NBA Positional Player Rankings: Centers

The most definitive ranking of my opinions

Whether it’s the first fall breeze, the speckles of gold dotting the canopy, or media day smokesignals, the signs of a new NBA season are aplenty. However, my favorite seasonal harbinger remains NBA player rankings, with no apologies to pumpkin-flavored anything. There’s just nothing quite as satisfying as looking at a list and thinking, these fuckers are mental. So, this season, I’ve decided to bestow that warm, angry glow upon you, the reader, while I prop myself upon an all-knowing pedestal.

Instead of ranking every player one through a hundred, I’ve decided to rank each position one through thirty. The rankings are tiered and are based on who I think will be the better player in 2025-26. The positions are based on Basketball Reference’s positional estimates. While I took age and injury history into account, I didn’t leave off players who I expect to be out for the season. The tiers are generally more important than the rankings, but that probably won’t prevent your blood from boiling at some point. If you don’t see a player from your favorite team, it’s because I hate your favorite team, but more specifically, it’s because I deeply and very specifically hate you.

Above the Break’s Top-30 Centers

Tier 5 - Honorable Mentions/Elite Backups

Goga Bitadze: Orlando Magic

I cannot stress this enough. I’m a huge Goga Bitadze fan. He’s one of the best backup centers in the league because he’s easily good enough to be a starter. He’s an excellent drop coverage defensive anchor, rebounder, and screener. Having just turned 26, he is in the prime of his career and could conceivably get better. Is he a playoff difference maker? No, but he’s like 35th on this list, so who cares? Bitadze is a player every team would love to have, but his lack of versatility and offensive game keep him in the elite backup tier.

Steven Adams: Houston Rockets

Due to age and injury, Adams has slipped from the starter quality tier, but he might be the most impactful bench center in the league. This is not hyperbole; Adams is far and away the best offensive rebounder in the league. When Adams was on the court last season, the Rockets posted a 41.4% offensive rebound rate, up from 29.3% when he sat. Just for reference, the league average offensive rebound rate was 25.2%. Insane doesn’t even really begin to describe it. It should be noted that he’s also an elite screener, overall rebounder, and showed more defensive mobility as the season wore on. Since I’m confident the Rockets will be judicious with his minutes, I can’t really place him any higher, but I sure as hell wanted to.

Robert Williams III: Portland Trailblazers

If it wasn’t for injuries, Time Lord would be a top-10 center for me. Unfortunately, Missed-Time Lord would be a more apt nickname. Since 2022-23, a three-season span, Williams has played 61 total games. It’s entirely possible he is cooked physically, but I can’t give up on him yet because of what he did when healthy. At his best, he was the best defensive player on the best defensive team in the league. While Marcus Smart was erroneously awarded Defensive Player of the Year in 2021-22, it was Time Lord’s incredible ability to cover ground and the rim that made the Celtics such a devastating defense. He was also a monstrous vertical threat as a roll man and a surprisingly solid passer. Hopefully, he can stay healthy on the Jonathan Isaac plan, where he plays 12 to 17 highly impactful minutes a night and settles into a player you wish could play more.

Donovan Clingan: Portland Trailblazers

This is a bet on potential and role. Clingan had a solid rookie season, particularly defensively, but only started 37 games and averaged 19.8 minutes per contest. With Deandre Ayton gone, and the aforementioned Robert Williams likely relegated to a curated minutes load, Clingan is poised to anchor what should be a strong Trailblazers’ defense. There are warts in Clingan’s game that still need to be ironed out. He averaged 5.1 fouls per 36 minutes, was poor at finishing around the rim, and isn’t adept at defending in space. However, this is a massive person (7’2) who is excellent at massive people things– defending the rim, rebounding, screening– and should only get better in their second NBA season.

Nic Claxton: Brooklyn Nets

The past couple of seasons have not been kind to Nic Claxton. After breaking out in 2022-23 alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, Claxton has seen the Nets roster disassembled and sold off for parts like a beloved store recently purchased by a private equity group. As the state of the roster has crumbled, so has Claxton’s impact, which raises the question of whether his breakout was all that real, or if playing next to two Hall of Famers made him look good. While his defensive impact has waned substantially, I still think he’s solid on that end, but he’s a supply-dependent center on offense, surrounded by unreliable suppliers. Unfortunately, Claxton has proven to be little more than a facsimile of his surroundings, and right now, his surroundings are dire.

