HOOPSANALYST

I like this year's crop of centers. There isn’t the star power we had last year with Oden, but there are enough good prospects that watching this bunch develop over the next few years should be interesting. This year one of the questions will be whether to go for potential or immediate help. Roy Hibbert is available and offers any team a useful defensive presence on the inside immediately. I don’t think there’s a team in the NBA that couldn’t use that. But there are also some young players out there with legitimate promise who are a couple years away from making an impact.

Centers used to be the hottest item out there and remain highly valued. But the days of drafting a Sam Bowie, Steve Stipanovich or William Bedford just because they’re big and moderately talented are over. We saw that last season when Aaron Gray fell deep into the 2^nd round. But center remains the single most important position on the court. The champion Celtics are the only team other than the 90s Bulls to win a title without a center who at the very least was considered an all-star candidate. Because of this, it’s never a bad idea to draft a young center in the hopes that they’ll develop into something good.

The stats I look at for centers are 2-point pct, points, rebounds and blocks, all per 40 minutes. I also look at FTA/PF, which simply shows their ability to draw fouls as opposed to fouling.

Player	fgpct	2 pct	P40	R40	A40	B40	TO40	A/TO	pps	FT/PF
Maric, Alecks	0.575	0.583	21.88	14.12	2.70	2.40	3.33	0.81	1.56	2.59
Butch, Brian	0.448	0.482	20.99	11.46	1.45	1.51	2.53	0.57	1.25	2.13
Lopez, Robin	0.534	0.533	16.63	9.15	1.00	3.76	2.85	0.35	1.40	1.40
Plaisted, Trent	0.542	0.542	22.53	11.12	2.23	1.41	3.47	0.64	1.46	3.17
Thompson, Jason	0.560	0.578	23.11	13.72	3.10	3.03	3.30	0.94	1.41	2.29
James, Shawn	0.548	0.594	19.80	10.85	1.68	6.21	3.19	0.53	1.40	1.15
Gransberry, K	0.518	0.518	19.70	13.24	1.89	1.77	2.84	0.67	1.36	2.59
Lopez, Brook	0.468	0.475	25.08	10.64	1.78	2.70	2.79	0.64	1.33	2.94
Hardin, Devon	0.554	0.554	15.53	12.26	1.11	2.05	2.38	0.47	1.58	1.78
Hibbert, Roy	0.609	0.605	21.33	10.15	2.96	3.52	2.68	1.11	1.54	1.57
Jordan, Deandre	0.617	0.617	15.82	11.95	0.85	2.50	3.24	0.26	1.52	1.78
McGee, JaVale	0.529	0.556	20.46	10.62	0.88	4.04	3.51	0.25	1.31	1.72
Koufus, Kosta	0.508	0.535	22.15	10.24	0.79	2.78	2.28	0.35	1.22	1.23
Daniels, Chris	0.506	0.580	17.57	8.81	2.30	2.40	2.89	0.80	1.40	1.10

NCAA Freshmen Centers	2 pt. pct.	P40	R40	B40	FT/PF	A/TO	PPS
All-Star	.544	15.3	12.4	4.3	1.2	0.6	1.40
DeAndre Jordan	.617	15.8	12.0	2.5	1.8	0.3	1.52
Starter/Rotation Regular	.543	15.3	10.6	3.9	1.1	0.4	1.38
Kosta Koufos	.535	22.2	10.2	2.8	1.2	0.4	1.22
Journeyman	.528	14.7	9.7	2.8	1.1	0.4	1.36
Never made it	.509	15.3	10.4	2.1	0.9	0.5	1.29

NCAA Sophomore Centers	2 pt. pct.	P40	R40	B40	FT/PF	A/TO	PPS
All-Star	.589	18.9	12.4	4.1	1.6	0.5	1.52
Brook Lopez	.475	25.1	10.6	2.7	2.9	0.6	1.33
JaVale McGee	.556	20.5	10.6	4.0	1.7	0.3	1.31
Starter/Rotation Regular	.556	18.2	11.6	3.4	1.5	0.4	1.43
Journeyman	.535	17.1	10.0	2.7	1.4	0.5	1.40
Robin Lopez	.533	16.6	9.2	3.8	1.4	0.4	1.40
Never made it	.526	16.0	10.3	2.7	1.1	0.4	1.32

NCAA Junior Centers	FG Pct.	P40	R40	B40	FT/PF	A/TO	PPS
All-Star	.552	21.2	11.6	4.3	2.2	0.9	1.46
Starter/Rotation Regular	.565	20.6	12.1	3.4	2.0	0.9	1.48
Trent Plaisted	.542	22.5	11.1	1.4	3.2	0.6	1.46
Journeyman	.538	17.4	11.3	2.7	1.7	0.9	1.44
Never made it	.541	17.6	10.3	2.6	1.4	1.0	1.37

NCAA Senior Centers	FG Pct.	P40	R40	B40	FT/PF	A/TO	PPS
All-Star	.565	19.6	12.8	4.0	2.5	0.7	1.56
Alecks Maric	.583	21.9	14.1	2.4	2.6	0.8	1.56
Starter/Rotation Regular	.564	19.3	11.6	2.9	1.9	1.0	1.48
Shawn James	.594	19.8	10.9	6.2	1.2	0.5	1.40
Kentrell Gransberry	.513	19.7	13.2	1.8	2.6	0.7	1.36
Roy Hibbert	.605	21.3	10.2	3.5	1.6	1.1	1.54
Journeyman	.542	19.5	10.9	3.2	1.9	1.0	1.47
Devon Hardin	.554	15.5	12.3	2.1	1.8	0.5