I'm beginning to think it's not so much the traditional big that is going away. It's the mediocre big. In some cases certain mediocre bigs are being replaced by different mediocre bigs. Like instead of Sully the league has KO.
I think there is something to this.
It seems kind of wrong that a player like Anthony Tolliver -- basically just a spot up specialist -- can hang around in the league forever, while physically gifted and skilled power forwards without a 3 point shot regularly fall out of rotations, or out of the league entirely.
In a lot of ways, a team is probably better off with somebody like Mirza Teletovic simply hanging out in the corner, instead of trying to make it work with somebody like Thaddeus Young or Derrick Favors.
It feels like there ought to be a place in the league for Kenneth Faried to play more than 20 minutes for a bad team, but right now, there really isn't.
That does seem like a problem. Ideally the game would favor the most talented players seeing the most floor time, but the power forward position seems to have reached a point where if you can't have an athletic skilled swing man (e.g. Jayson Tatum) or an all-around big man (e.g. Anthony Davis), you'd be better off just parking a 6'8-6'10'' spot up shooter at that spot who won't totally kill you defensively.