Tier 4 - Superfluous Starters & Injury Risks

30. Deandre Ayton: Los Angeles Lakers

This is it for Deandre Ayton. If he can’t make it work playing on a one-year deal for the Lakers with Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves supplying him, then he simply can’t make it work. I almost didn’t rank Ayton at all, but he frustratingly has a ton of talent. He’s huge, strong, relatively nimble, and possesses a truly astonishing amount of touch. The problem is he plays with the least amount of competitive fire I’ve ever seen. If someone can convince him to be an asshole on the court, instead of a jackass off of it, then he could reestablish himself as a starting-caliber player. He isn’t that far removed from averaging 18 and 10. But at 27, the potential that made him the first overall pick has clearly been misappropriated.

29. Wendell Carter Jr: Orlando Magic

If these rankings were done a year ago, Carter would rank a whole lot higher, but 2024-25 might have been the worst season of his career. 9.1 points per game is fine for a center, but an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 49.8% is not. Fortunately, Carter is only 25, has a history of playing much better, and dealt with plantar fasciitis last season. When healthy, Carter is an effective player whom I like more in theory than in practice. He’s a jack of all trades, master of none, which is great because he’s scheme versatile on both ends, but the trade-off is he isn’t particularly good at any one thing. Carter, before last season, had established himself as a rock-solid starting center. He’s had a ton of injuries, so I’m hedging a bit by having him this low, but he should bounce back to being the completely competent player he is.

28. Al Horford: Golden State Warriors

The newest member of the (G)olden State Warriors, Al Horford, is only this low because, well, he’s old. Aside from the obvious concerns you have about any 39-year-old professional athlete, Horford remains a metronome of consistency. He’s an excellent, versatile defender and has become a lethal positional floor spacer. In many respects, Horford is why people get excited about Wendell Carter Jr. He’s an example of what happens when a jack of all trades actually masters a few things. Now, there are a few warning signs that he may fall off. Last season, his efficiency on twos and threes was the lowest it had been since returning to Boston, and he attempted the lowest percentage of his shots within three feet of the basket in his career. However, as long as he can still hit his threes and slide his feet, he’ll be a highly effective player in the 25-odd minutes he’ll play a game.

27. Naz Reid: Minnesota Timberwolves

Is Naz Reid even a center? That’s a good question. But since Basketball Reference proclaims he is, he is for our purposes. Starting with the good, Reid is one of the premier floor spacing bigs. Among centers, his 462 3-point attempts and 175 makes led the league, and over the past three seasons, he has averaged 362 attempts per season at a 38.5% conversion rate. On top of that, he’s athletic and skilled enough to use his 3-point gravity to attack closeouts and punish mismatches. Now onto the bad….the rest is kind of bad. Reid is not a good passer or defender, which limits him to tertiary contributions on offense and forces the Wolves to play him at power forward next to Rudy Gobert, basically nullifying his hypothetical spacing benefits. As the on/off data shows, the Wolves can’t get the best of both worlds with just Reid on the court.

There’s a reason Reid comes off the bench, and it’s because he’s a very talented player with some real flaws. I personally find it difficult to rank bench players over guys capable of starting. At the end of the day, you can only affect winning when you’re on the court. Reid is a good player, and there’s a case he’s playing out of position, but tweeners are as complicated as tweens think they are for a reason.

26. Jakob Poeltl: Toronto Raptors

Does anyone still play Poeltl? Well, the Raptors certainly do, and they’re counting on him big time if they want to make the playoffs. Poeltl is a center who’s good at centery things like being giant (7’0), setting screens (3.9 screen assists per game, 5th), rebounds! (9.6 rebounds per game), and rim protection (58.8% defended field goal percentage six feet and in, 5.6% better than expected). If the good old-fashioned meat and potatoes of center play don’t get you excited, then well, Jakob Poeltl isn’t your type of stew. However, there is a bit more spice to his game than meets the eye. Poeltl has one of the better floater/short mid-range games in the league, shooting 51% on shots five to nine feet from the basket and 50.6% on shots ten to fourteen feet. The only reason Poeltl isn’t higher is that you have to play him a certain way for him to be effective, but if you do, then you’ve got yourself a pretty dang good player.

