Insider Special: Who's the 2nd Best Center?

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NBA Scouting Report: Who's the second-best center?

By Terry Brown

Friday, December 6 Updated 10:58 AM EST

Shaquille O'Neal could grab a dump truck full of rebounds, score twice as many points and toss in double-digit blocks after sinking every one of his hard-fought free throws, but at the end of the game he will never be 7-foot-5.

"You might think I'm nuts," said one NBA scout, "but oh, well. Yao Ming it is.

We asked others scouts from around the league. We pleaded. Begged. Who is the second-best center in the NBA?

Vlade Divac hands out 4.5 assists per game, more than a third of the starting point guards in the league including his own. Theo Ratliff could very well be the Defensive Player of the Year at three blocks per game. Michael Olowokandi is only 12 rebounds shy spread out over 17 games of averaging sacred double-doubles on the season. Zydrunas Ilgauskas may be statistically even better.

Yao Ming, right, hasn't been afraid to stand tall against some of the league's best centers.

Dikembe Mutombo is too old, we know. Eddy Curry too young. Pau Gasol not nearly strong enough. Brad Miller deserves mention, so there, we just did.

"The future belongs to Ming," said another scout. "He is just so tall and so blessed with touch. It will take time before he has the total package, but he will be a franchise center."

"He will be a franchise center," said another.

"Franchise center" and so on and so forth.

There are 29 teams in the NBA, but not one center currently in the Top 35 in scoring, only one in the Top 10 in rebounding and that being No. 10, and an undersized power forward at the top of the blocked shots chart, the final domain of the once proud position in the middle.

Franchise?

"You can't teach a person to grow that tall," said one of the scouts. "Yao is only a baby when it comes to NBA basketball, but he's come so far in just a very, very short time."

On Nov. 1, the second game into his rookie season, Yao scored his first basket of his career against the Denver Nuggets. It was the only one he scored in two games.

On Nov. 2, three games into the year, he tallied 10 points against the Raptors.

On Nov. 15, seven games into the year, he scored 20 against the Lakers.

On Nov. 17, eight games into the year, he scored 30 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked two shots against the undefeated Dallas Mavericks.

I know what you're saying. We must have forgotten someone. There's got to be another big guy in the league other than this novelty of a rookie made famous only as the first foreign player ever selected No. 1 in the NBA draft.

We know that there is a taller player already in the league in Shawn Bradley. Manute Bol came from across seas to shoot three-pointers from that high up. They've already compared Yao to 7-foot-4 Rik Smits.

On Dec. 3, in the 17th game of an 82-game regular season, Yao scored 27 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and blocked three shots against the San Antonio Spurs.

"He's been able to hold his own in the paint," said one scout. "I thought he was going to get shoved around in there. But he's got nice touch and range, 15 feet is no problem. It's not the prettiest shot, but it's soft and effective."

"He shoots like a small forward," said another scout. "And he has a great lower body. That's hard to find."

We've already had a 6-foot-9 point guard who is second all time in assists. A 7-footer who plays small forward averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists running on six years. Another one who hits 1.79 three-pointers per game, every game, in the three years since his rookie season at 38 percent. And one 7-footer at power forward who, in his first five seasons, won Rookie of the Year, MVP, Finals MVP and an NBA title.

Maybe it was only a matter of time before a legitimate 7-foot-5 center came into consciousness.

"You've still got to attack him," said one of the scouts. "Get him into foul trouble and beat him off the dribble. He doesn't seem to have his timing yet. He's not the quickest guy and not as aggressive as he needs to be. Offensively, you've just got to beat on him, try to knock him off the block. But pretty soon, we're gonna have to start denying him the ball at the same time as trying to keep him off the glass and then all of a sudden he comes flying in to dunk off a missed shot."

That would be in reference to the San Antonio game against David Robinson and Tim Duncan which, as a matter of record, came after this question was first posed to these scouts.

"When Shaquille O'Neal is finished," said one of them, "Yao Ming will be the dominant center in the league."