What you’re doing is imagining what would happen if they were to play 2-on-2 … a somewhat futile exercise .. wouldn’t you say…????!!!!

That said I just don’t see him as a difference maker on a team. A nice piece yes, a starting center on most teams yes. But for him to be effective there needs to be multiple talent around him. Like LC009 said, regardless of where you place Chandler quality wise, NO had garbage behind him, so when he was out you go from X quality to garbage.

As for defense… I think it is one of the hardest aspects of the game to judge. There are players that clearly stand out (D-Howard, Battier, Duncan etc.) and players that clearly don’t try (Zach Randolph, most of Golden St. etc.) However, where players rate inbetween these two extremes is a tough evaluation (I am ofcourse ignoring stats such as blocks as I don’t think they are a good indicator of a good defender). Good defenders tend to have other good defenders around them, bad defenders have other bad defenders around them. That is, good defense is more of a team concept than any one individual player. Ex. Ray Allen and Paul Pierce were never known for their defense…. suddenly you put Rondo, Perkins and KG next to them and they look like solid, if not good, defenders. Thats why I would say I see Chandlers defense as ‘debatable’ (and I don’t mean bad when I say that). He is not at a D-Howard or Duncan lvl, but he is also a far cry from being a Randolph.

P.S. I like that you included Perkins as a top defender… he is one player that doesn’t get enough credit on that Celtics team.

However, I will say that part of the discrepancy record-wise MUST be a factor of the drop-off in quality. That is, Chandler is at least a solid player, but the other centers they have seem to be garbage–career backups at best, and not even good ones. The kind of players that would never even crack the rotation in a good team.

So there is a trickle down effect when your front line goes from being solid to being anemic (think: Raptors’ PG situation last year).

I’d love to see Jermaine leave his scoring days behind him and concentrate more on defense + rebounding, I think that would make a large positive difference to his contributions. I don’t see anybody convincing him of that in the near future though …

I guess I still think there’s a bit of talent left in Jermaine. It’s the application of the talent that bugs the crap out of me — letting his offense effect his game so much, slacking off on D + the boards in order to save himself for post ups.

I don’t know what to expect from Michael Beasley. He hasn’t exactly had the smoothest of summers, and he was a massive disappointment last season. He did start rebounding the ball a lot better near the end of last season, and that carried over into the playoffs. Improved rebounding and some improvement with the shot selection, that could go a long way. Then again, maybe we see none of that improvement, in which case the Raptors’ bigs are clearly a lot better than Miami’s.

Mbah a Moute played over two thirds of his minutes last season as a power forward. Both the Bucks coaching staff and their front office consider him an undersized power forward (at the moment at least) rather than a three mainly due to his lack of offensive ability. I agree though, I think he’s a natural small forward too.

Not to be a dick… but that statement is way off. According to 82games last year Mbah a Moute played 13% at SF, 38% at PF and 1% at Center of the team’s minutes per position. At 6′8 he is a classic tweener, but he has been overwhelmingly used as a PF during his rookie season.

I think most, not all, of the efficiency difference is down to the coaching staff + offensive system rather than Chris Paul … but that is clearly impossible to prove until Chandler lands in a system where he gets to set a load of pick and rolls night in and out. Personally I’m of the belief that Chandler is so good in a pick and roll (very good pick, excellent turn, very quick roll to the rim, unbelievably long and athletic, great hands, excellent finisher) that it doesn’t really matter who is point guard is. Whether it’s Derek Fisher or Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler is still going to be a very effective weapon in the pick and roll.

As a side note, I don’t trust Larry Brown to use Chandler appropriately … and would expect a drop in scoring efficiency next season, although it should still remain well above average overall. Heck, Larry Brown used to give Ben Wallace and Theo Ratliff a couple of post ups every night, so Chandler will probably get that (not his strength). And likely, Larry will double up on that decision and fail to call enough pick and rolls for Chandler (although hardly anyone runs as many pick and rolls as New Orleans do — Phoenix, Orlando … ??). Brown should have a positive impact on the other end of the court though.

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The one thing that surprises me is that you don’t rate Chandler’s defense higher than that. I’m curious, who would be in your top five defensive centers in the NBA?

I’d go with Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Kendrick Perkins and I think Chandler in fourth place. Not sure who my fifth guy would be. Przybilla maybe.

