RATING THE CENTERS

NBA Writer Ira Winderman looks at the top center prospects in Thursday's NBA Draft:

Player . . . School . . . Ht. . . . Comment

Brook Lopez . . . Stanford . . . 7-0› . . . Skilled, crafty player with many athleticism issues.

Kosta Koufos . . . Ohio St. . . 7-0 . . . Has answered questions with series of strong workouts.

Robin Lopez . . . Stanford . . . 7-0 . . . Brook's brother draws Anderson Varejao comparisons.

Roy Hibbert . . . Georgetown . . . 7-2 . . . Upside has been reached; could excel in the halfcourt.

DeAndre Jordan . . . Texas A&M . . . 6-11 . . . Raw talent has fallen from initial lottery projections.

Of note

Many draft boards have France's Alexis Ajinca ranked higher than the domestic alternatives, with Croatia's Ante Tomic and Turkey's Omer Asik other imports who could displace NCAA centers in the draft.

As a group

There is no Greg Oden, no franchise center in this draft. Rather, it is a group of supporting players, many of whom are lacking either on the boards, defensively or when it comes to post-up play. This will be a group taken according to need as much as any other factor.