Top 5 centers in Detroit Pistons history
Apr 24, 2016; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond (0) takes a shot against Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson (13) during the second quarter in game four of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
The Detroit Pistons have an extensive franchise history spanning all the way back to 1941 when they were the Fort Wayne Pistons playing in the National Basketball League.
As the offseason keeps chugging along we’ll be counting down the five best players of all time at each position for the Detroit Pistons.
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Today we come to the final stop in our countdown, as we take a look at the best centers to ever play for the Pistons.
The center position is arguably the most historically stacked position in Detroit, with great big men being a staple of all three championship winning seasons.
Even outside of the starting centers there have been a handful of very good players at the position who have come off the bench and contributed majorly.
So here are the five best centers in Detroit Pistons history.
Rick Mahorn
Rick Mahorn flip-flopped between power forward and center throughout his long career, but for the sake of this countdown I’ve considered him to be a center.
Mahorn arrived at the Pistons in 1985 after spending the first five seasons of his career with the Washington Bullets.
He put in a few solid seasons, but majorly dropped off in his final season in Washington, averaging just 6.3 points and 7.9 rebounds in 26.9 minutes a game.
His first season in Detroit was equally disappointing, as Mahorn was used off the bench and had a tough time adjusting.
Mahorn averaged 4.9 points and 5.9 rebounds, numbers that were reminiscent of his rookie year.
The next season he improved slightly, but still wasn’t performing to the level he was at in Washington.
In the 1987-88 season he found himself starting, and despite not playing significantly more minutes he had one of his best seasons, averaging 10.7 points and 8.4 rebounds.
It was much of the same the next season and he became an integral part of the Pistons 1989 championship team.
While his numbers weren’t out of this world, Mahorn gave the Pistons a huge presence on defence and was a strong shot blocker.
Mahorn never set the world on fire, but he filled a much needed role for the Pistons and being able to fill the power forward or center role gave them flexibility.
Andre Drummond
Andre Drummond may very well go down as the best center in the Detroit Pistons’ history.
He’s certainly already in the top five, which is insane considering he is just 23 years old and big men usually don’t hit their peak until later in their career.
Drummond is an athletic freak of nature, who in Pistons history may only be matched by Ben Wallace.
For somebody who is just under seven feet tall and is listed at 279 pounds he is able to fly around the court with impressive speed.
He also possess a superb vertical leap, allowing him to finish almost any alley-oop pass thrown his way.
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Perhaps most impressive is his ability to repeatedly go after rebounds.
It’s not uncommon to see Drummond pull in three or four rebounds in the space of ten seconds, which is tough to do considering how much leaping and having to contend with contact from other centers takes out of a player.
Despite having tremendous upside and potential, Drummond is not without his flaws.
Most glaring is his complete lack of a well-rounded offensive game.
Currently he has just a single post-move, a jump hook, which is incredibly easy to shut down if the opposing team has down at least five seconds of scouting on Drummond.
On the other end, he still struggles with being a consistent defender.
It’s also impossible for me to talk about Drummond and not mention his historically awful free throw shooting, which may seriously affect the ceiling of this current Pistons team.
However, he’s still young and despite these flaws he is still a game changer.
If Drummond is able to flesh out his post game a little and become a consistent defender there is no question he’ll be the best center in Pistons history by the end of his career.
Bill Laimbeer
If you’re a Pistons fan you most likely love Bill Laimbeer.
If not, you probably hate his guts.
It’s easy to forget just how good Laimbeer was at playing basketball thanks to his habit of getting into fights with opposition players.
Laimbeer came to the Detroit Pistons from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1981-82 season and became a star almost overnight.
He went from averaging 6.7 points and 5.5 rebounds in 17.9 minutes a game on the Cavaliers, to averaging 12.8 points and 11.3 rebounds in 31.2 minutes a game.
Laimbeer was able to do literally everything.
He was a great rebounder who led the league in 1985-86 with 13.1 a game, while also being a very handy passer and defender.
Arguably his most impressive ability was to shoot the three ball, something almost unheard of for a center in the 80s and still a rarity today.
His 33 percent clip doesn’t seem all too special by today’s standards, but back then it was impressive and he even had multiple seasons where he shot over 36 percent from behind the arc.
The fact that Laimbeer was also able to throw his weight around as an enforcer was just icing on the cake.
Ben Wallace
Ben Wallace has a legitimate claim to being the best defender of all time.
That might seem like an outlandish claim, but when you win four defensive player of the year awards in five years you’ve earned the right to be in the conversation.
The fact that he came second in 2004 and was incredibly close to being the best defensive player for half a decade straight is mind boggling.
It becomes all the more impressive when you consider Wallace was just 6’9″–and it’s suggested he was possibly even closer to 6’7″–making him smaller than many power forwards and even some small forwards.
We all marvel at Drummond’s rebounding ability, but Wallace had the same skill set as well as being a shut down defender who blocked almost any shot that came his way.
To average 2.8 blocks per game over six season is an incredible achievement.
Unfortunately, what prevented Wallace from becoming even greater and the best center in Pistons history is that his offensive game was non-existent.
Wallace was able to dunk the ball and that’s pretty much it, which meant the Pistons were essentially playing with four players on offence. That makes winning championships incredibly hard.
His all time great defence more than made up for these deficiencies though, and is a major reason why a lot of people look back on the mid 2000s Pistons with great fondness and admiration.
Bob Lanier
The Pistons may never see a dominant scoring center like Bob Lanier ever again.
Lanier was the focal point of the Pistons throughout the 70s, and while he didn’t experience the success of the late 80s or mid 2000s, he still had one amazing career.
He was the first overall pick in the 1970 NBA Draft and immediately had an impact, averaging 15.6 points and 8.1 rebounds.
The next season he took his game to a whole other level, averaging 25.7 points and 14.2 rebounds.
Lanier would average similar numbers for the rest of his career in Detroit, finishing with an average of 22.7 points and 11.8 rebounds.
Similar to Bill Laimbeer, Lanier had a very polished all around game, averaging 3.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 2 blocks per game.
He may very well have averaged far more steals and blocks than he did, as the NBA didn’t even record these stats until his fourth season, where he averaged a career high 1.4 steals and 3 blocks per game.
Lanier also left his mark on the record books.
For the Pistons he is third all time in points (15,488), third in blocks (859), eighth in assists (2,256) and second in total rebounds (8,063).
He also has top ten season averages for points, rebounds and blocks per game.
Lanier doesn’t often get the recognition of championship players like Ben Wallace and Laimbeer, but he is undoubtedly an all time great.
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