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Empire of the Suns NBA Draft positional preview: Center

May 4, 2017, 6:00 AM | Updated: 11:47 pm

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With Phoenix Suns general manager Ryan McDonough saying during exit interviews the team will take the best player available in the 2017 NBA Draft, it’s time to run through Phoenix’s roster and the possible options with their picks currently at Nos. 2 (projected), 32 and 54.

First up is center, the position with the most uncertainty on the roster.

(Note: To make this easier, players that qualify for multiple positions are listed at their best guess and fit with the Suns. Considering Phoenix’s draft positions, there’s also a chunk of the first-round prospects not worth including.)

Center

Team outlook: Tyson Chandler will be 35 years old before the start of next season and has two years remaining on his deal. In 2015 when Chandler was signed, former No. 5 overall pick Alex Len had to have been seen as the center of the future, but his play over the past two years has done anything but give the Suns confidence.

Luckily for the Suns, Chandler had a bounceback season after a disappointing 2015-16 campaign, averaging nearly three more rebounds per game and increasing his shooting percentage by nearly 10 points. He looks more than fit to play out the rest of his contract in a starter’s role.

More importantly, Len’s restricted free agency this summer and the great play of Alan Williams, also a restricted free agent, complicates the situation. After the way Len performed this season, the long-term answer down low does not appear to be on the roster, but even with the uncertainty surrounding the center group, it’s tough to make a case for picking a big with Phoenix’s top pick (the draft is June 22 and free agency starts July 1).

Draft outlook: Zach Collins out of Gonzaga is the best traditional big man prospect available, but as a late-lottery projected pick, he’s unlikely to be an option for the Suns, even if the worst-case scenario of slipping to No. 5 occurs. It’s nearly impossible seeing a situation that ends with the Suns taking a center with their first-round pick, even if they were to inexplicably trade down a few spots.

With that said, Collins would be one hell of a fit alongside Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss. Collins, who averaged 10 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game has the fluidity and toughness as a 7-footer that would raise the long-term ceiling of the Suns’ defense dramatically. He was one of the most efficient players in college basketball last year, shooting 67 percent from the field, and while he attempted only 21 of them, he shows potential as a three-point threat down the line by shooting 48 percent.

The end of the first round, though, has a glut of big men, and the 32nd selection for the Suns could wind up being a good spot to take a shot on a talented big who slips. There are plenty of prominent players from last year’s college basketball season that meet that criteria.

Duke’s Harry Giles, Kentucky’s Bam Adebayo, Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan and Indiana’s Thomas Bryant are all players ranked between 20-40 on various draft boards online. With a few draft-and-stash options around as well, pegging center as the favorite for the pick at 32 would be wise.

The argument with the potential pick at the start of the second round being a big centers around whether the Suns are looking for someone who could fill in the rotation or if they will take a gamble on the player with the highest upside, hoping they can replace Len.

Two players from well-established programs that underperformed could be on the board.

The biggest gamble in this draft could be Giles depending on where a team picks him, but at 32, his risk would meet the value.

Giles was the favorite to become the No. 1 overall pick 20 months ago before tearing his ACL for the second time — once in each knee — in his senior year of high school. Giles’ high school evaluation shined because he had one of the best combinations of athleticism and talent veteran scouts have seen in the past 25 years. But that was last year, as in the time of this DraftExpress video, he was still seen of as a top-5 to top-10 pick.

As a Blue Devil, Giles failed to do more than show brief glimpses of the player he once was by averaging just 3.9 points, 3.8 rebounds in 11.5 minutes per game. So much of his appeal was being the perfect size for an old-school four, meaning he’d have no problem playing the five while having out of this world speed and power for that size. That made him a monster inside, but he has clearly lost a lot of that explosion we saw in high school.

Now, who knows what he’s got left, and his play at Duke didn’t inspire much confidence for those holding him in the top-10. The combine and medical evaluations will be a huge factor in whether he’s closer to the lottery or the second round.

Adebayo, who averaged 13 points and eight rebounds per game, could be another possibility.

He has a tremendous physique, and while undersized for the modern center at 6-foot-9, he moves extremely well and has massive upside as a rebounder and rim protector — he averaged 1.5 blocks per game.

While he improved over the course of the season as a defender, he did nothing at Kentucky to prove he’s anything more than a big body with potential, but that’s the type of gamble you take early in the second round. While the Suns’ Williams is undersized like Adebayo, Bam’s appeal would be as more of a two-way player that can protect the rim.

For international prospects, Jonathan Jeanne has become a popular name to keep an eye on. Whenever you are 7-foot-2 and show perimeter skills, you’re going to get some attention.

Jeanne can not only shoot for his size but take a dribble or two, and either pull-up for a jumper or make the necessary pass. That’s incredibly rare for someone of his size and the reason he will get drafted despite all the concerns.

At a frail 210 pounds and barely receiving playing time — 12.8 minutes per game — for a team in France lacking real prominence, he’s a project, but that’s exactly what the Suns could be in the market for.

If there’s a perfect fit for the Suns with their first second-round pick, it’s 7-foot-2 Latvian center Anzejs Pasecniks, and general manager Ryan McDonough has reportedly been out to see what the buzz is about.

With how Phoenix projects at the four other positions on the floor, a complex set of tools in their center will not be a required box to check. They need someone who can finish in the pick-and-roll, rebound and protect the rim. Stretch-fives are nice and all, but Chriss and Bender should provide enough of that with their time spent at the position down the line.

Pasecniks has burst onto the scene in a new role this season in Spain and has done nothing but flourish in his first bit of a true rotation role. He recently had 24 points against Estudiantes and former Suns second-round pick Alec Brown.

Pasecniks brings the mobility the stretch fives and fours of today’s new generation of bigs possesses, but uses it as a more traditional big, excelling as a finisher and fluid mover defensively.

What makes him a great candidate to rise up draft boards and go in the first round are the more raw, yet promising areas of his game such as his shooting and passing. While he won’t provide the finesse of Jeanne, Pasecniks shows potential as a midrange shot-maker and that raises the ceiling on his potential, especially a player of his inexperience.

The speed Pasecniks plays at would fit seamlessly in with what Phoenix does, and best of all, he would be a draft and stash option, not presenting an issue into the current free agency pickle down low.

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Empire of the Suns NBA Draft positional preview: Center