In light of that Hickson thread, I was curious. There appears to be a serious lack of Center talent out there. These guys stand out a bit, but I get lost in the mediocre maze.... DeMarcus Cousins Andrew Bynum Tyson Chandler Dwight Howard Marc Gasol Chris Kaman Andrew Bogut What say you?
Kaman and Bogut are decent when healthy, but very injury prone. Brook Lopez is the worst rebounding 7-footer this side of Andrea Bargnani. Marvin Gortat should be top 5. He averaged 15.4/10.0 and 1.5 BLK last season and had a 16 pt, 16 reb, 3 BLK game last night. Al Jefferson is a double-double machine. I'd put him ahead of Kaman, Bogut and Lopez on durability alone. BNM
I know TrueHoop keeps blathering on about this kind of thing, but it does seem like the positions are changing in basketball. Kevin Garnett starts at C for the Celtics. Chris Bosh starts at C for the Heat. Is Battier their PF or SF? Which is LeBron? Carmelo Anthony is WAY better at PF than SF. All the PFs are going to C and the PFs to SF. And the two top scorers in the Sac-Minny game were under 5'10"... Of course, Dwight Howard is only 6'9", and Big Ben was shorter. The days of Robinson-Ewing-Olajuwon-Shaq are long gone.
I think after Howard and Bynum, you just have another tier of centers. Ranking them is like splitting hairs. You've got Cousins, Gasol, Hibbert, and Chandler (though he is definitely overrated in general). I think you could also throw Andrew Bogut in their if he weren't always injured or recovering from an injury, but the fact that that's becoming his identity makes me want to leave him out of the discussion. I'd also be hesitant to include Lopez in the group, because at his stature, his rebounding is pathetic. Even in tonight's win, he had a great offensive performance but only 5 rebounds. With his size, athleticism, and playing time, you can luck into 5 rebounds.
Most of Shaq's career. Mutombo and Ben Wallace constantly made 2nd and 3rd team all-NBA in spite of having no offensive skills. Wallace made 2nd team all-NBA while averaging 6.9 ppg. BNM
