Hoops Habit
Fansided

NBA: Top 10 Centers In 2016-17

By Gerald Bourguet

Oct 18, 2016; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (15) and Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) watch the ball during the first quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 18, 2016; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (15) and Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) watch the ball during the first quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 11
Next
NBA
Oct 8, 2016; New York, NY, USA; Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez (11) drives to the basket defended by New York Knicks center Marshall Plumlee (40) during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports /

9. Brook Lopez

2015-16 Stats:  20.6 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.7 BPG, .511/.143/.787 shooting, 21.8 PER

Based on individual talent alone, Brook Lopez probably deserves to be higher on this list. He’s one of the best scoring bigs the league has to offer, he’s stayed relatively healthy over the last two seasons and if you were to put him on a contender, he’d get the first (healthy) chance of his career to show what he could really do.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen with the Brooklyn Nets this year. As much as Jeremy Lin being his second-best teammate will help him pad his numbers, it won’t do much for his standing in any top 10 positional rankings if (read: when) his team fails to reach 20 wins.

Lopez is a regular 20 points per game scorer when healthy, but he’s also a fairly underwhelming rebounder for a seven-footer. At age 28, he’s wasting away his prime on a rebuilding team and his extensive history of foot injuries is troubling..

Pick-and-rolls with Lin might be fun, but outside of that, all his individual skills only mean so much in the middle of such an unfortunate situation.