Who is the best center in the league?

[halfHAVOC]

When Healthy?

Yao Ming is miles ahead offensively, and not much of a drop off on the defensive end, ill take him over any center in the league when healthy.

[omfgfcku2]

I would Yao Ming over Dwight Howard any day.

[SteveNash3424213421J]

Yao Ming, although this poll is kind of stupid. Howard isn't even in the top 10 for centers.

[тояоито яаρтσяѕ]

Yao Ming from these 2.
Dwight isn't even that dominate, he cant take over a game, he can't create for himself, his go to move is a catch and dunk, and that is stoppable as we all have seen already.

[orlandojumpoff]

You can't say healthy yao because he's never healthy. This isn't fantasy land.

Yao is too brittle; being injury prone is a huge negative for a contending team. Dwight is built like a truck and you never question whether he can make it through a season or post season. With Yao, you always question it. If a player can't physically play, his offensive skills don’t mean anything. Those who would rather have Yao on their team than Dwight, your team would never make it to the finals because your “best center in the league” would most likely be on the bench in a suit when it matters most. He’s the new grant hill; highly skilled, but always injured so it doesn’t matter.

Dwight may be inferior away from the basket right now, but he still scored slightly more than Yao and at a higher percentage this season. I like Yao a lot for his offensive skills, but defense is what you want out of your center. Where Dwight lacks in offensive skills, he makes up with his speed and athleticism. Plus, Dwight averages 4 more rebounds and 1 more blk on average than Yao, which is huge. You simply can’t ignore those numbers. People can knock Dwight for his lack of offensive moves all they want, Yao is slow and can't jump off the ground which hurts his game just as much. He's 7'6 and only averages 10 rebounds. When a star center is on a contending team, he should be blocking shots and grabbing rebounds. Well not only is Dwight grabbing those rebounds and blocking shots, he’s scoring 21pts per game too. With the way people focus on his lack of moves, you’d think he was scoring as little as Dennis Rodman.

I would've picked Yao maybe up until 2008, but after that I say Dwight for sure.
Defensively minded & durable 21pts 14reb 3blk > Offensively minded injury prone 20pts 10reb 2 blk

[CarlLandry14]

Originally Posted by orlandojumpoff

You can't say healthy yao because he's never healthy. This isn't fantasy land.

Yao is too brittle; being injury prone is a huge negative for a contending team. Dwight is built like a truck and you never question whether he can make it through a season or post season. With Yao, you always question it. If a player can't physically play, his offensive skills don’t mean anything. Those who would rather have Yao on their team than Dwight, your team would never make it to the finals because your “best center in the league” would most likely be on the bench in a suit when it matters most. He’s the new grant hill; highly skilled, but always injured so it doesn’t matter.

Dwight may be inferior away from the basket right now, but he still scored slightly more than Yao and at a higher percentage this season. I like Yao a lot for his offensive skills, but defense is what you want out of your center. Where Dwight lacks in offensive skills, he makes up with his speed and athleticism. Plus, Dwight averages 4 more rebounds and 1 more blk on average than Yao, which is huge. You simply can’t ignore those numbers. People can knock Dwight for his lack of offensive moves all they want, Yao is slow and can't jump off the ground which hurts his game just as much. He's 7'6 and only averages 10 rebounds. When a star center is on a contending team, he should be blocking shots and grabbing rebounds. Well not only is Dwight grabbing those rebounds and blocking shots, he’s scoring 21pts per game too. With the way people focus on his lack of moves, you’d think he was scoring as little as Dennis Rodman.

I would've picked Yao maybe up until 2008, but after that I say Dwight for sure.
Defensively minded & durable 21pts 14reb 3blk > Offensively minded injury prone 20pts 10reb 2 blk

Um actually you would rather have an offensive minded big man who is JUST good defensively than a defensive minded Big man who is JUST good offensively.

The only defensive minded big man that has actually won the championship and the Finals MVP would be Bill Russell and it ends from there.

[orlandojumpoff]

Originally Posted by CarlLandry14

Um actually you would rather have an offensive minded big man who is JUST good defensively than a defensive minded Big man who is JUST good offensively.

The only defensive minded big man that has actually won the championship and the Finals MVP would be Bill Russell and it ends from there.

Yao isn't exactly out there scoring a lot of points now is he? For an offensive minded big, 20pts/game at a lower percentage isn't going to cut it when comparing these two centers IMO. At least not when Dwight just had such a good year. At their offensive output level right now, dominant defense contributes more to the team's success. That's why i say i'd rather have Dwight's 21pts and defense. If possible, you want your center out there rebounding and blocking shots. Dwight is doing that much better than Yao and he's still scoring more.

When Dwight goes out there, there's always a chance he'll grab 20+ rebounds and that is absolutely huge in a game. I can't say the same for Yao. Dwight had four 21+ rebound games during the playoffs, they won 3 of those games and the other one should've been a win as well if it weren't for the inexperienced magic players and staff choking on both ends of the floor in the final minutes. I think Yao has had only three or four 20+ rebound games in his entire nba career and those came 4 or 5 years ago. Howard had 14 of them this season alone and many of them were 20/20 games too. I just can't see how you can disregard huge rebounding numbers in favor of offensive moves with the same point average but lower %. Like i said, it’s not like Yao’s offensive numbers are impressive enough to overshadow what Dwight is doing with his athleticism.

When Yao starts scoring more AND can stay healthy, I’ll reconsider for sure – especially if Dwight doesn’t improve this off season. But right now, Yao's poor durability and his numbers don't give him the nod over dwight imo.

Maybe it's just me, but 1 mvp vote compared to 328 votes doesn't quite scream best center in the league to me.

[BPT7]

As much as I hate Yao Min gI have to admit it he is the best Center in the leauge he just isnt a high flying fan friendly dunker like Dwigth which might make him seem that way but Yao is most fundamentally sound & has the best moves. Dwigth can dunk & muscle you fro rebounds that it. Yao Ming both his footwork & strength. Shame on those who said Dwight.

Originally Posted by HMZ28

you should add pau gasol in the poll ...

if you add pau into the mix he now becomes the best center.

[Infamous™]

Yao Ming is probably the best.

[BoogieFan]

Lol at Kobetmacnyao going at it again, that and the point forward subject will just always come back some way or another as long as he's here, gosh. He's like the not thuggish version of Flowmotion.

Now on the subject, in my opinion Yao is better , but let's get something straight. 2K8 was mentioning how much fantasies it was to say stuff like "Dwight only has to add some post moves to his arsenal" and although it is, it is just as much to say that Yao is the best when ehalthy, because he's never healthy. The talent is obviously there, but I don't ever see him win a Championship because he's always out when it counts, most talented center or not, if you can't get your team further because you are unjury plagued, i don't want you. And thus i would take Howard, yes skills-wise he is inferior to Yao, but his mentality and toughness make him a good centerpiece to a championship caliber team.