Center Rankings: 2024
Tiering out the landscape of 60 NBA Centers
Six weeks and nearly 300 players later - we’ve finally reached the finish line of our third annual position rankings. Today, we’ll start from the top and work our way down the list due to the highly shallow and replaceable depth at C.
The Role of a Center
Centers have a unique role in the NBA compared to every other position. Rim protection is the single most valuable skill at this spot—and I’d argue it’s the only position where defense is unequivocally the more important side of the ball on average. It’s also the only position where shooting is a premium rather than a borderline necessity.
Unless a big reaches All-Star status or better on his offense alone, it’s almost always more valuable to have a big who can protect the paint, rebound, screen, and roll at a high level.
With the NBA being dominated by the likes of Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, most teams are required to stash multiple bigs on the roster for no other reason than the need for multiple large, strong bodies. I’d argue many players on this list would be out of a job 10 years ago—when the Center position was nearly dead.
As always, stats listed below are measured per 75 possessions. You may notice that even the end-of-bench bigs put up impressive numbers. This is often due to being the most assisted position on the floor. Bigs are rarely a self-creation offensive position—their offense is largely generated for them around the rim exclusively.
Rim dFG% simply measures how much worse — the more in the negative a player is, the better — players shoot at the rim when contested by the listed Center. I’ll make note of three-point threats — but again, rim protection is generally the more important skill.
The Big 5
Tier 1: Nikola Jokic
Tier 2: Joel Embiid
Tier 3: Anthony Davis
Tier 4: Bam Adebayo, Victor Wembanyama
Nikola Jokic is either the best or 2nd best offensive engine in the NBA, which automatically places him up atop the position in a tier of his own.
Joel Embiid is in the same ballpark as Jokic - but his historic regular season output has yet to carry over into the playoffs. He’s the obvious number 2 Center, but still a tier below Jokic at this juncture.
Anthony Davis continues to be a perennial DPOY candidate and maybe the single best number 2 option in the NBA. While he doesn’t reach the MVP heights of Jokic and Embiid, his status as a Top 10-ish player is worth his own tier above Bam Adebayo and Victor Wembanyama in my opinion.
Tier 5: All-Star Caliber
Ranks: 6-10
Rudy Gobert
Chet Holmgren
Kristaps Porzingis
Domantas Sabonis
Alperen Sengun
Rudy Gobert is a one-man defensive system and the best rim protector since Dwight Howard in Orlando. If he was even a slightly below average offensive big, he’d rank a tier higher. His inability to catch and finish at the rim or punish a mismatch caps him out at this sub-all-star range.
Chet Holmgren and Kristaps Porzingis are the top NBA unicorns—dangerous stretch bigs who also protect the rim at a borderline all-defense level. I thought Porzingis should have been an All-Star back in February—and I imagine Chet Holmgren is only a small step away from that level.
Domantas Sabonis and Alperen Sengun are subpar rim protectors with limited shooting range. However, they’re both legitimate offensive hubs who generate efficient team offense in the halfcourt. They both could have been All-Stars in February if they were in the Eastern Conference.
Tier 6: High-Level Starters
Ranks: 11-14
Brook Lopez
Myles Turner
Jarrett Allen
Isaiah Hartenstein
Even at 36 years old, Brook Lopez is a high-floor Center due to his stellar rim protection. He utilizes his 7’5 wingspan to contest and bother all kinds of layups, flips and floaters around the rim. Splash Mountain continues to be a fitting nickname as well—draining over 36% of his 6 3PA / 75 possessions over the last three seasons.
Myles Turner was an elite rim protector 3-4 years ago—leading the league in blocks on multiple occasions. Now, however, most metrics paint him as only slightly above average in that department. He’s more than offset this regression, though, by exploding into a budget Karl-Anthony Towns offensively. Deadly pick-and-pop shooter who viciously attacks the rim.
Jarrett Allen and Isaiah Hartenstein also fit into the high-floor label. Hartenstein grades out as the better rim protector and distributor—both as an elbow hub and in the short roll—while Allen provides more athleticism and agility, making him more of a vertical offensive threat and more capable of guarding in space.
