Chris Kaman, Second Best NBA Center

With Yao Ming out for the year, the NBA has a hole to fill. Dwight Howard is the obvious best center in the league. However figuring out number two is kind of tough. Plain and simple there are not very many choices these days.

Although Andrew Bynum remains the center with the biggest upside, Chris Kaman is the man performing at the highest level (other than Howard). Kaman is averaging 19.4 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.3 blocks. His team, the LA Clippers, have improved a lot this year.

Another name brought up, Amare Stoudemire, is tough to judge. Simply I do not consider him a center. If I have to put him on the list then he is obviously the second best in the league. However in this article I am going to exclude him.

Just because I have Chris Kaman as my number two center this year doesn’t mean I’m high on him. I think he is very solid, but he is far from a superstar player. Unfortunately the quality of the position is pretty depleted. The days of Patrick Ewing,  Hakeem Olajuwan and Shaq are gone.

With Yao in the mix there are two legitimate star centers in the league, without him there will once again be a mediocre player (Bynum), or a player out of position (Stoudemire) starting in the All-Star game. For a few years it was the East that had to pick someone undeserving (Ilgauskas) . Now it is the West’s turn.

The encouraging news is that there is a pretty decent group of youngsters who could become stars at the center position in the next couple of years. None of them looks like a shoe-in for a Hall-of-Fame career, but hopefully at least one of them makes the jump to superstar.

Marc Gasol- Traditional center. Great FG %. Tough rebounder. Decent FT %. May not have enough “flash” to get to the next level.

Brook Lopez- Best chance at being a star. If his team starts winning he will get a lot of attention.

David Lee- I think he has reached his potential. Solid player, but no star.

Nene- Will he ever be healthy enough to become a star? Another guy that seems like a power forward to me.

Andrew Bogut- Playing with Jennings could make him a star, but probably not. Another guy who is probably already at his prime.

Andrew Bynum- Predicting his ceiling is like guessing a number between one and a hundred. His upside is pretty big though.

Al Jefferson- Very big upside. If he can learn toughness from Rambis and improve his offensive game he could get to the Hall.

Another bad note about the state of NBA centers. There is not one single rookie at the position that I think will be a star. David Andersen of Houston could prove me wrong, but I think that Hasheem Thabeet will be an absolute bust.

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