Brian Scalabrine has become a popular meme in the NBA world, but he recently offered some interesting insight into the league's shift towards becoming more of a fast-paced, perimeter-oriented league.

In an interview with Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, the BIG3 star said that Mike D'Antoni's “Seven Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns teams were instrumental in changing the way that basketball is played.

“So playing against the Suns, I had Amare Stoudemire coming down the paint and Steve Nash was coming off the screen-and-roll. I was the help guy and Steve was staring right at me, looking to see which way I would move. I make a shift toward Boris Diaw at three-point line, Nash bounce-passes to Stoudemire and he dunks it. As I was running back on offense, I was thinking to myself, ‘That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.' I felt like I was completely at Steve Nash’s mercy.”

Similarly, Scalabrine iterated that the Orlando Magic would replicate this system later on in the decade:

“I’m guarding Rashard Lewis on the perimeter, Dwight Howard is rolling into the paint and you have to suck in so they don’t throw a lob to him, but then you have Rashard Lewis open and when they throw it out him, I’m on skates trying to close-out on him. Even if he misses the three or if Dwight Howard gets the ball and misses a jump-hook, that’s not a good stop, [you got lucky] against an unbelievable offensive possession that’s extremely difficult to guard.”

However, these two examples also involve elite big men (Stoudemire and Howard) that were both dominant and athletic post men in their prime, a player type the NBA lacked for years but has recently enjoyed a renaissance. Still, the ability for guys like Diaw and Lewis to play the role of “stretch four” is certainly a trend that has carried over into the next decade, where acquiring big men who can step out and shoot from beyond the arc has become a premium.