Rank: top5 centers in the NBA not named Bynum/Dwight

[Pointguard]

Contrary to popular belief, Demarcus Cousins isn't ever going to be anything better than an average center.

Pekovich or whatever his name is, is really underrated.

DMC is already 18 and 11 in his second year. It took Bynum six years to get to his current status of 19 and 12. DMC doesn't even have his confidence up yet. Offensively, if he gets his confidence up he's easily going to score more than DH and Bynum. He's not average now and will average 12 or more boards for awhile. He does seem problematic but his ball handling and natural moves are vastly superior to DH's.

[Suckafree]

Horford really isn't that good.

[jalbert009]

and FYI: gasol, KG, B. Griffin are NOT centers. Gasol is probably the closest at 7'0 but his lack of upper body strength (he has some, but lacking compared to legit NBA center standards) has him naturally playing the 4 instead of the 5. KG and Griffin aren't even close. I don't even remember the last time (if any) KG played the 5.

Did you miss the ECF last year? Because Im sure KG was playing Center a lot. When Jermaine and Wilcox went down KG pretty much became the starting 5 for Boston. Bostons starting 5 was

KG
Bass
Pierce
Bradley
Rondo

btw, KG was averaging 20/10 in the playoffs as a Center last post season.

[DaSeba5]

3. Bogut when healthy
4. Marc Gasol
5. Roy Hibbert
6. Kevin Garnett
7. This is where it gets hard. Al Jeff, Okafur, Cousins...

[Clippersfan86]

D Jordan gets knocked off his game to easily. One minute he's a god among men next minute he looks lost. With time he'll be able to keep it up but right now his game is so one dimensional he has nothing to adjust to when things are not going his way. Not an uncommon problem for a young big man who's more a defensive minded player

You and MJ are 100 percent spot on this. It's not rare for the guy to have nearly a double double by halftime. Then due to stupid fouls, being mentally off from teams adjusting or just losing focus he won't produce for the rest of the game and DOES indeed look very lost. I think people forget just how huge his impact is when his head is in the game though.

[UtahJazzFan88]

DMC is already 18 and 11 in his second year. It took Bynum six years to get to his current status of 19 and 12. DMC doesn't even have his confidence up yet. Offensively, if he gets his confidence up he's easily going to score more than DH and Bynum. He's not average now and will average 12 or more boards for awhile. He does seem problematic but his ball handling and natural moves are vastly superior to DH's.

He's averaging good numbers, but he's not getting his points really that efficiently, and it's on an awful team. I'd like to see the dude make winning plays on both sides of the ball, etc. A lot of players put up great numbers on terrible teams, like Al Jefferson did in Minnesota.

[Pointguard]

He's averaging good numbers, but he's not getting his points really that efficiently, and it's on an awful team. I'd like to see the dude make winning plays on both sides of the ball, etc. A lot of players put up great numbers on terrible teams, like Al Jefferson did in Minnesota.

Not centers. I can't remember the last center to average 18 ppg in their second year. You really have to go back for that - that's good trivia. And good centers are likely to start off on bad teams anyway. And like I said - he done it without much confidence or good team structure.

[blacknapalm]

He's averaging good numbers, but he's not getting his points really that efficiently, and it's on an awful team. I'd like to see the dude make winning plays on both sides of the ball, etc. A lot of players put up great numbers on terrible teams, like Al Jefferson did in Minnesota.

agreed. and he shoots less than 45% that is absolutely horrible for a center. he settles too much and shoots it 15+ times a game in an iso oriented offense. even rasheed wallace shot better than that most years and he was shooting 3's

anyway, my list:

3) bogut
4) gasol
5) hibbert
6) gortat
7) pekovic

note: not counting KG/duncan since they played PF most of their careers. if i had to though, KG would be at the top and duncan would probably slide ahead of pek

[SacJB Shady]

