Best young Center Poll

[Hero]

By next year we could be considering Okafor and Embiid as top 3 guys.

[jgosche]

Why not? He's putting up great numbers, and has held his own against one of the better C in the league (D. Howard, Cousins, D. Jordan, Bogut to name a few). He needs to be more disciplined with the fouls though.

Because that's projecting someone's entire career off of a very small sample size. It's the same reason I thought it was ridiculous when people were saying that Jeremy Lin has a good chance of being the best PG in the NBA when he was dropping 20 PPG in his first 17 games starting for the Knicks.

I think Hassans impact on the court goes beyond the boxscore. He raises the play of every player on the court on his team by his presence alone. I don't think Lin had that type of impact on the Knicks. Plus, Lin had flaws in his handles that needed to be corrected, and was eventually exposed by the Heat.

Then I guess we'll have to see then. I've got nothing against the guy and hope he does well but I think you're being way too optimistic thinking he has a good chance to be the best center in the league.

[majortom71]

AGE 25-AND-YOUNGER

AGE 20 SEASON
Nurkic
Noel

AGE 21 SEASON
Len
Drummond
Adams

AGE 22 SEASON
Gobert
Leonard
Valanciunas
Biyombo

AGE 24 SEASON
Cousins
Henson
Plumlee
Vucevic

AGE 25 SEASON
Whiteside
T. Zeller
Dieng

MY LIST
1. Cousins
2. Whiteside
3. Gobert
4. Valanciunas
5. Drummond
6. Len
7. T. Zeller
8. Vucevic
9. Plumlee
10. Nurkic
11. Henson
12. Leonard
13. Biyombo
14. Dieng
15. Adams

No offense man, but you're riding Whiteside a little too hard off of 17 games.

I'm not even going to go into the fact that you have Tyler Zeller over Vucevic.

His list is absolutely not biased.

[Mogul]

Biyombo was mentioned several times in this thread... :o .

[cyclix]

AGE 25-AND-YOUNGER

AGE 20 SEASON
Nurkic
Noel

AGE 21 SEASON
Len
Drummond
Adams

AGE 22 SEASON
Gobert
Leonard
Valanciunas
Biyombo

AGE 24 SEASON
Cousins
Henson
Plumlee
Vucevic

AGE 25 SEASON
Whiteside
T. Zeller
Dieng

MY LIST
1. Cousins
2. Whiteside
3. Gobert
4. Valanciunas
5. Drummond
6. Len
7. T. Zeller
8. Vucevic
9. Plumlee
10. Nurkic
11. Henson
12. Leonard
13. Biyombo
14. Dieng
15. Adams

No offense man, but you're riding Whiteside a little too hard off of 17 games.

I'm not even going to go into the fact that you have Tyler Zeller over Vucevic.

His list is absolutely not biased.

Its not about biased here. I used the necessary stats to back up my ranking of Whiteside. He has the most upside of the C on the list, at least defensively. Elite rim protector, shotblocker, rebounder. Good combination of length and weight. Conditioned. He has it all, and is now focused.

[rmfc]

Andre Drummond

Rudy Gobert

[claudio-br]

1 - Cousins
2 - Vucevic
3 - Drummond

[PKABOOICU]

Drummond/DJ/Dwight are all around the same level in fantasy basketball. DJ is probably the most consistent, and Drummond has the most upside. Dwight falls somewhere in the middle. All 3 were available when I drafted and i took Drummond.

[HawaiianJazzFan]

It's funny because players like Vucevic and JV, I don't think they would even start on Utah, if we were playing to win (starting Gobert/Favors). I'd consider them to be slightly better than Kanter but not as good as Favors or Gobert who are both good (one REALLY good) rim protectors. Maybe I need to watch more of Vucevic but Derrick Favors tore up the Magic (22 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 3.5 bpg, 2 apg on 61% shooting) both times we played them this year, I've always considered Vucevic to be a poor defender. Drummond I could definitely see rated above Fave and Rudy, but JV and Vucevic? I may be biased, but I'd take Fave and Rudy for sure.

[Duffman100]

Its not about biased here. I used the necessary stats to back up my ranking of Whiteside. He has the most upside of the C on the list, at least defensively. Elite rim protector, shotblocker, rebounder. Good combination of length and weight. Conditioned. He has it all, and is now focused.

He's playing 15 minutes a game and 17 games played. Talk about a hilariously small sample size to base your 2nd young best center.

It's outrageously biased.

[amcfad27]

No Hasan Whiteside?

[need4detroit]

No offense man, but you're riding Whiteside a little too hard off of 17 games.

I'm not even going to go into the fact that you have Tyler Zeller over Vucevic.

His list is absolutely not biased.

Its not about biased here. I used the necessary stats to back up my ranking of Whiteside. He has the most upside of the C on the list, at least defensively. Elite rim protector, shotblocker, rebounder. Good combination of length and weight. Conditioned. He has it all, and is now focused.

2. Whiteside
Says not biased.

Is this a joke?

