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There's not too much talent left in the free agent pool at the center position if you're in a deep league is there? But that's no reason to stop looking! If you're still searching for an uncut diamond in the pits of the waiver wire we will try to provide you with just the right tools to scope him out.
We will be taking a look at some potential Week 17 waiver wire pickups for power forwards and centers who should help your team become even more competitive. All three of our bigs for this week get you some rebounds and defensive stats in limited minutes. One of them even shoots decently from distance. So if you're in need of a center, you might find the text bellow helpful.
This year, RotoBaller is separating its waiver wire recommendations by position a little differently. In our three position breakdowns, we'll be separating players into GUARDS, including point guards (PG), shooting guards (SG), and combo guards (PG/SG); WINGS, including small forwards (SF), swing men (SG/SF), and small ball fours (SF/PF); and BIGS, including power forwards (PF), centers (C), and bigs who play both front court spots (PF/C).
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Standard League Waiver Wire Big Adds
Alex Len, PF/C, PHO (31% Owned)
Alex Len hasn't been quite as good as the owners who picked him on draft day had hoped. His averages of 7.3 PTS on 50.5 FG% and 72.2 FT%, 6.3 REB, 0.5 AST, 0.5 STL, 1.3 BLK and 1.2 TO are a bit underwhelming for those who had high expectations from him this season. The main reason for that is his low playing time.
Alex Len has been battling it out with Tyson Chandler for minutes at the five spot in Phoenix this season. And he has been losing that battle thanks to Chandler's great performances this season. Len has played 20 minutes a game this season compared to Tyson's 28 which says a lot about the current situation in Phoenix. But there are several scenarios where that could change.
First of all, Chandler has had his share of injury woes, having played more than 66 regular season games in only two of his last eight seasons (one of those was the lockout 2011-12 season though). Furthermore, he missed ten games already this season.
Secondly, Phoenix is dead last in the Western Conference, so there are no hopes of a playoff spot this season whatsoever. They might decide to try and develop their talent, instead of pushing their more experienced and injury prone players.
Last of all, Chandler is hurt right now, and Len is getting some more run as the result. In his previous two games, in which Tyson played only 12 minutes due to injuring his ankle, Len played 24.0 minutes a night, scored 12.0 points on 62.5% from the field and 60.0% from the charity stripe, grabbed 6.5 rebounds, dished out 1.0 assists, stole the ball 0.5 times, blocked 1.5 shots and turned the ball over 3.0 times. If he takes the advantage of the opportunity that has presented itself, he might just take over the starting gig.
Just to put things in perspective, here are Len's career per 36 minute averages: 12.2 PTS on 46.3 FG% and 71.6 FT%, 11.3 REB, 1.2 AST, 0.7 STL, 0.9 BLK and 2.4 TO. So, if any of the aforementioned three options happen, Len could be looking at minutes around the 30 minute mark. In that amount of time Len is more than capable of producing some golden lines for his fantasy owners.
If your league is pretty competitive, give Len a look right away. There's still no news on Chandler so Len is locked in the starting role until he returns. If you're in a shallower league, and Len's current outlook doesn't beat the one of your last man on the bench, be sure to keep a lookout. Len could be coming, and coming fast!
Lucas Nogueira, PF/C, TOR (28% Owned)
I'm a big fan of defense. In real life and in Fantasy. It might be because I'm from Europe and I was taught to think about defense first by my childhood coaches, or because I learned while there was still time to change career paths that my jump shot was next to non-existent. Either way, my defensive stat obsession might be one of the reasons why I'm pretty fond of our next Waiver Wire Big.
Jared Sullinger getting hurt could be viewed as a break that Nogueira caught, but Sullinger's had such bad luck with injuries that it's hard to be surprised that it happened to the misfortuned guy again. But after rolling his ankle a few days before the regular season tip off, Lucas Nogueira found himself losing the backup center gig to Jacob Poeltl, and with Patrick Patterson establishing himself as the starter at the PF spot early on in the season and Pascal Siakam playing well as his backup, not everything was coming up roses for Lucas at the start of his third NBA season.
But Nogueira was back in action by Nov. 6 and fought his way back to 21 minutes a game by contributing with some nice defense to his real life team and fantasy owners too. In that time he is averaging 5.3 PTS with 0.1 3PM on 67.8 FG% and 65.0 FT%, 5.0 REB, 0.8 AST, 1.0 STL, 1.7 BLK and 0.8 TO.
Sullinger has been assigned to the D-League on Feb. 10 and has played a maximum of 17 minutes in a game. That was back on Jan. 20. In Toronto's last eight games Jared picked up two DNP-CDs and saw double-digit minutes just once. Patrick Patterson has missed the last three games due to a knee injury and it's unknown when he will be back. This is a golden opportunity for Nogueira to earn himself a bigger role on the Raptors going forward.
While he has great upside, Nogueira is still more of an option for owners in deeper leagues who run a tight shift without punting any cats and could use some help in steals and blocks.
Standard League Honorable Mentions: Bismack Biyombo (44% owned), Jon Leuer (44% owned)
Deep League Waiver Wire Big Adds
Kelly Olynyk, C, BOS (20% Owned)
Kelly Olynyk started the season on the sidelines with a shoulder injury that's been a problem for him for just over a year now. In that time it's made him miss at least one game on four different occasions. The last time he missed a game was on Feb. 1, just over a week ago. On the other hand, Olynyk has played 70, 64 and 69 games in each of his only three seasons in the NBA, so he doesn't miss a huge amount of time.
And owners might not need to look to much into this latest aforementioned one game DNP since he returned with some good performances, and even played 27 minutes in his last game on Feb. 11. And he's been playing well for a while now. In his last eight games, Olynyk amassed averages of 12.4 points with 1.1 3PM on 61.2% from the field and 57.1% from the line, 6.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.5 blocks and 1.0 turnovers in 22 minutes a game.
He seems to have the upper hand on his biggest rivals for minutes, Amir Johnson and Tyler Zeller, is the youngest of the three at 25 years of age, and is the only one capable of spreading the floor to allow Boston's star duo Isaiah Thomas and Al Horford to run the pick and roll.
If Kelly stays healthy and gets his minutes steady in the high 20s to low 30s, and if he can keep shooting as he has been lately he could be more than just a deep league add for owners looking for bigs with three-point range. You would be wise to keep an eye on his performances.
Deep League Honorable Mentions: Frank Kaminsky (27% owned), Ivica Zubac (21% owned)
By popular demand, RotoBaller has aggregated all of our fantasy basketball NBA waiver wire pickups into a running list of NBA waiver options, so bookmark the page and check back often for updates.