No shit. A healthy Bogut is easily the 3rd best center in the league behind Howard and Bynum. He's a great defensive center...easily the 2nd best TRUE defensive center (as Garnett is playing out of position), a very good rebounder, and decent offensive player (was averaging 15.9ppg on .520% before the arm injury in 2010). In 2011 his scoring dropped because he basically was afraid to use his right arm that he mangled and was barely using it in the post. That happens to a lot of players coming back after horrific injuries like he had. He should have broken through the mental barrier of that by now. His ankle is supposed to be 100% by the start of the season and this is the first time since Nate Thurmond and the 70s that the Warriors have actually had a defensive minded big man to anchor their defense and can actually start playing some defensive minded ball. I wouldn't go as far to say Bogut is just "injury prone". The way he fell and crushed his arm was just a freak accident. Never saw what happened with his ankle, but I think he can recover and would like to see him recover as he's one of the top Centers in the league when he's actually on the court healthy and confident in his abilities.

Absolutely.... And at one time bynum was not healthy. Bogut could arguably be the 2nd best when playing his A game. Bogut was 2nd best defensive player when healthy and maybe the best passing center.

When healthy Bogut can take on anybody not named Dwight Howard. The key word is when healthy. When healthy, nobody other than d12 has anything on bogut as far as toughness.

[Pointguard]

agreed. and he shoots less than 45% that is absolutely horrible for a center. he settles too much and shoots it 15+ times a game in an iso oriented offense. even rasheed wallace shot better than that most years and he was shooting 3's
anyway, my list:

3) bogut
4) gasol
5) hibbert
6) gortat
7) pekovic

Rasheed has never carried the burden of the offense nor could he. Demarcus doesn't get a lot of slams because he is the focus of the defense and in his youth doesn't know how to navigate the opposition yet. DH is the only other center really mentioned that carried the scoring burden of his team and he slams like crazy. Bogut, your boy, is in his prime and like seven years in, and he shot less than 45% last year with the defense being focused on perimeter players and in a structured system. Small sample but DMC will get better and is way futher along than all the guy you have listed at the same stage. Heck, nobody on your list (maybe Hibbert) is going to get 18 and 11 in their careers and most are in their prime now.

The only player that Orlando did not have DH guard was Demarcus in his rookie season. They believed he couldn't handle him when he won DPOY. DH is locking everybody else down.

[Sammyp]

Prime Bogut is without a doubt a top 3 center, and until the injuries was the ONLY centre who gave dwight trouble

[Cali Syndicate]

Pau deserves a mention. With Dwight out a month or so, I could see Pau getting his rep back up a bit.

I think Pekovic will have a good season.

[blacknapalm]

Rasheed has never carried the burden of the offense nor could he. Demarcus doesn't get a lot of slams because he is the focus of the defense and in his youth doesn't know how to navigate the opposition yet. DH is the only other center really mentioned that carried the scoring burden of his team and he slams like crazy. Bogut, your boy, is in his prime and like seven years in, and he shot less than 45% last year with the defense being focused on perimeter players and in a structured system. Small sample but DMC will get better and is way futher along than all the guy you have listed at the same stage. Heck, nobody on your list (maybe Hibbert) is going to get 18 and 11 in their careers and most are in their prime now.

The only player that Orlando did not have DH guard was Demarcus in his rookie season. They believed he couldn't handle him when he won DPOY. DH is locking everybody else down.

bogut couldn't even straighten his arm completely without pain last season so of course his FG% took a dip. for his career, he's at 52%. jennings is going to shoot a lot - he's a scoring guard. i wouldn't necessarily say the defense focuses on him. in fact, bogut is the one who gets doubled. he's also a far better passer and defender than cousins. bogut has finished top 10 in DPOY twice, something i can never see cousins doing. rebounding is about equal. cousins will impress me when he gets his FG% up and become more consistent, point blank. scoring isn't a huge premium at the center position.

guys like gasol are more versatile and efficient. if cousins played with z-bo and gay, he'd be forced to take a back seat as well. this isn't even really taking into account noah, jefferson and chandler either who are all in the discussion.

[DirtySanchez]

Bogut is top 5 if healthy
DMC is good but needs to mature...kind of like Bynum

[IGotACoolStory]

Noah isn't even on some people's list?