Yesterday’s middle is outdated information within the trendy NBA. Whereas behemoths like Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all dominated within the publish and the paint again within the day, the trendy NBA middle each must be a presence inside and have the foot pace to maneuver exterior of the center.
Whereas they don’t must be dominant shooters on offense, an growing variety of facilities have taken the following step of their video games and grow to be versatile offensive gamers. Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic have collectively altered the expectations for facilities within the trendy NBA as nicely, opening up the ground with their taking pictures and passing.
With all of this stated, in comparison with a number of totally different positions, the middle place within the 2023 NBA draft is among the thinner positional teams. Clearly, Victor Wembanyama is a monumental participant on the high of the draft. Nonetheless, after him, it’s a bit tougher to seek out impression pivots after the NBA’s early entry withdrawal deadline decimated the rankings.
Regardless that the present crop of facilities doesn’t have the identical star energy exterior of Wembanyama, there are a selection of gifted huge males who, with the appropriate crew, might turn into both beneficial bench gamers or impression starters.
Listed here are the highest ten rankings for the very best 2023 draft middle prospects. Gamers like Noah Clowney or Zach Edey weren’t included, on account of both becoming into totally different positional teams or having returned to the NCAA. However let’s dive in!