then he hit the cutter before the window looked open to anyone else.
Kevon Looney helped make that work because he understood spacing without needing jump shots. He screened. He ducked in. Also, he rebounded. He made himself useful in the dirty areas where pretty offenses often get shoved.
That is big to big basketball inside a guard driven dynasty.
The Warriors proved a passing big could become championship infrastructure. Not a gimmick. Not a cute regular season toy. A foundation.
Any serious story of The Post Entry Revival has to stop in San Francisco. The Warriors made the post touch modern by refusing to let it stand still.
6. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez, Milwaukee Bucks
Milwaukee’s version arrives with shoulder pads.
Giannis Antetokounmpo bends the floor with force. Brook Lopez bends it with size, shooting and deep seals. Put them together, and the defense starts arguing with itself.
If Lopez drags the rim protector above the break, Giannis sees daylight. Also, if a smaller defender hides on Lopez, Milwaukee can throw the ball inside and ask that defender to survive. If help comes, the next pass opens.
That is the quiet value of big to big pressure. The threat changes the coverage before the actual pass happens.
Giannis does not need to pass like Jokić. He needs to draw two bodies and make the simple read on time. Lopez does not need to move like a wing. He needs to seal hard, catch cleanly and punish small defenders who get stuck behind him.
Milwaukee also shows the danger of doing this halfway.
Bad spacing turns two bigs into traffic. Good spacing turns them into a vice. Lopez’s shooting keeps the lane from getting packed. Giannis’ rim pressure forces the defense to pack it anyway.
That contradiction hurts.
In a league obsessed with stretch lineups, the Bucks keep reminding teams that size still counts when it comes with a plan.
5. LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
One of the Lakers’ bigs happens to be LeBron James, which makes the whole thing unfair and slightly ridiculous.
Position labels have never survived him for long. Put LeBron in the post, and he becomes a power forward with point guard software. Put Anthony Davis near the rim, and the defense has to protect the lob, the dump off, the offensive glass and the foul line at the same time.
When those two click, the opposing defense remembers how demoralizing Lakers size can be.
The action can look basic. LeBron backs down on the left block. Davis waits near the baseline. The weak side defender turns his head toward the ball. Davis cuts behind him, and LeBron drops the pass into the space only Davis can reach.
No circus. No wasted dribble. Just two stars using size and vision like a crowbar.
Davis gives the action its bite because he catches passes most bigs cannot touch. Throw it high, and he climbs. Dump it low, and he gathers. Rotate late, and he gets to the line.
This is the star powered branch of The Post Entry Revival. The Lakers do not need to run it every trip. They only need to show it enough to make the defense hesitate.
Against LeBron and Davis, hesitation usually costs two points.
4. Domantas Sabonis and Sacramento’s handoff storm
Sacramento’s offense breathes through Domantas Sabonis.
He catches high. He pivots into handoffs. Also, he screens, re screens and flips passes to cutters when defenders chase the ball instead of guarding bodies. The Kings do not use him as a bailout. They use him as the traffic light.
Sacramento’s own All NBA announcement for 2023 to 2024 listed Sabonis at 19.4 points, 13.7 rebounds and 8.2 assists while shooting 59.4 percent. That stat line tells the story of a frontcourt engine, not a role player keeping the ball warm.
His big to big value comes from constant motion.
A frontcourt partner can screen down, slip, seal after a switch or crash from the weak side. Sabonis keeps the ball alive long enough for those cuts to matter. He rarely throws passes that beg for a replay angle. He throws the pass that gets there first.
Sacramento also answers one lazy criticism of two big basketball.
The problem is not always size. The problem is stillness.
Sabonis does not allow stillness. He drags the possession into contact, movement and second reads. Defenders have to fight his body and solve the play at the same time.
That gets tiring fast.
3. Joel Embiid and Philadelphia’s pressure point
Before Joel Embiid even catches the ball, somebody already looks uncomfortable.
His defender leans into him early. A wing shades down from the strong side. The official watches the forearms. The crowd senses the foul trouble coming.
A normal entry pass becomes a stress test.
Embiid gives The Post Entry Revival a different shape because his scoring gravity creates the passing window. He does not have to operate like Jokić. He terrifies defenses in another way. Send help, and he can find the cutter. Stay home, and he can bury the matchup.
Timing decides everything around him.
A second big or cutter moves too early, and the lane clogs. Move too late, and the double team has already trapped the ball. Hit the window, and the defense gives up either a layup or a foul.
NBA scoring data has placed Embiid among the league’s most devastating post scorers and foul drawers in the modern game. That threat bends coverage even when the pass never comes.
Some bigs pass because they cannot score.
