The Top 20 Centers In The NBA Today

Slightly less complicated than ranking the best centers in the NBA is determining who should and who shouldn’t be called a center.

In this faster, more fluid and more versatile NBA, where more coaches are using three-guard lineups and embracing “small ball,” players once pegged as power forwards are not only playing center, but they’re also admitting it. Yao Ming is out, Chris Bosh is in, and suddenly the stigma of the center as a lumbering behemoth quarantined to the low post is gone. Today’s centers – well, some of today’s centers – can run, jump, execute a crossover, stick a 20-foot jumper, and defend more than one position. They aren’t just the tallest of the tall basketball players. They’re athletes.

As part of Dime‘s 2012-13 season preview we’ve gone position by position, giving you the best players at each spot leading up to opening night. Check the links below for the point guards, shooting guards, small forwards and power forwards. Today, I’ll break down the top 20 centers in the league…

RELATED:
The Top 20 Point Guards In The NBA Today
The Top 20 Shooting Guards In The NBA Today
The Top 20 Small Forwards In The NBA Today
The Top 20 Power Forwards In The NBA Today

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20. ANDERSON VAREJAO, Cleveland Cavaliers
His shot is ugly. His stride is ugly. His hair is ugly. His I-didn’t-do-it face is ugly. But when I’m looking for my center to rebound, play defense, set screens, understand how to move without the ball, give hellacious effort every night, dive on the floor in an instant but stand his ground when it matters, I don’t need my center to be pretty. I need my center to be a guy like Varejao.

19. ANDREW BOGUT, Golden State Warriors
I do need my center to be on the court, though. I used to argue that Andrew Bynum wasn’t even the best center named “Andrew” in the 2005 Draft class, giving the nod to the routinely underrated Bogut, whose biggest flaw at the time was that he played in Milwaukee instead of Los Angeles. Thanks to Bynum’s vast improvement and Bogut’s collapsible body parts, that’s no longer the case. Since the beginning of the ’08-09 season, Bogut has played in just 58 percent of his teams’ regular-season games, missing 130 out of 312 games with various injuries.

18. BROOK LOPEZ, Brooklyn Nets
I also need my center to rebound. Among men who stand seven feet or taller, Lopez is one of the most talented scorers on the planet (19.2 ppg last season), but his mediocre defense and subpar rebounding drop him out of the top 10 on this list. After averaging more than eight boards a night in his first two years as a pro, Lopez grabbed only 5.9 per game in Year 3. Then in the handful of games he played last season between a broken foot and twisted ankle, Lopez gathered a paltry 3.6 boards. In theory, any basketball team has five players on the court perfectly capable of scoring 20 points a night. But only two are really in a realistic position to pull down 10 rebounds a night: the power forward and the center. So to me it’s less important that Lopez be a scorer and more important that he work the glass.

17. NIKOLA PEKOVIC, Minnesota Timberwolves
Meet the reason why, 1) Kevin Love will not lead the NBA in rebounding the next five years in a row, 2) Kevin Love can afford to roam around offensively and use his deadly three-point stroke to his advantage, and 3) Ricky Rubio will lead the league in assists someday. Pekovic is more of a throwback center, a 6-11, 290-pound grizzly bear with a soft touch around the basket. He finished third in the league in field goal percentage last season (.564) and first in offensive rebound percentage.

16. ANTHONY DAVIS, New Orleans Hornets
Why not rank the rookie this high this soon? Over the summer Davis held his own at the Olympics, and through six preseason games he’s averaging 13.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. Call them exhibition games if you want, but Davis has shown he can get it done against real-life NBA and top-level international competition. I think it’s safe to say the kid is going to be good.

15. JaVALE McGEE, Denver Nuggets
If you can average 8.6 points, 9.6 boards and 3.1 blocks in a seven-game series against a Lakers team with Bynum and Pau Gasol up front, I can live with a few blatant goaltending violations and the occasional ill-timed celebration. McGee added a noticeable amount of muscle over the summer, and even though he gets too much criticism for the bonehead stuff and not enough credit for the brilliant stuff, the Nuggets are wise enough to make him an important building block for their future.

