Dallas Mavericks centers since 1998: who would you start in your team?

[QuebecBaller]

Raef probably the best player of the bunch

When Reaf is the best, it's not a good thing

[gasolina]

Calvin Booth was actually a pretty good role player on the Sonics, but idiot GMs basically gave him a lot of money just off of a few good games he played.

Seems like a common thing for Centers to play a few good games in Sonics uniform and get a good deal

[MiseryCityTexas]

Seems like a common thing for Centers to play a few good games in Sonics uniform and get a good deal

All Calvin Booth really could do was block shots and get transition buckets every once in a while ,but couldn't rebound nor play one on one defense for shit. He was just an average player on the Mavs and and Sonics, then just became sorrier than what he already was after he started getting contracts.

[moaz]

I always saw a potential beast in Diop - never developed into much though - was HUGE and powerful, just didn't click though...

That is the story of 95% of all Mavericks drafts/trades .
Any one remembers Rodrigue Beaubois?

I really liked some of the above listed centers as characters (Mbenga, Bradley, Diop, Gooden, Kaman), but it didn't change the fact that they sucked almost always.

[SCdac]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.

[Nash]

the one who was the dpoy

[moaz]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.

In 7 years here I've never had an argument with a Spurs fan (you) but :

Eh... what does Duncan, Nesterovic, Garnett or Perkins have to do with this thread about Dallas centers?

And just to make you happy, I also believe that Duncan is "individually" a better player than Dirk.

[SCdac]

In 7 years here I've never had an argument with a Spurs fan (you) but :

Eh... what does Duncan, Nesterovic, Garnett or Perkins have to do with this thread about Dallas centers?

And just to make you happy, I also believe that Duncan is "individually" a better player than Dirk.

Dirk and the Mavs are not alone in the NBA and without pointing out what his comparable's were playing with (ie. some context and perspective), it's pointless to just point out which centers he was playing with and essentially say "they were bad, right?". I can understand that Dampier, etc, are not All-Stars, but how many All-Star centers could the Mavs conceivably get? How much more over the cap did the Mavs have to go than they already were? The reality is, the Mavs could get what they got. Of the list, I'd take Tyson Chandler, because that pretty much what it took to turn the Mavs defense around. Before him, it was Avery Johnson instilling Spurs-like system and philosophy that turned their defense around.

[MiseryCityTexas]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.

Perkins served his purpose and clogged the lanes, and protected the paint on defense. Perkins blocked a couple of shots every now and then too. Rondo also knew how to set up to get Perkin's easy points in the paint also compared to ball hogging Westbrook.

[secund2nun]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.

Great defensive PFs that can anchor the paint like KG, Rodman, Ben Wllace and Duncan are very rare. Aside from these super rare exceptions only centers can be defensive anchors.

Look at all of the other great PFs...none of them could do it:

Dirk
Malone
Barkley
Love
Bosh
Aldridge
Griffin
etc

[SCdac]

Great defensive PFs that can anchor the paint like KG, Rodman, Ben Wllace and Duncan are very rare. Aside from these super rare exceptions only centers can be defensive anchors.

Look at all of the other great PFs...none of them could do it:

Dirk
Malone
Barkley
Love
Bosh
Aldridge
Griffin
etc

Bosh is not that bad defensively, and he's played center before. Miami the last 3-4 years had some great/elite defense at times. I'd take his defense over Dirk's.

and those players may be rare like you said.... but they win:

KG, Rodman, Duncan, Wallace (Ben or Sheed) = 12 championships

Dirk, Malone, Barkley, Love, Bosh, Griffin = 2 championships

Correlation or coincidence ?

And that's not even mentioning Kevin McHale, who was 6x All Defensive team. Or Anthony Davis, who may go on to do big things (who knows).

While I understand what you're saying, and I know I kinda derailed the thread (apologies), I just think it's unfair to point out all the Mavs centers as if they're the sole problem for Dallas. Maybe it's the fact that Terry was not a great defender, maybe it was the fact that building an elite defense around Dirk was generally not easy and took a ton of money, maybe it was the fact that Dallas was a jump shooting team year after year until the late 2000's.

Tyson Chandler was a #2 overall draft pick and had established himself in New Orleans next to Chris Paul and David West. Part of the reason Mavs got him was he could never stay healthy and therefor his stock dropped, but no doubt he was a proven commodity and helped turn the Mavs around. But if Dirk was an elite defender (not just ok), maybe they could have gone all the way much sooner in his career... It's not that unlikely of an assumption, given Dirk's elite offensive skill.