Embiid passes because everyone in the building knows he can.
That difference matters. His version of the revival comes from fear first, finesse second. Either way, the defense still has to pay.
2. Karl Anthony Towns Rudy Gobert and Minnesota’s size bet
Minnesota made the league take big lineups seriously again.
For a while, the two big idea carried baggage. Too slow. Too cramped. Also, too easy to drag into space. Then the Timberwolves leaned into Karl Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and a larger identity, and opponents had to deal with all that length for 48 minutes.
The 2023 to 2024 Timberwolves won 56 games and reached the Western Conference finals, giving the experiment more than regular season credibility. That run mattered because it challenged a lazy assumption that serious playoff teams had to get smaller to survive.
This version does not always look elegant.
Sometimes the spacing gets tight. Also, sometimes the read comes late. Sometimes the possession needs a second effort instead of a clean diagram. That does not make it worthless. It makes it physical.
Towns can catch above the break, at the elbow or in the post and make the next pass. Gobert can seal, screen, roll and live near the rim. When help defenders cheat too far toward the ball, one seven footer can find the other before the defense resets.
That is not Jokić and Gordon poetry. It is a size bet with bruises.
The Timberwolves changed the conversation because they showed two bigs could still work if the defense, rebounding and quick reads supported the structure. They did not chase small ball just because the rest of the league said they had to.
That matters for The Post Entry Revival.
Not every blueprint needs to look smooth. Some work because they make opponents feel small, tired and trapped under the rim.
1. Nikola Jokić and Aaron Gordon, Denver Nuggets
Denver owns the cleanest version.
Nikola Jokić and Aaron Gordon did not just make big to big passing useful. They made it look obvious, which might be the hardest trick in basketball.
Jokić catches. Gordon waits along the baseline. A defender looks at the ball for one beat too long. The pass floats into the space behind him, and Gordon is already climbing.
During Denver’s 2023 title run, Basketball Reference had Jokić at 30.0 points, 13.5 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game in the playoffs. The box score captured the control. It did not capture the embarrassment.
Jokić does not pass to where Gordon stands. He passes to where Gordon’s defender is about to lose.
That is the whole secret.
Gordon cuts with trust, not hope. He knows the ball will come if he gives Jokić an angle. Baseline cuts, high low seals, slips behind switches, soft lobs over the top. Denver turns all of it into routine punishment.
The 2023 championship run stamped that partnership into the league’s memory. The Nuggets punished switches. They punished ball watching. They punished panic. Defenses built smart plans, then Jokić and Gordon made those plans look a half second slow.
This is The Post Entry Revival at its best.
Old idea. Modern spacing. Championship proof.
A center catches. A forward cuts. Shooters hold the floor. The defense chooses wrong.
The next pass will decide the trend
The old NBA is not coming back, and nobody needs it to.
Nobody should want 30 dead post touches, three frozen shooters and a center trying to win a wrestling match on every trip. That game had charm. It also had sludge.
This version asks for more skill and less patience from the defense.
The big has to catch and read fast. The second big has to cut with timing, screen with force and finish through contact. The guards still matter because shooting gives the whole action air. Without spacing, the post becomes crowded. With spacing, it becomes a pressure point.
That is the real future of The Post Entry Revival.
Young centers now grow up watching Jokić turn the elbow into a control room. Power forwards learn short roll passes earlier. Coaches who spent years chasing smaller lineups now understand that two bigs can work if both of them make the defense move.
The question has changed.
Nobody serious should ask whether the post up is dead. That argument ran out of oxygen.
The better question comes in the postseason, when switches erase the first option, whistles tighten, legs get heavy and every jumper carries more weight.
Who has a big calm enough to catch the ball, read the help and make the pass that breaks the coverage?
The next title race may answer that with one quiet cut behind the defense.
Read Also: The Foul Trouble Economy: Why One Early Whistle Changes an NBA Series
FAQs
1. Why is big-to-big passing coming back in the NBA?
A1. Teams use it to punish switches and weak-side help. A skilled big catches, reads fast and finds another big near the rim.
2. What does The Post Entry Revival mean?
A2. It means the post touch has changed. Teams now use it to start movement, not slow the game down.
3. Who is the best example of modern big-to-big passing?
A3. Nikola Jokić and Aaron Gordon remain the cleanest example. Denver turns their timing into easy cuts, lobs and high-low chances.
4. Why do two-big lineups work again?
A4. They work when both bigs move and make quick reads. If one only stands still, the spacing gets heavy fast.
5. Is the old post-up coming back?
A5. Not really. The slow post-up is still mostly gone. The smarter version is back, and it moves much faster.