25. Nikola Vucevic: Chicago Bulls

This might be a hot take, but Nikola Vucevic is probably one of the more underrated players in the NBA. Yes, he is atrociously irremediable on defense, but let’s not let that one fatal flaw obscure what he does do. Vucevic, over the past seven seasons, has averaged 19.3 points and 11.0 rebounds per game, playing an average of 73.7 games per season, which includes two pandemic-shortened seasons. And even though he’s almost 35, he’s coming off a season where he played 73 games and averaged 18.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Can you build a playoff team around Vucevic? No, but he’s the 25th-ranked center in the league; that’s not really the criteria at the bottom of the barrel. What you can do is build a fun, high-octane offense utilizing Vucevic’s shooting threat and solid passing, and then hope your defense is just bad enough to make the play-in. Fortunately, he’s in the perfect place for just that role.

24. Mitchell Robinson: New York Knicks

Nikola Vucevic and Mitchell Robinson, residing next to each other, coalesce into the perfect NBA Ying and Yang. While Vucevic is an offensively skilled defensive liability, Robinson is a defensive stud with all the finesse of a caveman who just discovered fermentation. The contrast in skills is striking, and Vucevic’s incredible durability is juxtaposed by Robinson’s incredible ability to dwell on IR-land. So why is Robinson ahead of Vucevic? Well, I’d rather have a great defensive center than merely a solid offensive contributor, and Robinson’s offensive shortcomings are largely offset by the fact that he is an insanely good offensive rebounder. Over the past four seasons, his offensive rebound rate of 18.3% puts him in the Steven Adams tier of kaiju. If Robinson plays 60 games, he’s easily a tier above, but he’s just as likely to play half a season as he is to play a quarter, and that’s a serious flaw.

23. Mark Williams: Phoenix Suns

I don’t feel good about having Mark Williams on this list, but I’d feel worse about not having him on it at all. The injuries concern me. The defense concerns me. But the scoring touch and size are too intriguing. Williams has done absolutely nothing to deserve to be here, but he’s young and inexperienced enough that I’ll grant him the grace of potential one last time. Guys who can score like he can at the center position don’t exactly grow on trees, and he’s so big that I still believe a coach could quickly get his defensive impact to neutral, instead of negative. Like seriously, I cannot stress enough how big this guy is. Since 2001, his standing reach of 117 inches (9.75 feet) is the second longest measured at the NBA combine. While that doesn’t include Victor Wembanyama or Kristaps Porzingis, the fact remains that if Mark Williams can just stand next to the basket, he should be pretty good.

22. Daniel Gafford: Dallas Mavericks

As a Wizards fan, let me tell you, we haven’t done a lot of smart shit in my lifetime, but turning Moritz Wagner, Troy Brown Jr., and Stone Cold Hard Cash into Daniel Gafford was one of their better moves (obviously, the bar is not that high). Honestly, a screenshot of this three-team trade is necessary because it contains half of the league’s quality backup bigs.

Gafford has proven to be a capable starting center and is maybe the most overqualified backup in the league. And now, he might be the Mavericks’ third-string big. He’s one of the best rim runners and finishers in the league, and is solid enough at protecting the rim and moving his feet that he probably counts as a moderately plus defender. There’s not a lot more to Gafford’s game, but vertical spacing and rim defense are super valuable.

Tier 3 - Quality Complimentary Piece

21. Onyeka Okongwu: Atlanta Hawks

What’s a guy got to do to get a starting gig around here? Onyeka Okongwu spent the first four years of his career backing up Clint Capela, then finally took the starting job in January, and proceeded to average 15 points and 10.1 rebounds, while posting an eFG% of 62.3%. He even attempted 2.4 threes a game on 36.2% shooting for good measure. So, what did the Hawks do? They traded for Kristaps Porzingis. Okongwu, due to his size, isn’t the most dominant rim protector, but he’s incredibly mobile and can credibly switch onto perimeter players. If you want to play a certain style of defense, you can’t do much better, and despite his size, he’s been very efficient as a finisher around the basket. Honestly, I think Okongwu will start a bunch of games this year and will continue to be awesome. He could very easily shoot up these rankings, but there’s enough uncertainty over his playing time that I can’t get too bullish.