14. MARCIN GORTAT, Phoenix Suns
After backing up Dwight Howard in Orlando and eating off Steve Nash‘s plate in Phoenix, this is the year for Gortat to prove he’s legit. My prediction? He’ll pass the test. You don’t accidentally fall into 15.4 points, 10 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

13. AL HORFORD, Atlanta Hawks
Josh Smith has been elected “The Man” in Atlanta following Joe Johnson‘s exit, but don’t underestimate Horford’s value to the franchise. After a torn pectoral muscle cost him almost all of last season, Horford returned in the playoffs and almost turned the Hawks-Celtics series around. Atlanta got blown out when Horford played limited minutes in Game 3, but when he was turned loose, the Hawks won Game 4 and lost Game 5 by only three points. Horford averaged 17 points, 10 boards, two blocks and 3.5 assists in those two games.

12. DeMARCUS COUSINS, Sacramento Kings
Going into his third pro season, three words still define DeMarcus Cousins (18.1 ppg, 11.0 rpg) as a basketball player. Talent. Potential. Headcase. One is a good guess. One is a misnomer. And one is undeniable. If you know the game, you know which one is which.

11. GREG MONROE, Detroit Pistons
Monroe is the kind of player that makes his fans feel smart. They know that even though Monroe (15.4 ppg, 9.7 rpg) averaged a mere 2.3 assists last season, he’s one of the best passing big men in basketball. They know that even though Monroe appears on the nightly highlight shows as often as Mitt Romney appears on Nickelodeon, he’s one of the league’s top rising talents. They know that even though Monroe has the all-around skills to be a perennial All-Star, his quiet personality and Detroit’s recent losing ways make him one of basketball’s best-kept secrets.

10. MARC GASOL, Memphis Grizzlies
Big Little Brother has officially arrived. Encouraged by his performance in the 2011 Playoffs, Memphis signed Gasol to a $58 million extension at the beginning of last season, and he went on to improve his numbers across the board from the previous year: 14.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.9 blocks. That earned Gasol his first All-Star berth, and then he helped lead Memphis back to the playoffs even though his frontline partner, Zach Randolph, was sidelined for much of the year with an injury.

Gasol’s low-post game is rugged, but with an awkward fluidity to it, reminiscent of Arvydas Sabonis after he hit his 30s. Gasol will take you apart with short hooks and powerful drives inside, stretch your defense with jump shots outside, and he’s a slick and accurate passer from anywhere on the court. He’s not the best scorer-rebounder on his team, not even the best scorer-rebounder in his family, but Marc is invaluable in giving the Grizzlies arguably the best frontcourt combination in the NBA.

9. ROY HIBBERT, Indiana Pacers
Another giant who had his professional breakout last season, Hibbert posted career-highs in scoring (12.8 ppg), rebounding (8.8 rpg), blocks (2.0 bpg) and field goal percentage (.497) while making his All-Star debut and helping the Pacers go two rounds deep in the postseason. He even surfaced on the pop culture radar, making two sitcom cameos on “Parks & Recreation.”

Hibbert has gotten better every year he’s been in the league and has proven to be durable. His biggest weakness is a knack for getting into foul trouble: Hibbert played fewer than 30 minutes per game last season, not because he’s out of shape but because he spent large chunks on the bench while the Pacers waited for a safe time to put him back on the court. When he did top 30 minutes per game in the playoffs, Hibbert posted 11.7 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.

It sounds awfully simple. The more Hibbert is on the court, the higher he’ll climb on lists like this, and the closer Indiana will climb to an Eastern Conference title.

8. AL JEFFERSON, Utah Jazz
We’ve reached the point where Jefferson has been underrated for so long by casual fans that he’s become overrated by the experts as a form of overcompensation. It’s actually been that way for a while now. But that’s what happens when an old-school, back-to-the-basket center plays his best years in Minnesota and Utah and his name isn’t Garnett or The Mailman.

