FanPost

What is Gortat's Ceiling?

People have argued that he is nowhere near an all-star or a top five center. Let's start with the first one.

The only centers who played in the All-star game last year were Dwight Howard, Al Horford, and Tim Duncan. Now, considering that 2 of those are PF's who get voted on as C's then there was one true center on the All Star team last year, and only one from the Western conference. We now that Duncan will make the AL-star game pretty much until he retires, so a center slot is easy for the taking. What would it take? If Gortat averaged 16pts 11rbds 1.5 blocks and shot 56% that could easily get him. All of these are very reasonable numbers for him.

Now on to the next subject. Does Gortat have the potential to be a top 5 center. We can take a the numbers mentioned in the last paragraph.16 points would have made him 6th for centers behind Dwight, Bargnani (a center seriously), Lopez, Jefferson, and Lee (see Bargnani comment). He would be ahead of notable players Horford, Nene, Duncan, Frye (yes he was the 9th leading scorer for a center), and Hibbert to round out the top ten. Pretty good. 11 boards would place him 2nd behind only Howard and ahead of, you guessed it, everyone else. 1.5 blocks would place him 11th (this is a little low and could be improved on, but he is more of a stallwart defender than a fashy one). 3rd in fg% which is right where he was last year.

Tell me all that does not put him potentially in the All-star game and maybe a top 5 center or better. Especially when Horford, Bargnani, and Lee are really considered PF's. Again these are projections (pretty realistic if you factor hell be getting 35+ minutes a game). But there has been a lot of talk that he will never be a an all-star or his ceiling really is not that high. The numbers tell a little different story and he only has room to grow. Now, the last time I checked a top five player at any position was considered a star, and even more so can be said of a center, which is the real anchor of a team on the defensive end. Anyway, I thought I would just through this out for debate. Have at it