Wher have the Centers gone???????

[Vol4ever]

Since I'm a old timer around here I was scanning rosters to see who maybe the Hawks could pick up for veteran shot blocking and rebounding. The answer was none......nada. The only two legit names I see are Mutumbo and maybe Ratliff, both have played here. Deke is old as the hills but my provide 15-20 mins a game and Theo can't or won't rebound and not sure what is salary is anyway.

But, I remember a time that we had Olajuwon, Ewing, Jabber, Mutumbo, Seikly, Parish, Tree Rollins, Bill Cartwright,Moses Malone and so on.

Are the bigs gone or is it just a case of they want to play on the wing and shoot threes. How many legit centers are there in the league today????? Shaq, Yao, Duncan (PF?), who else?

If you are an old timer just think about it

[Weez]

It's not just you...if you're privy to the efficiency ratings that Hollinger posted today...Zaza's about 14th...go figure.

[TheDude]

yeah, i was thinking about that the other day too. what odd about it is that the true center seems to have gone to the wayside although having one seems to be a highly demanded position..

you would think someone out there, a high school coach or college coach, would be telling their kids this..

i think one of the reasons is the flashiness of the guards..i think shaq or someone said once that everyone wants to be a guard...they have all the highlights..if i'm a coach, i'm telling ogden to concentrate on being the next olajuwon.

[KB21]

I saw those ratings, and I think Hollinger is generally full of sh!t.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

If you go back in the day, a lot of the centers back then were under 7 feet. Most were around the 6-9 to 6-10 mark. And they weren't soft either.

People make a big deal in pointing out that Duncan isn't a center, he's a PF. LOL . . the hell he is. Duncan is a center. Amare is a center. Rahseed Wallace is a center, even if he wants to be a 2-guardKG should be a center and is at times.

Point is, most of your PF's in this league could very well play center for a team. It's just that a lot of these guys are just soft and can't play defense like a center, from an intimidation/shot blocking standpoint. And on offense, they'd rather shoot 15 foot jumpers all day, instead of banging bodies down low and getting their points from 7 feet and in.

[Weez]

if you're going 'back in the day', centers would be those who score and pf's would be the teams' enforecers and all-round 'tough guys', not expected to score much...

[TheNorthCydeRises]

True.

These days, it's almost like the roles are reversed. As far as toughness goes, neither the PFs or the Cs for the most part, are tough. They couldn't be enforcers at a small Division II school.