RealGM

According to this season, Start Bench Cut Brook Lopez, Jakob Poeltl, Nic Claxton

I assume that refers to mid-level starting centers.

That speaks to what I mentioned in another thread regarding the lack of depth at the center position during the era many consider the golden age of center-position talent (early-mid 90s).

The current crop of "mid-level" starting centers are still pretty good: Jakob Poeltl, for example, has been pretty close to a [high-efficiency] 14/10/3 guy for mediocre teams recently, with fair/decent defensive acumen. He's arguably the best player [at least considering health] for a poor ~30-win team this year; was recently the 2nd-best player on a 34-win [though +0.02 SRS] team.

Nic Claxton provides rim protection and is an excellent roll threat. Not long ago averaged about 13/9 on league-best FG% while also being tied for 9th in the DPOY vote.

Brook Lopez, even at his current age, is still providing an efficient 13 ppg for a playoff team, while spacing the floor for 32 mpg, and protecting the rim on D.



Compare that to the "mid-level" starting centers of say.....'94 (a year many consider the zenith of center-position talent), it's more like this:













If any one of these guys except Clifford Robinson (and maybe Rony Seikaly) is your best player, you're unlikely to top about 21-22 wins.


NOTE: Edited to give better representation of mid-level C's of '94 (and the depth is a little better than I'd recalled; perhaps mostly because Clifford Robinson plays C this year [and has one of his best seasons]).

Answering the OP, it's reasonably close but I'd probably start Poetl for his better passing, bring Claxton off the bench, and cut Lopez because of his age.

penbeast0 wrote:Answering the OP, it's reasonably close but I'd probably start Poetl for his better passing, bring Claxton off the bench, and cut Lopez because of his age.

Ah, I missed the point of the OP's question (can no one be troubled to write a single full sentence? I'm old over here!).

Anyway, I agree. Start Poeltl; if just for one season I can see going with Lopez as bench [cutting Claxton], though depends upon supporting cast, imo. If we're building, obviously gotta cut Lopez.

trex_8063 wrote:

penbeast0 wrote:Answering the OP, it's reasonably close but I'd probably start Poetl for his better passing, bring Claxton off the bench, and cut Lopez because of his age.

Ah, I missed the point of the OP's question (can no one be troubled to write a single full sentence? I'm old over here!).

Anyway, I agree. Start Poeltl; if just for one season I can see going with Lopez as bench [cutting Claxton], though depends upon supporting cast, imo. If we're building, obviously gotta cut Lopez.

It's one season. Yeah otherwise Brook is easy last

trex_8063 wrote:That speaks to what I mentioned in another thread regarding the lack of depth at the center position during the era many consider the golden age of center-position talent (early-mid 90s).

Mid-level centers in 1994 are guys like Rony Seikaly, Elden Campbell, Dale Davis, Robert Parish, PJ Brown, to name a few. LOL, you guys are lost without bballref.

SHAQ32 wrote:

trex_8063 wrote:That speaks to what I mentioned in another thread regarding the lack of depth at the center position during the era many consider the golden age of center-position talent (early-mid 90s).

Mid-level centers in 1994 are guys like Rony Seikaly, Elden Campbell, Dale Davis, Robert Parish, PJ Brown, to name a few. LOL, you guys are lost without bballref.

Rony Seikaly is a good mention; he does fit somewhere in the middle. Was basically a 15/10/2 guy, mediocre [to poor] all-around efficiency (when you put turnovers in the equation), mediocre defensive center. Was probably the 3rd-best player on a 42-win +2.40 SRS team.

Robert Parish is another solid mention as mid-level for that year.......but just so we don't try to get too much mileage out of name recognition, it's important to note this is his 18th season [40 years old]. He's no longer the "Robert Parish" that made the name well-known.

PJ Brown I thought I had on there (remember picking him, must have forgot to get a pic); though also important to recognize this is his rookie season.

Dale Davis and Elden Campbell were both as yet playing PF (next to Rik Smits and Vlade Divac, respectively, at C......neither of whom were "mid-level" centers, btw, both residing probably somewhere in the 8-10 range among C's in the league that year [27 teams in the league]).

I'll take a slightly less off-the-cuff approach and make a roughly ordered list of the best 24+ mpg ["starter"] C's of '94 (still a quick n' dirty list, not wishing to quibble on the exact order):

1. Hakeem
2. DRob
3. Shaq
4. Ewing
5. Mutombo
6. Mourning
7. Chris Webber [rookie, fwiw]
8-10. *Daugherty (*might have been 8th-best if healthy, but missed 32 rs games and all of the playoffs; could argue him outside the top 10 as a result), Vlade Divac, Rik Smits

I figure outside of the top 10 (but inside the top 18-19 are the "mid-level" guys). That would be probably Seikaly, Oliver Miller, Sam Perkins, Clifford Robinson [forgot he was briefly playing more C at this point in his career; I'm used to thinking of him as more of a combo forward; he had a decent enough year you could sub him over injury-hit Daugherty in the top 10 (or maybe over lower-minute Smits??)], Vin Baker [if counting him as a C; he was sort of split about half-n-half between C and PF], Olden Polynice, Benoit Benjamin, Frank Brickowski, aging Parish.

Something like that.


I'll retract Jon Koncak and Felton Spencer above (looking at Koncak's statistical profile, it's probably only in the late 80s that he could be called a "mid-level" center; he'd definitely faded toward the bottom by '94, so that's my bad).

I'll add Rony Seikaly and Clifford Robinson. Does that give it a more fair look?

durantbird wrote:

trex_8063 wrote:

penbeast0 wrote:Answering the OP, it's reasonably close but I'd probably start Poetl for his better passing, bring Claxton off the bench, and cut Lopez because of his age.

Ah, I missed the point of the OP's question (can no one be troubled to write a single full sentence? I'm old over here!).

Anyway, I agree. Start Poeltl; if just for one season I can see going with Lopez as bench [cutting Claxton], though depends upon supporting cast, imo. If we're building, obviously gotta cut Lopez.

It's one season. Yeah otherwise Brook is easy last

I'm assuming it's NEXT season so I'm still more skeptical of Lopez than the younger centers. He's near the end of his surprisingly effective career. But OP asks about this season so with this little time left, health would be my major concern, then fit.