Indiana Pacers: 10 best centers in franchise history
By Josh Wilson
Dale Davis
Dale Davis lands in the top five on this leaderboard in large part due to his long-running tenure with the team. His career with Indy spanned nine years during the most competitive of eras for the Pacers.
Running frequently with Rik Smits, Davis was a forward-center who spent somewhere between 30 and 80 percent of his minutes at the five in most of his seasons with the Pacers. In the team’s visit to the NBA Finals in 2000, Davis was a key part of the picture and made the All-Star team.
Over his 10 years, Davis averaged 9.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. His long-running status on a highly competitive team allowed him to run up 58.4 win shares with the Pacers.
After spending the first nine years of his career with the Pacers, he was traded for Jermaine O’Neal, who would quickly become the face of the franchise. Later on in his career, Davis would re-sign with the Pacers and fill in for an injured O’Neal.
Davis was an extremely good defender, currently sitting at 88th in league history in defensive win shares. Davis ranks third in win shares in Pacers history.
Roy Hibbert
Roy Hibbert was, in his prime, one of the best defensive centers in the NBA, logging as many as 2.6 blocks per game in 2013. Starting his nine-year career with seven years with the Pacers, Hibbert was a key piece of some of the most lethal Pacers teams of the last two decades.
Hibbert was traded on draft night for Jermaine O’Neal, a clear signal of the frontcourt eras changing in Indiana.
Hibbert logged 31.9 win shares with the Pacers, averaging 11.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game over his Pacers career. He also owns the Pacers record for most blocks in a single game with 11.
Making two All-Star teams with the Pacers, Hibbert was a defensive force and arguably should have made more than just one all-defensive team. Hibbert fell just short of the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2014 when Joakim Noah was the leading vote-getter.
His value depreciated rather quickly with the Pacers. Hibbert — who had just exercised his player option on the final year of his contract — was traded during the 2015 offseason for a second-round pick.
Ian Mahinmi would take over starting center duties the following year, perhaps one of the roster moves Paul George disagreed with and led to him requesting a trade away from the Pacers.
There was justification for trading Hibbert, though, as he was one of the main pieces that completely stalled in the 2015 Playoffs, having four scoreless games that season, and two more games with five points or fewer.