If Marlon Brando played basketball: center, rated 80

Marlon Brando as a basketball player: scouting report

Marlon Brando plays center, the position that most rewards presence. When he played Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, on Broadway and then on film, he changed what screen acting looked like by playing every moment as if it were happening for the first time. A center needs that same raw instinct: reacting to the ball off the rim and the cutter in the lane without thinking twice. His basketball IQ is the top mark on his card, and his rebounding is right beside it.

He also has the right background for the physical side. His Oscar winning role in On the Waterfront was Terry Malloy, a dockworker and former prizefighter, and Brando brought a boxer's movement to the part. That translates to a big man who boxes out with purpose, holds his ground in the post and fights for every loose ball. His defense is solid, built on positioning rather than leaping, and his athleticism is fine for the middle. He won a second Academy Award for The Godfather, so he knows how to command a scene from start to finish.

Shooting is the soft spot. He is not a stretch big, so keep him near the rim on rolls, putbacks and short hooks and surround him with shooters who keep the lane open. If you already have a center, he moves to power forward with only a small drop and still controls the boards, and he can survive some small forward minutes in a big lineup. Draft him in the early middle rounds as a rebounding anchor and pair him with a playmaking guard who feeds him on the block. He made his scene partners better, and a front line works the same way.

Plays like A brooding post presence who owns the paint on pure instinct

Put Marlon Brando in your lineup

8 rolls, a starting five and a bench, 82 games. Can you go 82-0? Free, no account.