20. Myles Turner: Milwaukee Bucks

Look, this happens every year, but players on teams that make surprise playoff runs always get overrated. Over the past three seasons, Turner’s 2024-25 saw him average his fewest points (15.6) and rebounds (6.5) per game, despite averaging his most minutes per game in that span. His eFG% dropped to 57.7%, even though he shot a career best from 3-point range (39.6%), because his 2-point efficiency cratered to 56.1%. It should also be mentioned that he wasn’t particularly good in the playoffs either. He averaged 13.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game on an eFG% of 55.5%. This isn’t meant to bash Turner; it’s just me preemptively defending a ranking that I assume will be shocking. Simply put, he appears to be in decline, and if his 3-point shooting regresses to his career average of 36.2%, suddenly he does look a lot like the 20th-best center in the league. Turner’s rim protection remains his best defensive attribute, but he is an absolutely dreadful positional rebounder. People called the Pacers cheap for letting Turner walk, but when you look at how his production has trended, they almost certainly made the right call. Floor spacing centers are super valuable, even if they’re not great, but I think Turner isn’t nearly as good as the next guy.

19. Brook Lopez: Los Angeles Clippers

I know Brook Lopez is 37, but I simply don’t care. Splash Mountain is coming off a season where he averaged 13 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game, which is almost identical to the 13 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game he averaged over his seven seasons in Milwaukee. Throw in the fact that his efficiency remains as stellar as ever, and I’m all in on Brook Lopez being the best backup big in the NBA this year. Lopez’s rim protection metrics weren’t quite as good this past season as they had been in the past, but those figures are noisy year-to-year, and in 2023-24, he was excellent. Lopez won’t be great forever, but I don’t see any reason for him to suddenly fall off. Size, skill, and IQ tend to age really well, and that’s what fueled his career renaissance in the first place.

18. Jalen Duren: Detroit Pistons

Duren’s ranking is a big bet on his potential. While he possesses all the physical attributes to be an excellent defender, an excellent defender he is not. It is concerning that, as a center, he only averaged 5.2 defended field goal attempts six feet or closer to the basket per game last season. To put that in perspective, Tyrese Haliburton, Jamal Murray, and Cade Cunningham all averaged more. Duren is an excellent defensive rebounder, but he should be a force on defense, and I think he will continue to improve on that end. However, offensively, he’s already showing signs of life. He’s a strong offensive rebounder, an excellent finisher at the rim, and is a surprisingly solid passer. Remember, Duren only turns 22 in November. He still has a ton of developmental runway, and I think there’s a good chance he takes a mini-leap in year four.

17. Dereck Lively II: Dallas Mavericks

If it wasn’t for Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren, Dereck Lively II would be the no-doubt best young defender in the NBA. His combination of size, length, and speed allows him to defend a preposterous amount of ground, and it’s what makes him one of the more exciting young players. His offensive game is raw, but he’s a certified B-52 Bomber of an aerial threat, and he might actually be a good passer. The biggest issue facing Lively is the injuries. He’s only played 91 games across two seasons. If he can stay healthy, there’s every reason to believe he’ll challenge for an All-Defense team selection. However, he hasn’t been able to stay healthy, and availability is the best ability.

16. Walker Kesler: Utah Jazz

People tend to sleep on centers because they don’t do the “cool stuff,” but cool stuff didn’t get us to the moon, and “no rebounds, no rings,” and “defense wins championships,” and all that old man yells at 3-point shot stuff. Walker Kesler isn’t really a throwback, but he plays the center position in its most distilled form. He’s an elite offensive and defensive rebounder, he protects the rim, he throws down dunks, and that’s enough to be a highly productive player. There’s a zero point zero, zero, zero percent chance Kesler will become a star, but he’s so good at the important things that he’ll almost certainly have a ten-plus year career as a highly effective starter. The Jazz will probably suck, but Kesler should make them regular bad when he’s on the court, instead of the Event Horizon “let me dig my own eyes out” levels they’re capable of.

Interlude: Now we’re getting to the good part. Honestly, the next four guys could probably have their own micro-tier, but as Sun Tzier said in The Art of Tiers, “A tier maker knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there are no tiers left to take away.”

