Who’s the Best Center In The NBA: Dwight Howard Or Joakim Noah?

Joakim Noah: Offense

Joakim Noah is a fiery NBA player whose basketball capacity goes beyond that of the basic center. Sure, his 12 points per game, especially on an offensively-lacking Bulls team, is nothing to marvel at. Noah lacks a flashy scoring prowess and displays a shortage of post moves, although he more than makes up for his deficiencies with a rare set of skills. Unlike Howard, Noah doesn’t mindlessly exert brute force; which works to his benefit, since he can’t depend solely on his athleticism to perform adequately on offense.

Noah has mushroomed a variety of skills over the years that have enabled him to morph into a diverse big man, equipped with guard skills. Consequently, Noah isn’t dependent on his teammates to generate scoring opportunities for him. With his unique blend of ball-handling ability, midrange shooting, and passing display, Noah has proven that he’s adept in the art of creating shots for himself as well as his teammates — which is pretty impressive for a big man.

After Derrick Rose suffered a season-ending knee injury, the Chicago Bulls’ front office rendered the season futile and traded away Luol Deng for Andrew Bynum and draft picks. As a result, Noah emerged as the fulcrum of Coach Tom Thibodeau’s reconstructed offense, which had surprisingly enhanced the Bulls’ point-production. Since Noah commenced orchestrating the offense, the Bulls generated 5.5 more points per 100 possessions, which had energized the team to a 34-15 record since Deng was traded. That was the best record in the East, and only the Spurs had a better record in that span, per Basketball-Reference.

Though Noah only averaged a mere 12 points per game, it wasn’t unfeasible for a player like him to have an extremely positive affect on his teams offense due to his high basketball IQ, impressive dexterity, and selfless team facilitation — thus, Noah generated a total of 25 points per game for his team, which was the third highest point-production among all centers (Al Jefferson and DeMarcus Cousins were the only centers to generate more points), per NBA.com. Howard only contributed a total of 22 points for his team when taking into account his points per game (18.3) and assists (1.8).

Additionally, although Noah isn’t noted for his shooting touch, he serves the same purposes as a stretch big-man. As he roams the high-post, Noah’s ability to handle the ball, throw bull’s-eye passes and knock down midrange shots (despite his hideous shot-formation) pulls opposing big men out of the paint, and opens up the lane for Noah’s teammates to cut to the hoop and score on the easy layup. In the video below, Noah draws Tyson Chandler all the way out to the three-point line, and D.J Augustin takes advantage of Noah’s bullet bounce pass.

He’s also embellished his transition game, which is an extremely rare trait for any center. The following marvelous compilation illustrates Joakim’s ball-handling aptitude and competency in finishing at the rim with either hand.

Regarding Noah, NBA national columnist Howard Beck wrote,

"“In this era of advanced stats, we too often define greatness by point totals, by looking for the player who puts up 25 points a night, instead of the player who is dedicated to making the extra pass or setting the hard screen or getting ‘a big box-out,’ as Noah says excitedly.”"

Noah isn’t as reliable as Howard is under the basket, as Noah’s teammates can’t simply throw lobs to him and expect him to slam it home, but he’s definitely a more intelligent offensive player who exercises his teammates’ abilities to calculate the most efficient means of attack. While he doesn’t put up gaudy point totals, Joakim Noah’s impact on the Bulls’ offense is equally as important to his squad as some of the league’s greatest offensive players are to their teams, if not more.