Tier 7: Starters
Ranks: 15-20
Ivica Zubac
Nicolas Claxton
Wendell Carter Jr
Jakob Poeltl
Dereck Lively
Deandre Ayton
This tier marks the conclusion of the obvious starting-caliber Centers. Generally speaking, most teams would be content to start and close most games with this group.
There’s a meaningful drop-off in this tier on the offensive end. Poeltl is the closest thing to a handoff hub, but he’s got zero range and can’t hit a free throw.
Ayton can create his own offense, but generally isn’t relied on to initiate halfcourt sets. He’s also completely abandoned the defensive intensity that made him a max contract candidate back in 2021.
Wendell Carter is the only jump shooting threat in this tier—37% on over 4 3PA / 75 possessions.
Ivica Zubac, Nic Claxton, and Dereck Lively are all generically good and reliable screeners, rollers, rim protectors and rebounders.
Tier 8: Low-Minute Starters
Ranks: 21-25
Clint Capela
Daniel Gafford
Al Horford
Jusuf Nurkic
Naz Reid
Every Center from this point on has a significant enough scab to pick at.
Capela, Nurkic and Horford are generally slow and are rapidly losing athleticism with age.
Naz Reid, despite being a weapon in transition and beyond the arc, is generally undersized and doesn’t quite fulfil the big man rim protection and glass-eating duties.
Daniel Gafford’s athleticism and leaping ability make up for being undersized. But his heavy reliance on athleticism makes him a bit of a foul machine at times.
Generally speaking, this crew can still start games, but you’re not thrilled with relying on them to close games and play 30+ minutes.
Tier 9: Quality Backups
Ranks: 26-39
Listing out names horizontally in these last few tiers to save your thumbs from scrolling!
Walker Kessler, Jalen Duren, Onyeka Okongwu, Isaiah Stewart, Jonas Valanciunas, Mark Williams, Mitchell Robinson, Nikola Vucevic, Andre Drummond, Mo Wagner, Bobby Portis, Goga Bitadze, Steven Adams, Robert Williams
Center as a valuable position begins to fall apart at the backups. In general, backup Center is the least valuable rotation spot — and is often filled by a replacement-level player on a minimum contract.
Every big here can play in almost any rotation—they’re still totally fine/good players! But not being an obvious starting-level Center places a low ceiling on what you can and should expect from a player in this role.
The big fish down in this tier is Nikola Vucevic. I think he’s the worst starting Center in the NBA. He doesn’t protect the rim, he never gets fouled, and his shot diet consists of inefficient post-ups and spot-up threes, which he can no longer make (below 30% last season).
I’d expect Jalen Duren and Mark Williams to fly out of this tier soon. Duren still needs to figure out big-man defense and rotations, while Williams is limited by health more than anything.
Tier 10: Regular Season Backups
Ranks: 40-49
Trayce Jackson-Davis, Isaiah Jackson, Jock Landale, Larry Nance Jr, Duop Reath, Paul Reed, Precious Achiuwa, Day’Ron Sharpe, Kevon Looney, Kelly Olynyk.
Most players here have either aged out of more prominent roles, or are still proving themselves through development. These players are fine regular season backups on a minimum contract — but you wouldn’t necessarily want them in a playoff rotation.
Tier 11: Replacement-Level Backups
Ranks: 50-60
Maxi Kleber, Jaylin Williams, Zach Collins, Marvin Bagley, Luke Kornet, Daniel Theis, Xavier Tillman, Nick Richards, Mason Plumlee, Bol Bol, Mo Bamba
Pure minimum contract backup or third-string bigs here—somewhat playable in the regular season with limited minutes.
I have a soft spot for Xavier Tillman, as he’s stepped up in multiple instances in the postseason. In a vacuum, though, he’s simply too negative of an offensive player to reasonably move up out of these bottom two tiers.
That’s all for our 2024 Position Rankings! You can check the rest out below