I would advise people against making statements like "elite centers don't win in the NBA". One of my first threads in this forum was how elite PGs(if not mistaken I counted elite as the All-stars or all NBA PGs that year) are not winning NBA championships and at the time I had a very good track record to support my assertion. The problem - since then, Steph Curry has won 4, Kyrie hit a championship winner, Lowry was one of the key players on a championship team, Jrue won.
Point is - the tides change in the league and sometimes going against the grain is actually a good way to find value and counter established norms. Also, it shows how random the league can be in regard to team building of championship teams.