The way I see it, as of today, the strengths and weaknesses of the bigs are as follows.
Starting with Nicholson, his post defense is a remarkable asset. offers outstanding size, strength, and positioning when defending. Regrettably, his mobility has noticeably diminished. In the previous season, he was quite agile for a player of his size, but now he can labeled as just not being particularly slow. He has never possessed or developed soft hands or a delicate touch around the basket. This deficiency is challenging to improve upon. The lack of touch, is why we do not witness the desired level of aggressiveness from him against teams with weaker interior defense. Considering his physique, strength, and athleticism, he has the potential to contribute more offensively. Yet, he lacks confidence in his offensive abilities, which limits his scoring options outside of wide open dunks. As a big man, he needs to attack the basket aggressively and forcefully, either by dunking or drawing fouls. He does not have the ability to score with his back to basket. He doesn’t have the touch or the confidence offensively to pull that off. On the other hand, he undeniably stands out as our best defensive option at the center position. He also has improved upon his passing ability significantly this season. If he can reduce his fouls and secure more rebounds, this team has the potential to achieve great success.
Preston doesn't excel defensively against strong traditional big men, but he becomes our top defensive option at the 5 position when playing against smaller and more agile teams. He has a better ability to finish at the rim compared to MN, although the bar for that is quite low. He is quite nimble for a center and helps create space for our guards to make cuts, but he isn't a significant scoring threat himself. He tends to commit fouls quite frequently. Nonetheless, in my opinion, he is a valuable addition to our team for depth purposes. However, he is not the solution when it comes to playing a significant number of minutes. He is a decent role player and brings good energy. Defensively, he struggles against bigger teams but offers a respectable defensive presence against smaller opponents.
Hunger is head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to offense. He has good touch around the rim and runs hard on the court. He lacks the mobility of Preston or the size of Nicholson. He doesn't contribute much defensively against traditional big men at the moment. He isn't quick enough to guard agile big men and lacks the proper footwork to compensate for it. In my opinion, his defensive abilities against traditional bigs are similar to Preston's, but he has more potential in that area. He needs to improve his 3-point shooting accuracy, otherwise, he should refrain from taking those shots. If he positioned himself better on offense, he would receive more passes from Buie and has the ability to convert those opportunities into points, unlike our other big men. I appreciate his potential and hope he develops quickly, but I believe he is still 1-2 years away from being a starting caliber big man. A fully healthy offseason will be beneficial for his progress. Hopefully, he continues to earn more playing time. He needs to improve his defense so that he can receive more minutes since he is the only scoring threat at the 5 position on our roster. He lacks the shooting efficiency from beyond the arc to stretch the floor as a power forward, and he doesn't possess the mobility to effectively defend that position this season. Personally, I would prefer to allocate more minutes to Berry, Langborg, Barnhizer, and Martinelli rather than having any two of our centers on the court at the same time.