Why We Shouldn't Devalue the Center Position in Today's NBA
Their pictures have been plastered on milk cartons for years. Their position has been stripped from the NBA All-Star ballot.
NBA centers, by most accounts, are a dying breed. They are seen as too slow and too offensively limited for a league emphasizing the importance of playing with pace and spreading the floor.
"In my opinion, the most overrated position in the game of basketball today is the center position," former coach and current ESPN analyst George Karl said (ESPN insider subscription required). "It's also one of the most overpaid positions. ... The big man, over the past five to 10 years, his importance has disintegrated."
That's a pretty bold statement, though one likely to be echoed across the basketball world. Centers simply are not featured the way they used to be, and that can easily be interpreted as a decrease in impact.
Last season, the top 15 scoring centers averaged 14.2 points and 10.7 field-goal attempts. Go back 20 years to the 1993-94 campaign, and those per-game marks were 17.4 and 13.0 respectively.
Without a doubt the league has changed during that stretch on both sides of the ball. And centers, through no fault of their own, have seen their offensive involvement decrease amid this transformation.
"This not a center's game anymore," Yahoo Sports' Kelly Dwyer wrote in 2012. "Not because the centers stink, but because the game has gotten faster, smarter and more detailed in its design. Attempt to dump it in all you want; the opposing defense already has two-dozen counters for this simplistic notion."
What we are witnessing isn't a decline at the position, but rather a move away from traditional bigs. There are still a few walking relics around ("Big Classic" Al Jefferson comes to mind), but for the most part today's centers don't look, act or produce like their predecessors.
But to suggest these changes reflect a decrease in importance is completely off-base. Check the current NBA standings, check whom these teams have manning the middle and then decide the value of the modern-day center.
There are three undefeated teams still standing at this point: the Houston Rockets (5-0), Memphis Grizzlies (5-0) and Golden State Warriors (4-0). Down low, they employ an eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year in Dwight Howard, a fellow former Defensive Player of the Year in Marc Gasol and a former All-NBA third-teamer in Andrew Bogut respectively.
Those clubs may not be good solely because of their big men, but they wouldn't have a shot at greatness without them.
The Rockets have a world-beating offense, but their defense has been nearly as impressive (95.5 defensive efficiency, fourth overall). And, yes, they still employ noted sieve James Harden on the perimeter and trot him out nearly 36 minutes a night.
How is it possible for Houston to have both elite defense and Harden as part of its identity? Look under the basket, and you'll find that answer.
"If you take both ends of the floor into account, Dwight Howard is just as important a player as Harden for the Rockets," wrote NBA.com's John Schuhmann. "While Harden is a liability on defense, Howard is holding the Rockets together on that end."
Shifting over to Gasol, he has the grit-and-grind Grizzlies nestled into the No. 2 spot in defensive efficiency. Over the last four seasons, Memphis has never finished lower than eighth in the category.
With a potent mix of intelligence and intensity, Gasol quarterbacks one of the finest defenses in the business. And he has never been the best above-the-rim deterrent, holding a career average of 1.5 blocks per game.
Gasol relies on his understanding of the game to frustrate—and often silence—opposing attacks. Grantland's Zach Lowe explained Gasol's mastery of the defensive end in 2013:
"He is almost always in the right place, moving around the floor in sync with an opponent’s offensive sets, and with such braininess it often seems as if Gasol is one step ahead of that offense. He works with an economy of movement, rarely over-rotating himself out of position or losing touch with his man while helping elsewhere. He's all genius mini-slides, subtle reaches into passing lanes and disruptive hip checks.
"
And the most terrifying part of Gasol's game? He can leave a similar imprint at the opposite side.
"When he's aggressive, ain't nobody stop him," Gasol's frontcourt mate, Zach Randolph, said, per The Associated Press' Teresa M. Walker.
Five games into this campaign, Gasol has been aggressive. And no team has stopped him. He's currently holding a 21.6 points-per-game scoring average and a 54.8 percent success rate from the field.
Bogut happens to be overseeing the NBA's stingiest defense. His Warriors have surrendered only 90.5 points per 100 possessions. With him on the floor, that figure falls to 87.0, per NBA.com (media stats subscription only).
To give those numbers some context, the Indiana Pacers led the league with a 96.7 defensive rating last season.
"Since Bogut has been with the Warriors, he’s been irreplaceable as the team’s defensive anchor," wrote Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Under new coach Steve Kerr, Bogut has made a bigger dent at the offensive side. The big man has been called upon to initiate more of the Warriors' attack with jarring screens and pinpoint passes to off-ball cutters.
But this discussion is larger than these three teams and these three centers. Look around the league, and you'll find a number of teams with impact bigs—or clubs wishing they had one.
The Dallas Mavericks would not have reopened their championship window without swinging an offseason trade for Tyson Chandler. "It all depends on the health of Tyson Chandler as to how far they go," TNT analyst Marv Albert said, per Barry Horn of The Dallas Morning News.
The Chicago Bulls thought enough of the center spot to double down on it, bringing in Pau Gasol to play with and behind Joakim Noah. The Washington Wizards valued it enough to give 30-year-old Marcin Gortat a five-year, $60 million contract this past summer.
Why are the Miami Heat still standing without LeBron James? Because Chris Bosh has put up superstar stats (24.2 points, 11.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists). How have the Sacramento Kings sprinted out to a 4-1 start? By DeMarcus Cousins producing at a rate the league hasn't seen in more than a decade.
One of Doc Rivers' first priorities after taking over the Los Angeles Clippers last summer was including DeAndre Jordan with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul as the team's Big Three.
"I like what DeAndre gives us," Rivers said last October, per ESPN Los Angeles' Arash Markazi. "He gives us something a lot of the guys in the league can't do. He can block shots, he can run the floor, he can defend, he's talking...He's doing a lot of great things for us."
Stan Van Gundy piled similar praise on Andre Drummond at Van Gundy's introductory press conference as the Detroit Pistons coach-president (h/t Detroit Bad Boys). CBSSports.com's Matt Moore cited Al Horford's return as the biggest reason the Atlanta Hawks could become "a legitimate contender in the East." Tim Duncan's impact on the San Antonio Spurs has been cemented with five championship banners.
Even the teams without top centers help stress the position's value. The Cleveland Cavaliers have James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving on their roster, but their lack of rim protection could foil their championship hopes.
"Elite teams get easy buckets, getting them at the rim and generating open looks from the perimeter...," wrote NBC Sports' Kurt Helin. "Then, they knock them down. If you can't defend that, you can't win a ring."
So, yes, it's time to take those missing posters down.
There are plenty of good centers still in this game and a handful of great ones. Someone has to be clearing out defenders in the pick-and-roll game and exploding to the rim, inhaling all those missed threes and guarding the basket against dribble penetration.
The center spot may be more about guts than glory today, but there's still a lot of dirty work that needs to be done. And these monsters in the middle are the ones picking up that slack.
This position has evolved and may well continue to do so. Four-out attacks could become five-out looks. Some already have.
But there's always going to be a need for the more traditional duties too. And there will always be a place for guys who can dominate the low block like Jefferson or Brook Lopez.
NBA centers may have changed their appearance, but their value is still as massive as they are.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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