So how good is Al Jefferson? The truth, as usual, resides somewhere in the middle. Jefferson (19.2 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 1.7 bpg) might be the most technically sound low-post scorer in the league, possessing an instruction manual’s worth of moves and counter-moves to get his shot against any defender. He’s a ground-bound defender with good enough timing to block the shots of opposing centers and point guards alike just as they leave the shooter’s hand rather than plucking them out of the sky like Dwight Howard or Serge Ibaka. He’s a 27-year-old veteran who just got his first taste of significant playoff action last year, and should use that humbling experience (a first-round sweep at the hands of Tim Duncan and San Antonio) to make himself even better this year.

7. JOAKIM NOAH, Chicago Bulls
Noah has been miscast by many as a defensive specialist with no offensive game; misinterpreted by others as a half-crazy Rodman reincarnation without the self-destructive side. The truth is that Noah is in impact player on both ends of the court with a sky-high basketball IQ that is overshadowed only by his boundless energy.

It’s no coincidence that Noah (10.2 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 1.4 bpg) tends to be in the right place at the right time to make the right play, defensively and offensively. He finds the right blend of being aggressive while also letting the game come to him. That knowledge puts him in position for enough easy buckets to satisfy the scoring responsibilities of his job, but after spending part of this summer reportedly working with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Noah may be moving his game in the direction of putting points on the board when he forces the issue.

6. TYSON CHANDLER, New York Knicks
When was the last time a center won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award while averaging fewer than 10 rebounds and fewer than two blocks per game? It had never happened before Chandler (11.3 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 1.4 bpg) did it last season on his way to an All-NBA Third Team selection. Is that bit of history a damning indictment on the sorry state of the traditional big man in today’s game? A testament to the marketing power of playing for the Knicks? Maybe. But I’d like to think of it as an example of enough voters recognizing Chandler’s impact on defense as being something more than boards and blocks.

At 30 years old, Chandler goes into his 12th pro season coming off a third straight taxing yet profitable summer. He won a World Championship with Team USA in 2010, made an NBA title run with the Mavericks in 2011, then won an Olympic gold medal in 2012.

And what is it about his game that puts him in position to enjoy these long summers? Chandler is a 7-1 defensive master who plays within his offensive limitations. He doesn’t need any plays run for him when putbacks and alley-oops off the pick-and-roll will do. And while he’s not a go-to scorer, he is a good free throw shooter, meaning he’s not an offensive liability come crunch time. Chandler’s role in New York is fortifying a frontline that features two noted defensive liabilities in Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. In that sense, Chandler might be the Knicks’ real MVP.

5. ANDREW BYNUM, Philadelphia 76ers
Though it’s been taken as gospel by now that Bynum is no worse than the second-best center in the league – and some of the most avid Dwight Howard critics would argue that Bynum is No. 1 overall – I’m still waiting to see how Bynum plays when he’s not in the protective cradle of L.A.

How will Bynum (18.7 ppg, 11.8 rpg, 1.9 bpg) perform when he’s the No. 1 option in Philly? When there’s no Kobe Bryant or Pau Gasol to defer to? When he has to be the man expected to deliver instead of the kid still full of potential?

It goes beyond just getting the ball more often and taking more shots. There’s a pressure that comes with being the face of the franchise, with being the focal point of every opponent’s game plans, with being the hope of a city that is hungry for a championship team and hasn’t eaten since 1983.

Can Bynum, for all of his obvious talent, handle that pressure on his suspect knees? If my criteria for ranking the players on this list were picking one center for one game, Bynum would rank higher. If it were that I’m picking one center to build around for the next five years, Bynum would rank higher. But my criteria is that I’m picking somebody to roll with for an entire season, the 2012-13 season, in which I’m trying to win a championship. And as good as Bynum is and as good as he can be, there are a few guys I would trust more right now to handle that responsibility.