15. Isaiah Hartenstein: Oklahoma City Thunder

Winning a championship is hard, but it’s a whole lot easier when you have a guy like Hartenstein. The dude is an excellent interior defender, nasty screen setter, has a floater game straight out of the Balkans, can rebound with the best of them, and is quietly one of the best passing centers in the league (3.8 assists per game). As far as role players go, Hartenstein is in that tier where he’s a star in his role. Does he have flaws? Well, duh, he’s ranked 15th, but they hardly matter when he’s so good at so many important things. What’s important is that even though Harentstein has limitations, they’re not so severe that they fundamentally alter what you can do when he’s on the court, and his strengths are worthy enough to be featured. If the Thunder are going to repeat, they’ll need Hartenstein to be the player he’s been, and there’s little reason not to expect that.

14. Kristaps Porzingis: Atlanta Hawks

I’m giving Porzingis a mulligan for last season. His start was delayed due to injury, and then he had a mysterious virus that lingered for months. Despite all of that, he still averaged 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game on an eFG% of 57.2%. If that sounds good, that’s because that is good. Porzingis is an excellent rim protector and is the best floor spacing center in the league. His quick release and willingness to fire forces defenses to bend outwardly like no other center can. When you throw in his ability to ruthlessly exploit mismatches with a mid-range ripthrough, you’ve got yourself a true three-level threat. Outside of the massive health question mark, the two biggest holes in his game are rebounding and perimeter defense, which is fine when you’re as good as he is. If Porzingis can stay healthy, he’s probably in the tier above, but he hasn’t played more than 70 games since his rookie season, so I wouldn’t bank on him ever being healthy for long.

Tier 2 - Build a High-Level Offense/Defense Around

13. Ivica Zubac: Los Angeles Clippers

The 2024-25 season was almost certainly Zubac’s career year. He was 27, posted career highs in points (16.8), rebounds (12.6), and assists (2.7) per game, made the All-Defense second team, finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and even received the 18th most votes for All-NBA. My defensive player of the year methodology actually had Zubac as the winner, even though it didn’t place him first on a rate basis.

Now, I don’t think Zubac is suddenly a top-10 center. He might have anchored the Clippers’ elite defense, but Kris Dunn was perhaps even more impactful. His scoring is also likely to tick down with a healthier season from Kawhi Leonard and all of the Clippers’ other additions. Zubac is awesome, durable, and great at all the things you need a center to be great at, and has an argument as the best overall rebounder in the league. However, he’d need to be a bit more special on offense or defense to rank higher.

12. Jarrett Allen: Cleveland Cavaliers

Allen and Zubac are very similar to me in that they’re great players, but you never get the sense that they’re the guy unlocking their team’s highest level. Allen is certainly underrated as a defender, and it’s insane he’s never made an All-Defensive team, but he’s not even the best defender on his own team. On offense, he’s an efficiency monster, leading the league in eFG% last season at 70.6%, but he also sported a 15.9% usage rate. Allen is a terrific player in the perfect role, and while he makes his team better, he isn’t irreplaceable, which matters. He’s also ranked 12th! Which makes him a top-50 player.

11. Rudy Gobert: Minnesota Timberwolves

Is Rudy Gobert what he once was? Nope, but if he were, he’d be a hell of a lot higher than 11th. Bitch all you want about Gobert, but if you can’t appreciate him for the all-time player he is, then you simply DO NOT KNOW BALL. Yeah, I said it. Gobert is one of the most impactful defensive players of all time, and he remains excellent on that end to this day. His offensive contributions have never amounted to much more than rim running and offensive rebounding, but when you’re the best at the most important thing on defense, you don’t need to do nearly as much on offense. Age is clearly catching up to Gobert, but I think he still has another season or two as the anchor for a top-tier defense. Anthony Edwards gets most of the credit for the Timberwolves’ turnaround in recent seasons, but there’s an argument that Gobert has been their most important player. As a disgraced current general manager once said, “Defense wins championships.”

10. Domantas Sabonis: Sacramento Kings

I honestly do not know how you rank Domantas Sabonis. On the one hand, he’s one of the most durable and productive centers in the league. On the other hand, I would never actually want him to be on my team. Sticking to the production side, over the past six seasons, Sabonis has averaged 69.5 games per season and 19.2 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per game on an eFG% of 59.8%. It doesn’t take a math genius to know that those are absolutely bonkers numbers, but his teams have only posted a +1.1 net rating and on/off net rating with him on the court. I view Sabonis as an elite statistical compiler, whose inability to defend torches all the good he does on offense. Now, to be fair, he has never really played on an optimized roster, but I think there’s a reason for that. He’s not nearly good enough to fully commit to. The case for Sabonis as a top-five center is there, but so is the one that relegates him near the bottom third. I’ve decided to split the difference and rank him tenth because we’ve seen just how devastating an offense you can build with him as the fulcrum.

