Dallas Mavericks centers since 1998: who would you start in your team?

[moaz]

I started with 1998. We always read how stacked Dirk's Mavs team were. As a Mavs fan I never thought that we were that stacked because one of the the lasting memories I have through the 00's was that every pre-season I wondered which center are we gonna get to replace Bradley\Dampier, jut to get disappointed year after year.

With the exemption of 2011 Chandler (Ring), which of these formidable athletes would uou start as a center in your team?

1998-99
Shawn Bradley
Chris Anstey
Bruno Sundov
Hot Rod Williams

1999-2000
Shawn Bradley
Sean Rooks
Bruno Sundov

2000-01
Shawn Bradley
Wang Zhizhi
Christian Laettner
Calvin Booth

2001-02
Shawn Bradley
Wang Zhizhi
Raef LaFrentz
Evan Eschmeyer

2002-03
Shawn Bradley
Raef LaFrentz
Evan Eschmeyer

2003-04
Shawn Bradley
Scott Williams
Mamadou N'Diaye

2004-05
Shawn Bradley
Calvin Booth
Pavel Podkolzin
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga
Erick Dampier (the arrival of the savior)

2005-06
Pavel Podkolzin
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga
Erick Dampier
DeSagana Diop

2006-07
Didier Ilunga-Mbenga
Erick Dampier
DeSagana Diop

2007-08
Erick Dampier
DeSagana Diop
Jamaal Magloire
Brandon Bass

2008-09
Erick Dampier
DeSagana Diop
Brandon Bass
Ryan Hollins

2009-10
Erick Dampier
Brendan Haywood
Drew Gooden

2010-11
Brendan Haywood
Tyson Chandler
Ian Mahinmi
Alexis Ajinca

2011-12
Brendan Haywood
Ian Mahinmi
Brandan Wright
Sean Williams

2012-13
Brandan Wright
Chris Kaman
Bernard James
Eddy Curry
Elton Brand

2013-14
Brandan Wright
Bernard James
Samuel Dalembert

2014-15 (looks thin again, hope Chandler remains healthy)
Tyson Chandler
Brandan Wright
Greg Smith

[Aussie Dunker]

I always saw a potential beast in Diop - never developed into much though - was HUGE and powerful, just didn't click though...

[magnax1]

Was Bradley still good in 99? He was pretty good early in his career IIRC

[Akrazotile]

I personally can never get enough Wang Zhizhi

[Locked_Up_Tonight]

The two years in which Dirk had a quality defensive center next to him... he made the NBA Finals.

[L.Kizzle]

Prime Hot Rod Williams.

[MC Gusto]

I'm going to be a Maverick :lol and say Erick Dampier.

[qrich]

Yet, that list is better than Clipper point guards from 98 until Paul came in, with the exception of Cassell.

[gasolina]

Shawn Bradley was a beast in NBA Live.

I say NBA live coz you can pretty much cover the entire paint with his length on D. The "ice skates" also made it easier to challenge everything on site

I remember Calvin Booth..... oh the humanity.

They even had a year with Bradley, Chris Anstey, and Dirk starting frontcourt.

[chocolatethunder]

I always saw a potential beast in Diop - never developed into much though - was HUGE and powerful, just didn't click though...
he was just large. Man that kid was a stiff. He was useless I mean absolutely useless on offense. Thus guy made $47million in his career and never averaged more than 3pts a game and never aver averaged more than 5.4 rbs per game. All while shooting 43% from the field and 47% from the line. Damn he was terrible. I remember when he came into the league and all the talk of his potential. What a joke. The only potential he had was his size. He had no skill and wasn't a stud athlete.

[HylianNightmare]

Gooden

[masonanddixon]

Gooden

I actually really liked him On dallas but finding minutes for him at the 5 was too difficult

[wally_world]

Raef probably the best player of the bunch

[MiseryCityTexas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq3_eSnYW1o

[MiseryCityTexas]

Shawn Bradley was a beast in NBA Live.

I say NBA live coz you can pretty much cover the entire paint with his length on D. The "ice skates" also made it easier to challenge everything on site

I remember Calvin Booth..... oh the humanity.

They even had a year with Bradley, Chris Anstey, and Dirk starting frontcourt.


Calvin Booth was actually a pretty good role player on the Sonics, but idiot GMs basically gave him a lot of money just off of a few good games he played.

