List your top 10 best defensive centers.

[BballTim]

Perkins is an excellent team defender, VERY aware of what the whole offense is doing, and of controlling the lane, not just defending his man. 

In my opinion Perk benefited greatly from having KG by his side (you more or less said the same thing by calling him a  good team defender).  Nobody ever talked about Perk being a good defender before KG arrived.  All he has is size and hustle.  He is not agile on his feet, he can't block shots, rarely draws charges, and is an average rebounder. 

  Perkins was certainly a good defender before KG arrived.

[The Walker Wiggle]

(25) Chuck Hayes

I'm about to fly off the handle, Who.

Also, if you're going to optimistically include, Diop or Thabeet or Dampier then why not Oden?

1. Dwight Howard

2. Al Horford
3. Chuck Hayes
4. Andrew Bogut
5. Tim Duncan
6. Tyson Chandler
7. Emeka Okafor
8. Joakim Noah
9. Marcus Camby
10. Andrew Bynum

[Who]

(25) Chuck Hayes

I'm about to fly off the handle, Who.

Also, if you're going to optimistically include, Diop or Thabeet or Dampier then why not Oden?

I have Chuck Hayes rated as a top five defensive PF. Not as a center though.

Greg Oden would be in that second tier with J.Noah, T.Chandler, A.Bynum and A.Bogut.

[syfy9]

(25) Chuck Hayes

I'm about to fly off the handle, Who.

Also, if you're going to optimistically include, Diop or Thabeet or Dampier then why not Oden?

I have Chuck Hayes rated as a top five defensive PF. Not as a center though.

Greg Oden would be in that second tier with J.Noah, T.Chandler, A.Bynum and A.Bogut.

Yeah, I agree, he is more of a PF then a center. He played PF in college and it's his natural position. He only played and is listed as center because of Yao Ming being injured and various circumstances. If you built a team around him, you'd rather have him playing PF than center, right?

[GreenFaith1819]

Perkins is an excellent team defender, VERY aware of what the whole offense is doing, and of controlling the lane, not just defending his man. 

In my opinion Perk benefited greatly from having KG by his side (you more or less said the same thing by calling him a  good team defender).  Nobody ever talked about Perk being a good defender before KG arrived.  All he has is size and hustle.  He is not agile on his feet, he can't block shots, rarely draws charges, and is an average rebounder. 

  Perkins was certainly a good defender before KG arrived.

I agree BBall - Perk was certainly a good defender before KG arrived. I always thought differently about this until I checked out basketball-reference.

Perk averaged a 102 defensive rating prior to KG's arrival, which places him among the better defensive centers.

Then KG arrived and the big fella plummeted down to a 97 def. rating, which places him in an even better standing. After the championship in 07-08 he went on to maintain a 101 average, still among the better defensive Centers.

See the "Advanced" portion of the link below, under "Drtg".

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/p/perkike01.html

Without these stats, I'd have a hard time believing otherwise, too.

But a healthy Perk is the real deal.

I think some of the naysayers against Perk are looking at how he played like in the playoffs, where he clearly wasn't himself.

The Perk we all know and love will eventually return to the same Perk from the clip below, albeit in an OKC uniform.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8v8Z3giX-M&feature=related

He locks up Bogut on two separate plays as well. I'll miss the big fella, but I believe a healthy JO will help us in the middle. The trade also brought us our probable Paul Pierce replacement in Jeff Green and that extra pick that Danny will be putting to good use in less than a year.