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The Dikembe factor... or is it non-factor?
by Jon Finkel / December 13, 2002

Jason Collins filling in for a hurt Dikembe Mutombo is hardly Daphne Reid playing Vivian Banks #2 for the final two seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The Fresh Prince stayed solid on account of its main star and supporting cast and so will the Nets. Actually, they may have improved.

The Nets are without Dikembe Mutombo. Read that sentence again and remember that it is not 1996, where Dikembe averaged 13 ppg, almost 12 bpg and over 3 bpg. It's 2002 and these are Dikembe's numbers: 7 points a game, 7 rebounds a game, 2 blocks a game. Not many teams would cry over losing those numbers. The Nets aren't going to either. Here's why. The Nets are a quick team. Dikembe is not. The Nets are a running team. Dikembe can't run. The Nets are an offensive machine. Dikembe is not. There are plenty more "Dikembe is not"s to chose from and only one "Dikembe is". Dikembe is a good defensive player. That's right. He used to be a great one, now he's only a good one and even that is only when he isn't winded, which is almost never.

So, back to the statement. The Nets are without Dikembe Mutombo. It sounds worse than it is because when his name is brought up you think of a defensive stopper. You think of an impact player who controls the glass and dominates defensively on the inside. Well, you're thinking of Dikembe at 26, not 36 or 38 or however old he says he is. It's almost like Jason Collins and Dikembe are passing each other on elevators going in different directions. Dikembe's is heading straight down to the hospital and Collins' is heading straight up. Maybe not as high as Dikembe's once was, but he'll be a better than average center one day... and he's hungry.

I'll take a hungry young guy like Collins over an ailing Dikembe right now. But since we put Mutombo's age into context, let's put the league into context. It is not as if the Eastern Conference is bubbling over with talented centers right now. With Dikembe out and Alonzo Mourning off and on, Tony Battie of the Celtics is one of the best centers in the East. Let that last sentence sink in. It may be a little overboard, but go through the numbers of all the centers in the East and you really can't put together an argument either way. Now, whether he is or he isn't, really isn't the point. The point is that just the fact that a guy like Battie can be mentioned in the breath of the top 5 centers in the East, lets you know how diluted the position is. So, seeing as picking the best centers in the East involves a selection process that involves picking out the lowest common denominator from each team, does it really matter who the Nets have at center. They're going to win because of the other four guys on the floor, not their 5.

Right now, the Nets are using Collins as their starting center and 6-9 Aaron Williams as the backup. Combined, they average 8.7 points per game, compared with Dikembe's 7.3. They've got 130 rebounds so far to Dikembe's 113. OK, it takes two guys to replace old Mutombo's numbers. So what? It's not like the Nets are struggling to keep Collins and Williams under the cap. They are two serviceable guys picking up the slack for another hurt, older, slightly better serviceable guy. They're 5-1 in their last six games with Collins as the starter, clearly too soon to make a judgement, but 5-1 is solid. They're 10-6 with Mutombo starting. Only the W's or L's that pile up as the season progresses will tell, but as of right now, the Nets seem to be completely ambivalent.

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