4. CHRIS BOSH, Miami Heat
Why Bosh over Bynum? For starters, if we’re just gauging pure basketball talent, Bosh gets the nod. He has more range on his shot, more ballhandling skill, he can defend multiple positions, can run the floor faster, and is a good rebounder and dynamic scorer in the post.

Bosh (18.0 ppg, 7.9 rpg) has been handed that aforementioned pressure of being No. 1, and he succeeded, dating back to his time with the Raptors. And then he was able to adjust his game and become a champion with the Heat. This year the natural power forward will be playing center, and without too many Shaqs on the landscape to throw him around, Bosh will be one of the best in the league.

3. KEVIN GARNETT, Boston Celtics
The only player on this list who could’ve played five positions in his prime, KG approaches the end of his career playing center. Why? Because the Celtics need him to, and if you don’t remember anything else about Garnett, remember that he has always been an exemplary team player.

Moving between the four and the five, KG averaged 15.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and one block last regular season. Playing primarily center in Boston’s playoff run that ended one game short of the NBA Finals, KG bumped those numbers to 19.2 points, 10.3 boards and 1.5 blocks – almost identical to his career averages. Now that Brandon Bass has matured into a starting four, Garnett will open this season as Boston’s center. He’ll still quarterback the defense, still hit those top-of-the-key jumpers, still lead the occasional fast break. He’ll still be KG. And KG is still a player you want on your team if you’re aiming for a championship.

2. TIM DUNCAN, San Antonio Spurs
“The Greatest Power Forward Of All Time” turned out to be more of a nickname than an accurate label, because as Gregg Popovich admitted during last year’s playoffs, the Spurs have been playing Tim Duncan at center for the last 15 years. So is he the Greatest Center Of All Time? Even me and my extreme Duncan bias wouldn’t go that far … but I could.

Everybody knows Duncan is nearing the end of the road as a player, and yet nobody can erase him from the list of the league’s elite – regardless of position – and nobody can write off Duncan’s Spurs as a championship contender. He averaged 15.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks last season, a decline from the 20-11-2 he used to put up on autopilot, and perhaps those numbers will dip again this season. But if I’m putting together a team today and I want a center I can count on for a championship run? Duncan is the pick over almost everyone.

1. DWIGHT HOWARD, Los Angeles Lakers
He’s not only the best center of his era, but Howard should be considered among the best of all time by now. Seriously. The worst thing you can say about Howard is that he hasn’t had great competition at his position, and to that I’d give the same answer I give when people try to downplay Roy Jones Jr. or the Klitschko brothers’ place in boxing history: He can only beat who they put in front of him.

First of all, today’s centers are not that bad. Second, it’s entirely possible that Dwight Howard’s competition has been made to look so bad because Dwight Howard is so good.

In what turned out to be his final year in Orlando, Howard averaged 20.6 points, 14.5 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.5 steals per game last season. He made 57.3 percent of his field goals, led the league in rebounding and was named to the All-Defensive First Team again. And yet anybody who paid any attention will tell you that it was a down year for Howard. In a season full of injuries, distractions, disappointment and an eventual divorce from the only franchise and city he’s ever known as a pro, Dwight was still head and shoulders above the competition. He still put up numbers and earned accolades that Moses Malone, Bill Walton and Hakeem Olajuwon would’ve been happy to produce in their playing days.

Now that he’s in L.A., now that he can be happy and unburdened for a little bit while playing for a team that doesn’t need him to score 20 a night and has a realistic shot at a title, how high will he fly? Remember, when Howard entered the NBA as a teenager, he wasn’t expected to be a big-time scorer. He was a rebounder and shotblocker who could dominate a game without being the offensive focal point. Today he has eight years of offensive-focal-point experience under his belt, he’s just 26 years old, and he’s only had one significant injury in his career.

Truth is, we may not have seen the best of Dwight Howard yet. But what we have already seen is better than anybody else in the game right now.

Do you agree?

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