Where does Gortat rank among NBA Centers?

that Marcin Gortat plays more like a PF than a center. He doesn’t really post up much, but he comes way higher than the top of the key to set a lot of screens, finishes the p’n’r, hits the set midrange jumper, makes side-to-side passes…

And Gasol.

Meaning that they play significant minutes at Center, even if they are not dedicated to that position solely.

and the Hawks aren’t a very good team.

is it “ceilings”, potentials, current production, impact on wins, impact on team, offense, defense????

if we try to find a median in all this I would say he is definitely top 5 – because I seriously can’t find a guy that is top 10 in FG%, rebounds, scoring, defensive efficiency, running speed… all those categories.

In each category you have a few guys better – but they all have huuuge drawbacks -

say Bynum, great post play but injured once a week on average (same goes for Bogut)

Chandler – great defense but he only knows one offensive move and that’s an alley oop slam, same goes for Okafor

Considering this, and the point in each of these players careers – I would say:

Howard
Noah
Pau Gasol (if he can be considered a C)
Maybe Duncan…

That puts young, durable, hard-working and still learning Gortat on nr 5.

To answer this – you would have to ask yourself who would you trade for Gortat – straight up – forgetting about what their contracts are.

I probably wouldn’t trade for Duncan, since he is getting old fast and can’t run and gun like the Hammer. I would however trade Gortat for Howard/Pau Gasol/Noah without a blink.

Not so sure about Mark Gasol – he is much slower and not as good a rebounder. Bogut is a much bettter player skill-wise, but he can’t stand up without injuring himself.

So finally – NR 5 for me.

after all, fat people are harder to kidnap.

But then again, I’ve read his work for about a year now.

It kinda looks like he dunked the rock down on his balls and “feels the pain”.

Awesome!

Hell, they should be the best rebounder on the team…The guy is 7 foot, athletic, and doesn’t even pull down six rebounds a night. Bynum is great, but he already has a lot of miles and injuries on his body and has a huge contract, he’ll be making 17 million dollars in the final year of his contract with career averages of 10.5/7.5/1.5

is extremely overrated. Kaman doesn’t deserve to be on anybody’s list of best centers at all, having just lost his starting role on the Clippers to a 2nd year player.

there are guys on this list who fill the stat sheet while having a negative impact on the game for their team. They oughtn’t be considered to be superior to Gortat – who clearly has a HUUUUGE positive impact in our lineup. I submit that the following players belong in this category.

Chris Kaman, Brook Lopez, Al Jefferson, DeMarcus Cousins

He also has… um… what?

He’s not just a pick and roll machine.

Chandler is a good defender, and a great rebounder…That’s it. His only offensive weapons are dunking and alley oops. He doesn’t have any range, can’t shoot free throws, makes a lot of money (12.6 million) and has a extensive injury history.

Andrew Bynum is pretty damn good, I’ll give you that but he has only played 82 games ONCE which was in 06-07, since then he’s played in 35, 50, and 60 games. Thus far this season, he has only played 46 games with only about 10 games left to go. He makes a SHIT LOAD of money for only having career averages of 10.5PPG, 7RPG, and 1.5BPG. Currently, he makes 13 million dollars a year and in two years, which will be the final year of his contract he’ll be pulling down over 17 million dollars so his value really isn’t that good when you look at what Gortat is doing and he is pulling down just a little over six million. If Bynum can stay healthy for a few seasons I’m sure my list would change but for now I stand by my list.

It just frustrates the HELL of me that Amare last year and the year before that only averaged 1.0 block a game and now he is averaging double that amount. His rebounding numbers and blocking numbers have already taken a pretty big dip from earlier in the season, I mean just as recent as January I remember look at his stats and he was averaging like 2.4 blocks a game, right now he is back down to 1.9. Also, for the first two months he was averaging 10 plus boards a night now he’s back down to 8.4 which is actually below his career average.

Amare’s worst enemy is himself, he could be the best center/power forward in the game if he really wanted too but he just isn’t that type of guy, every game he plays you can always tell that he takes a few plays off. If you could combine Amare’s pure ability with Tim Duncan’s work ethic and willpower then you would have the best player in the league…and maybe the greatest front court player ever.

Steve Nash.

Gortat’s efficient scoring is not self-reliant. He cannot create for himself YET, that sets him apart from the rest of guys on this list.

He rarely gets ISO or post up plays – that’s why his FG% is so high. On the other hand, it means he doesn’t impact games on the offensive end as much as others and isn’t the primary, hell, even secondary option on offense.

The biggest test for the Hammer is coming next year – can he become an offensive threat? can he develop a post up game that will change the other team’s defense? will he become a player respected 1-on-1? so far, there is no single team that would decide to throw a double team at him, which means he isn’t opening up the floor for his teammates.

If he can make the next step – he will transform from one of the best role players in the NBA to an All-star caliber center.