9. Bam Adebayo: Miami Heat

Something that I’ve found interesting has been the complete lack of concern/awareness surrounding Bam Adebayo’s decline. The 2024-25 season was clearly a bad year for Adebayo. His scoring dropped to 18.1 points per game, and he posted his worst eFG% (52.1%) since his rookie season. The thing is, it wasn’t an aberration, but rather a continuation of a decline that started in 2020-21. Since a high of 57.1% in 2020-21, Adebayo’s eFG% has declined every season. If his scoring usage was ramping up, it wouldn’t be a huge concern, but his field goal attempts plus free throw attempts divided by two per 36 minutes, a quick way to gauge shot volume, has stayed between 16.35 and 18.2. Look, Adebayo remains an excellent and versatile defender, but his offense has been trending in the wrong direction. The Heat probably need Adebayo to be better than the ninth-best center to get where they want to go, but unless he unlocks something on offense, we might have already seen his best.

8. Chet Holmgren: Oklahoma City Thunder

Being on a historically great team is a double-edged sword. Sure, you get to win all the time, make deep playoff runs, barely touch your Michelob Ultra atop a bus, and be lauded as a winner, but it also means sacrificing some statistical production and sharing the limelight. Chet Holmgren is absurdly good, but he’s the third-most famous player on his own team. However, I think that changes this year. Holmgren is the perfect power forward-center hybrid that the modern game has been shifting towards. He can defend the rim and in space. He can space the floor and put it on the deck. He can be your center or play next to one. He’s the ideal player if you want to play big and bruising, yet perfect if you’re feeling loose and fast with it. After Victor Wembanyama, Holmgren is probably the second-best defender in the league, and he’s only scratching the surface on offense. The injuries are concerning, but they’ve both been freak fractures, instead of troubling soft tissue tears or malignant ligaments. We may never learn if Holmgren can be the guy, but if that’s the case, he’ll have more rings than Saturn.

7. Jaren Jackson Jr: Memphis Grizzlies

While I personally don’t believe Jaren Jackson Jr is a center, that doesn’t mean he isn’t an excellent player. The 2022-23 Defensive Player of the Year remains a fantastic defender, but his offensive growth over the past two seasons is why he ranks so highly. A true three-level scorer now, Jackson is one of the most complete players in the league. His only deficiencies are his lackluster passing and awful rebounding. Honestly, if Jackson were an average positional rebounder, he’d be in my top five. Unfortunately, his inability to chair the boards is what makes him more of a power forward than a center. Still, this is a player who has averaged 21.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocked shots per game over the past three seasons, and while it feels like he’s always injured, he has averaged 70.25 games played per season over the past four years. The Grizzlies didn’t move heaven and Earth to renegotiate and extend him out of the kindness of their hearts. They did it because they know Triple-J is a certified G.

6. Karl-Anthony Towns: New York Knicks

For a player who helped two franchises break incredibly long Conference Finals appearance droughts in consecutive seasons, people sure do not like Karl-Anthony Towns. And to be completely fair, I totally get it. He moves around the court like a Hanna Barbera cartoon, his trademark exasperated plea of innocence after he commits his third dumb-as-fuck foul is unsightly, and the man is just so uncool. Now, most of what ails Towns comes down to superficial high school bullshit because the guy is an incredible player. Since his rookie season, a span of nine seasons, he has averaged 23.8 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game on an eFG% 9% better than league average, leading to five All-Star selections and three All-NBA teams. Towns is one of the best 3-point shooting bigs in history, although I wish he ramped up the volume, and his offensive game alone makes him a star. Unfortunately, his defense is comically bad. Why is it so bad? No one knows. He’s big, strong, and athletic, but he is somehow always lost on defense. The tools to be at least an average defender have always been there, but after a decade, it’s fair to believe he is what he is. Which isn’t bad. NBA history is littered with offensive forces who possess questionable defensive chops.