[Amish Mafioso]

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-r ... era-skill/

THE DIVE MEN

The Wall: Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
There was never a question of whether Gobert could protect the basket. His wingspan, 7 feet and 8.5 inches, is among the longest on record at the NBA’s draft combine, and he has nimble feet for a giant. He’s an explosive leaper. His presence affects every second of every half-court defensive possession.

It was unclear whether Gobert could stay on the floor long enough to let his game-changing skill sing. He fouled a lot, mucked up Utah’s spacing, and coughed up heaps of turnovers. He showed zero back-to-the-basket game.

The low-post game isn’t dead, but it is harder today than it was 10 years ago to be an effective post scorer. If a team wanted to trap Charles Barkley or Patrick Ewing, it had to send a hard double from all the way across the floor. Rule changes have allowed defenses to get trickier.

A pesky guard can swipe down at DeMarcus Cousins on the block, scurry back up to his man, and dig down again when Cousins goes back to work. A third defender can flash into the middle of the paint and hang there for 2.9 seconds, blocking Cousins’s path to the middle and complicating the passing lanes.

Again, that doesn’t mean the back-to-the-basket bruiser is dead. It just means a player has to be damn good for the post-up to become a regular weapon.

Gobert was never going to get there, and teams in this era of spacing and speed have rushed to turn all such prospects into imitations of Tyson Chandler, having them screen like all hell, dive to the basket, and cram the ball down their throats. Get good at that, and a player with zippo post skills can morph into an offensive centerpiece who sucks multiple defenders into the paint — and away from shooters. Gobert is springy enough to catch the ball just inside the foul line, rise up, and dunk it, all in one motion:
He’s also an eager screen-setter; Gobert has set about 27 ball screens per 36 minutes this season, 11th-highest among all rotation players, according to SportVU data provided to Grantland. Defenses hack Gobert a ton to prevent his dunks, and he has reworked his free throw stroke so he is merely below average from the stripe (62.5 percent) instead of terrible (49 percent last season).

But the path to the rim isn’t always so clear; teams adjust, and smart defenses put bodies in your way. Gobert would have to prove in Year 2 that he could adapt with deft finishes and smart passing. Bad news for the league: He is ahead of schedule. He has little one-dribble moves he can break out in traffic, and a nice lefty touch:

And in an unexpected twist, he has become a clever passer. Gobert had seven assists — seven! — in 434 minutes last season; he already has 56 in 1,134 minutes this season. Gobert isn’t Magic Johnson, but he has shown that he can read the floor on the pick-and-roll:
That slick drop-off pass has become a regular thing, and it is huge for Gobert’s potential long-armed partnership with Derrick Favors. Gobert has zero range, and Favors’s improved jumper tops out for now around 18 feet. That makes for cramped spacing, especially since Utah’s guards and wings outside Gordon Hayward aren’t exactly shooting specialists.

But skilled players can thrive within tight confines. The Jazz have scored 102.7 points per 100 possessions with the Favors/Gobert combination, right around league-average output, and Quin Snyder has used the pairing more — including last week in Portland, where Gobert started the second half and smothered LaMarcus Aldridge all over the floor.

Favors can gin up spacing with a budding midrange game, and he’s getting better at slicing through tiny crevices for layups when Gobert is around.

It’s not all rosy here. Gobert has so-so hands and remains turnover-prone. He too often whiffs on screens in his zeal for alley-oops. Utah’s offense declines with Gobert on the court by about the same amount as its defense improves — seven points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com.

But the numbers are much better when Hayward is on the floor with him, and Gobert has done just enough on offense to unleash his own personal reign of terror on the other end. He is the NBA’s Godzilla. Opponents are shooting just 37 percent on close shots when Gobert is near the rim — the stingiest number among all rotation big men, per NBA.com.5

He is so much of a force already that the Jazz have to consider dealing Enes Kanter at the trade deadline. It’s not a foregone conclusion; the cap will rise so dramatically in 2016 that Utah could re-sign all of its key young players and retain at least some breathing room. Kanter could also work as the jump-shooting third big Utah could start in (eventual) playoff matchups that call for more spacing — Utah’s Boris Diaw, basically.

But it’s all a matter of opportunity cost. If Utah trades Kanter, it’s not just about the immediate return package. It’s also about how it might use the salary Kanter would have eaten with the eight-figure deal he’ll surely get this summer.

Gobert has butted his way into the Kanter discussion faster than Utah ever could have expected.

[AussieBuck]

Gobert easy.

[Effercon]

Nurkic. Of all those guys, I think he's the only one there with 20/10 season average potential.

[Prince12]

JV it's not his fault Casey is a twit who won't play him.

[TDotsfinest97]

1. Cousins
2. Vucevic
3. Valanciunas
4. Drummond
5. Gobert

[naabzor]

People taking Len and Nurkic over Valanciunas, i mean, really? Why?

[Promezclan]

Well, at least they are different types of players. Len over Gobert is the real puzzler - similar skillsets, but Gobert has a better body, and better production.

[Rosque]

BTW, it's Jusef Nurkic

It's not. It's Jusuf Nurkić.