[QuebecBaller]

Raef probably the best player of the bunch

When Reaf is the best, it's not a good thing :oldlol:

[gasolina]

Calvin Booth was actually a pretty good role player on the Sonics, but idiot GMs basically gave him a lot of money just off of a few good games he played.
Seems like a common thing for Centers to play a few good games in Sonics uniform and get a good deal

[MiseryCityTexas]

Seems like a common thing for Centers to play a few good games in Sonics uniform and get a good deal


All Calvin Booth really could do was block shots and get transition buckets every once in a while ,but couldn't rebound nor play one on one defense for shit. He was just an average player on the Mavs and and Sonics, then just became sorrier than what he already was after he started getting contracts.

[moaz]

I always saw a potential beast in Diop - never developed into much though - was HUGE and powerful, just didn't click though...

That is the story of 95% of all Mavericks drafts/trades :mad:.
Any one remembers Rodrigue Beaubois?

I really liked some of the above listed centers as characters (Mbenga, Bradley, Diop, Gooden, Kaman), but it didn't change the fact that they sucked almost always.

[SCdac]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.

[Nash]

the one who was the dpoy

[moaz]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.

In 7 years here I've never had an argument with a Spurs fan (you) but :facepalm:

Eh... what does Duncan, Nesterovic, Garnett or Perkins have to do with this thread about Dallas centers?

And just to make you happy, I also believe that Duncan is "individually" a better player than Dirk.

[SCdac]

In 7 years here I've never had an argument with a Spurs fan (you) but :facepalm:

Eh... what does Duncan, Nesterovic, Garnett or Perkins have to do with this thread about Dallas centers?

And just to make you happy, I also believe that Duncan is "individually" a better player than Dirk.

Dirk and the Mavs are not alone in the NBA and without pointing out what his comparable's were playing with (ie. some context and perspective), it's pointless to just point out which centers he was playing with and essentially say "they were bad, right?". I can understand that Dampier, etc, are not All-Stars, but how many All-Star centers could the Mavs conceivably get? How much more over the cap did the Mavs have to go than they already were? The reality is, the Mavs could get what they got. Of the list, I'd take Tyson Chandler, because that pretty much what it took to turn the Mavs defense around. Before him, it was Avery Johnson instilling Spurs-like system and philosophy that turned their defense around.

[MiseryCityTexas]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.


Perkins served his purpose and clogged the lanes, and protected the paint on defense. Perkins blocked a couple of shots every now and then too. Rondo also knew how to set up to get Perkin's easy points in the paint also compared to ball hogging Westbrook.

[secund2nun]

Eh... Duncan won next to Rasho "slow as ****" Nesterovic... Garnett won next to Kendrick "why is he ever starting?" Perkins... What's the point? ... Having a great defensive POWER forward helps.

Great defensive PFs that can anchor the paint like KG, Rodman, Ben Wllace and Duncan are very rare. Aside from these super rare exceptions only centers can be defensive anchors.

Look at all of the other great PFs...none of them could do it:

Dirk
Malone
Barkley
Love
Bosh
Aldridge
Griffin
etc

[SCdac]

Great defensive PFs that can anchor the paint like KG, Rodman, Ben Wllace and Duncan are very rare. Aside from these super rare exceptions only centers can be defensive anchors.

Look at all of the other great PFs...none of them could do it:

Dirk
Malone
Barkley
Love
Bosh
Aldridge
Griffin
etc

Bosh is not that bad defensively, and he's played center before. Miami the last 3-4 years had some great/elite defense at times. I'd take his defense over Dirk's.

and those players may be rare like you said.... but they win:

KG, Rodman, Duncan, Wallace (Ben or Sheed) = 12 championships

Dirk, Malone, Barkley, Love, Bosh, Griffin = 2 championships

Correlation or coincidence ?

And that's not even mentioning Kevin McHale, who was 6x All Defensive team. Or Anthony Davis, who may go on to do big things (who knows).

While I understand what you're saying, and I know I kinda derailed the thread (apologies), I just think it's unfair to point out all the Mavs centers as if they're the sole problem for Dallas. Maybe it's the fact that Terry was not a great defender, maybe it was the fact that building an elite defense around Dirk was generally not easy and took a ton of money, maybe it was the fact that Dallas was a jump shooting team year after year until the late 2000's.

Tyson Chandler was a #2 overall draft pick and had established himself in New Orleans next to Chris Paul and David West. Part of the reason Mavs got him was he could never stay healthy and therefor his stock dropped, but no doubt he was a proven commodity and helped turn the Mavs around. But if Dirk was an elite defender (not just ok), maybe they could have gone all the way much sooner in his career... It's not that unlikely of an assumption, given Dirk's elite offensive skill.