By: Pin Tsan
The Warriors are an embarrassment of riches that can claim two quality, starting-caliber centers on their roster (which is really wonderful to think about when you remember they used to trot out cheese ball guys like Todd Fuller and Patrick O’bryant to man the paint).
Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli are talented enough to be starters on an NBA team somewhere but, because there’s only one such spot on the Warriors, will have to battle it out for the right to anchor the Warriors’ middle.
Both centers have a legitimate claim to the starting role. In the 6 games he started, against the likes of Zach Randolph, Dwight Howard, and DeAndre Jordan, Ezeli averaged 18.5 points, 12.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per 36 minutes. Bogut, despite his recent injuries, projects to continue to be a defensive stalwart in his age-31 season.
Neither center is adept enough in the paint to get a basket consistently on his own, but both can score enough off lobs and put-backs to not completely stall the offense. Bogut has a break-out-only-in-case-of-emergency left-handed hook that scores more often than you’d expect, and a dependable, if awkward runner. He’s also a deft passer with good vision. Ezeli will occasionally take a turnaround over his left shoulder, but those shots sometimes hit so hard off the backboard that I wonder whether he isn’t trying to make the ball explode upon impact.
When asked about keeping Ezeli in the starting lineup after Bogut’s return from a concussion, interim head coach Luke Walton was non-committal saying, “Festus is playing great. I haven’t really sat down to think about that, and that’s probably a discussion to have with Steve and the rest of the staff.” Not exactly a guarantee to keep Bogut with the starters
Neither center is without his flaw, and choosing either man over the other could become a disasterous experiment in team chemistry. But since Ezeli is the new shiny thing, and “new” always equals “better” on the internet, lets look at the pros and cons of starting Ezeli over Bogut.