Playing through the eras mode on NBA 2K, I'm trying to take a second swing at the first iteration of the Thunder with some hindsight, seeing what that team could've been had they kept the core together and found the right complimentary players.

One thing that I find striking is how weak the 2009-2011 drafts were for Centers.

07 had Al Horford, Joakim Noah, and Marc Gasol. 08 wasn't terrible with Brook Lopez and Roy Hibbert, though the latter's career nose dived fairly early. Kasta Kouofos was also in that 08 draft, though i remember him being kinda mid. DeAndre Jordan was an early second round pick in 08, and to his credit, he carved out a really nice career for himself.

The only centers that went in the first round in 09 were Hasheem Thabeet and Byron Mullins, with no surprise breakouts in the second round. 10 featured DeMarcus Cousins, but the next best on the list was Cole Aldrich. It's pretty clear that Sam tried to draft the best he could for the position, but those drafts just did not have the talent needed at those positions.

(2011 was a bit better, featuring Jonas Valanciunas, Enes Canter, and Nikola Vucevic in the first round. OKC's

If the 2007-2012 Thunder had a similar war chest of picks like today, and had the foresight to know who would make it in the league, who would you target from that era for a starting center?

For me, Dwight Howard would be an obvious "no shit" answer, since 2012 was his last season in Orlando before things went off the rails in LA and he bounced around the league. Assuming he's too expensive at the time, I'd aim to trade future picks to grab Horford, Gasol, Lopez, or Vucevic, or get a an extra second rounder in 09 to get Jordan for cheap.

In my 2K roster, I went the pretty-unrealistic route and bundled picks to grab Al Horford early in the 2008 draft. His floor spacing is really handy, though he struggles a bit against beefier centers.

Who would you take? Would you stick with the Kendrick Perkins trade and run it back in 2013? Would you try and trade for another an established big, or would you draft someone?