Who's best at the 5 in the NBA? Your Brooklyn Nets

Michael Salfino of the Wall Street Journal crunches the numbers at center in the NBA and while there may be a debate about who's the best center in the NBA, there's little about who has the most depth at the five. It's the Nets.

With Brook Lopez and Andray Blatche both playing big minutes, the Nets combo "score a league-leading 29.8 points per 48 minutes, the most among all NBA teams at the center position, according to Stats LLC," Salfino writes. Who's next? The Kings with DeMarcus Cousins, Jason Thompson and Chuck Hayes, and way down at No. 8 are the Lakers with Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Robert Sacre.

Salfino notes that this success was not pre-ordained. Lopez was coming off a broken foot and Blatche was picked up off the Wizards' scrap heap. And the Nets have another advantage. The average age of the two is 25.

"Blatche's emergence has allowed Brooklyn to cut Lopez's minutes by about 20%," he adds. "Less court time has resulted in better efficiency, with Lopez bettering career per-minute averages across the board."

As for the Nets pursuit of Howard? The Nets went from going after the most dominating center in the NBA to having the most dominating center play in the league.

• Nets Aren't Missing Dwight Howard - Michael Salfino - Wall Street Journal