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Hornets record with Chandler in the lineup — 30 wins and 15 losses
Hornets record without Chandler in the lineup — 19 wins and 18 losses

I think those two records describe Tyson Chandler’s impact best, and this is with Chandler having a poor season by his lofty standards. I think he’s a massive difference maker for teams.

Miami’s front court is a joke. I can’t believe a Raptor fan (Yes, I’m talking to you Dave!) is saying JO is a wildcard. He isn’t going to play 65 games in a season ever again. I’ll give a player the benenfit of the doubt their first year back from injury but in his case or Brands situation I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s like Mavs fans saying if Marion gets back to where he was 3 years ago….If he’s been something for last 750 days he’s probably that!!! Guys have a bad month or have a bad season statistically due to nagging injuries (Calderon) but if a guy plays 75 games 2 seasons in a row with 2 different teams and puts up 13 pt 8 reb. he is a 13 pt 8 reb guy. I don’t care if he was a 20-10 guy 3 years ago. he’s 32 give it up. Beasely is nice but again not as good as Bargs at this point. THe Bucks are interesting but Bogut, Warrick, Dan G.? Are you kinding? Luc is a SF. He doesn’t play a minute of PF so he shouldn’t be included. The Bucks front court is bad and Washington with Haywood (missed all last year) and Jamison (Mr. Great Stats little impact) are okay but the rest are old and do the same thing. Oberto, Thomas, Gadzuric….Skiles mind as well where a blind fold and spin around 3 times and whoever he’s pointing at your in!!! They are all the same thing. Decent but no offense and old!!!!!!

The Raptors strength is their front court no doubt about it so in saying their are only 3 teams with better front courts isn’t saying we are a shoe in for 4th. It is interesting that the 3 teams with better bigs (Cavs, Orl and Boston) are the 3 best in the conference.

Our backcourt/wings is one of the worst in the conference. We need the bigs to dominate.

Chandler’s so called defensive impact is debatable…. he is not a poor defender but neither is he a game changer or an elite defender. He is long and athletic and doesn’t try to do anyting outside of his skill set (which is an asset). He is also a rebounding machine. However if this is an indicator of All-Star calibre play, then we have more than 15 centers in this league that are All-Star calibre…

Agree with your opinion on the Celtics, Cavs and maybe Orlando, the only difference with orlando is the power of Dwight, the rest is almost even. Atlanta in the other end is a team to discuss. Rasho is very similar to Zaza and Joe is going to do a similar job to Reggie and Amir. Horfor and Bargs are very different players but is hard to say which one is better. Bosh is waaaaaay better than Smith, in terms of basketball ability and team play

It will be very interesting to see where the perimeter players rank. Will they sink the bigs? Or will they rank highly too?

I don’t share the optimism, but I have to say, it’s great to see. Especially after some of those dark days from last year.

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I think the Raptors big man rotation will be comfortably superior to the Knicks, Nets, Pacers and Pistons. I see the Bucks and Heat as two teams that Raptors bigs are probably better than, but not definitely. Miami because of their two wild cards in Beasley + Jermaine, Milwaukee because their bigs could have a large defensive impact on the game which the Raptors bigs are, how shall we say, less likely to have.

A couple of the others I see as comparable rather swinging to one team or the other, and then a few more where the Raptors will be out-matched.

So, I’d have the Raptors bigs as being better to 4-6 teams in the Eastern Conference. Mainly because of Chris Bosh.

- I’m almost certain Leon Powe won’t be starting for Cleveland. It’ll probably be Shaq & Varejao.

- Even though they’re both power forwards, Maxiell and Villanueva will surely be getting the bulk of the minutes in Detroit. There’s no way the corpse of Ben Wallace starts ahead of either of them — even in Detroit.

- And as for the Knicks, well, who knows who will get the bulk of the minutes. That team is crazy. Your guess is as good as mine.

Chandler has his best scoring season per minute in Chicago. All he got in New Orleans was more minutes and a coach who understood how effective he was in pick and rolls, something Scott Skiles never figured out (Bill Cartwright did though). Oh, and that scoring season, that was Jamal Crawford dishing him the ball.

The defensive impact + the rebounding impact + efficient to very efficient garbage man scoring = a huge impact.

Tyson Chandler is an All-Star caliber player.