Who is the best overall big man in the NBA?

Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard (R) drives on Los Angeles Lakers’ Andrew Bynum during the first half of their NBA basketball game in Los Angeles, California March 14, 2011. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

For an explanation of my methodology, check out my point guard post from a few days ago. Marcin Gortat was the only big man in the study that was traded and since he was traded early and played much bigger minutes in Phoenix, I just ignored his Orlando numbers.

Below is a chart of 51 big men. Why 51? Because it’s my study, that’s why. Round numbers are overrated anyway.

As always, click on the chart to see a bigger version.

A few random thoughts:

— The Y-axis is set at 0.586 which is the average Efficiency Per Minute for this group of 51 bigs. The average EPM for the Top 100 bigs (sorted by Efficiency Per Game) is 0.492, so virtually all of these guys are above average in that metric.

— This chart doesn’t seem to have the number of ‘eyebrow-raisers’ that the other two charts did. Is that because the Opponent PER and Net Defense numbers are more accurate for big men since bigs play such a big role in team defense? Joakim Noah is probably the biggest exception. He’s known for his defense, but his Opponent PER (19.0) and Net Defense (4.7 more points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor) don’t bear that out. There must be something else at play here.

— Andrew Bynum comes away from the study looking very, very good. It makes sense that the Lakers kept him when Carmelo was on the table, but the kid just can’t seem to stay healthy for any length of time. We’ll see.

— Love’s positioning makes sense. He’s a double-double beast, but only an average defender.

— There’s a group of young bigs in the bottom left quadrant — Ibaka, Hibbert, Cousins, Blatche, Jordan, Monroe, Hickson and Lopez — that should improve defensively over time.

— I was expecting to see Andrew Bogut, Emeka Okafor and Anderson Varejao in the top-left quadrant, but Chris Bosh and LaMarcus Aldridge fared better defensively than I expected. Bosh has taken heat (no pun intended) over his career for his defense, but he was average in Toronto and is not pretty good in Miami. That makes sense considering the Heat are overall one of the best defensive teams in the league. It’s amazing what good teammates and a good culture will do for a guy’s effort and performance on that end of the floor.

— The Suns’ trade for Marcin Gortat is looking very good. He should be a Top 10 center for the next five years and is solid on both ends of the court.

— Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson, David Lee and Amare Stoudemire are about where I expected them to be. They’ve all been criticized for their defense over the years, and these numbers bear that out.

— Good to see Blake Griffin is at least medicore defensively in his rookie season. His defense should improve over time and he’ll join Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett and Andrew Bynum as the league’s elite big men.

— Speaking of Dirk, it’s surprising that he’s up there in the top right quadrant. Some might want to credit the arrival of Tyson Chandler, but Nowitzki’s defensive rating last season was 33% and it was 14% in 2008-09, so he’s seems to be consistently above average on that end of the floor.