Tier 1 - Build a High-Level Team Around

5. Alperen Sengun: Houston Rockets

Am I too high on Alperen Sengun? Well, we’re about to find out. I’ve been touting Sengun as a future star since before he was drafted. The dude won MVP of the Turkish league as an 18-year-old and somehow slipped to 16th in the draft. Not to be reductive, but if you can do that, then you’re going to be a good NBA player. Among centers, he’s already the league’s third-best isolation creator, behind Jokic and Embiid, and he’s only 23. For all the concerns about his defense, he’s improved dramatically on that end and has been a key cog in the Rockets Red Army approach to basketball. With the addition of Kevin Durant and the loss of Fred VanVleet, Sengun needs to level up into a true top-15 player for the Rockets to reach their ceiling of a contender. I think Sengun is more than up to the task because players who are this productive, this early in their careers, almost always become stars.

4. Anthony Davis: Dallas Mavericks

I know Anthony Davis views himself as a power forward, but let’s not hold that against him. Davis is not a power forward. Can he play there? Sure. Should he when it’s nut-cutting time? Absolutely not. As a center, few players can defend the rim and perimeter as well as Davis, and he remains one of the most efficient pick-and-roll partners in the game. Unfortunately, he seems to reject everything that makes him special. He wants to play power forward, isolate, and take mid-range jumpers. It’s nice that he can do those things, but they’re best used sparingly. Fortunately, NBA coaches want to keep their jobs, so they let Davis do enough superfluous nonsense to keep him content before they force him to do the things that make him devastating. Health has been an issue for Davis throughout his career, but when healthy, he can absolutely be the backbone of a high-level team. The Mavericks were insane to trade Luka Doncic, but getting Anthony Davis in return was the most rational part of it.

3. Joel Embiid: Philadelphia 76ers

This ranking could be far too high, but I’m not willing to give up on Embiid as a top-tier player until I see that when healthy, he doesn’t have the juice. If it wasn’t for Nikola Jokic, Embiid would have had a clear runway as the best center in the world for a half-decade run. So instead of securing multiple MVPs, he has one participation trophy because NBA Awards voters seem hell-bent on making sure as many people have an MVP as reasonably possible. Despite my awards grievances, Embiid is an absolute monster. He’s an elite scorer who has improved just enough as a passer to balance out his offensive game, and he’s one of the best drop coverage bigs in the world. If you have a fully operational Embiid, you’re a playoff lock, and it doesn’t take much to be a true contender. The only thing left for Embiid to conquer is the playoffs, but to do so, he’ll need to be healthy. I’m hoping he has a few more years left in the tank at an elite level, but I will concede that he may be physically cooked.

2. Victor Wembanyama: San Antonio Spurs

Victor Wembanyama is the greatest defensive player in NBA history. I don’t want to hear any rebuttals. He just is. He terrifies the opposition in a way I’ve never seen. His combination of size, length, agility, and speed allows him to cover more cubic meters than any human in history, and at the end of the day, that’s what defense is about. He also shot 35.2% on 8.8 3-point attempts per game, and 80.9% on shots three feet and in. Also, have you seen some of the passes he makes? Wembanyama was the greatest prospect ever because he might simply be the greatest player ever. He doesn’t turn 22 until January, and there’s a chance he’ll be the best player in the world by then. I still think he’s a season or two away from that, but until then, he’ll have to settle for being a top-five player in the world.

1. Nikola Jokic: Denver Nuggets

Nikola Jokic is on perhaps the greatest individual five-season run since the NBA-ABA merger. Over the past five seasons, he has led the league in Box Plus/Minus (BPM) and Value Over a Replacement Player (VORP) every season, and Win Shares (WS) and Win Shares per 48 (WS/48) in four out of five seasons. His BPM of 13.1 and WS/48 of .302 over this span is the single greatest contiguous five-season stretch in NBA history. Oh yeah, he’s also the all-time leader in PER, WS/48, BPM, and OBPM. Is Jokic slowing down as he turns 30? Well, he just averaged 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game on the league’s sixth-best true shooting percentage. He is by far the best offensive player in the league, and honestly, he might be the greatest ever. Jokic is already a top ten player ever, and he’s rampaging towards the top five. He’s still in his prime, and as the best player in the world, he’s also the league’s best center.

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That concludes my center rankings. If you’ve made it this far, I’d love a comment on omissions and any rankings you did or did not like. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for the next installment.

For any inquiries about work, discussion, and the like, you can email me at nevin.l.brown@gmail.com.