Week 13 Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: NBA Centers

Sitting right here in the middle of the 2014-15 NBA season, the waiver wire has taken its typical place in the weekly/daily routine of fantasy basketball managers. The following centers, whether of the “sleeper” variety or just cashing in temporarily on an unforeseen opportunity, almost certainly deserve attention across the various formats during Week 13 of the campaign.

Position Eligibility & Ownership Rate Based on Yahoo! Fantasy Basketball Player List

Waiver Wire Center for Right Now

Alex Len (PHO, C) - 35% Owned

Len’s rise has not been meteoric in the way that other waiver wire phenoms at center, including Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside, have been. Len has been around for months now, playing through growing pains, overshadowed by so many superior fantasy options on his own team. He has been on roll of late, averaging 9.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per game over his last six games (1/6-1/16).

Coming as he does with a plus FG% of .556 and average FT% production at .738, Len looks to be an elite source of rebounds and blocks without hurting your efficiency.

Waiver Wire Centers in Deep Leagues

J.J. Hickson (DEN, PF/C) - 14% Owned

Hickson appears to have majorly benefited from the Timofey Mozgov trade in terms of minutes. Like Len, Hickson can deliver some elite rebounding, and he’s an even better scorer. Unlike Len, Hickson is not a great shot blocker (only 1.2 blocks per 36 minutes) and an efficiency drag (.637 career FT%, plus dreadful turnover rates north of 2 per game). Due to the latter, he only belongs on rosters in deep leagues. Standard leaguers cannot afford to blow a roster spot on empty points and rebounds; deeper leaguers must take what they can get.

Chris Kaman (POR, PF/C) - 18% Owned

Since Robin Lopez got injured, I have been waiting for the Trailblazers to start giving Kaman more minutes. It appears they have finally started to do so.

Kaman has started his last seven games (1/5-1/17) averaging about 26 minutes a game. In that stretch, he has averaged a workman-like 8.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks while shooting .450 on FGs (below his career average) and a perfect 1.000 on FTs (obviously, above his career average). Those numbers may sound boring, but it is a nice enough combo of good with nothing that does harm to rank him as a top 100 nine-category league player.

Kaman does not have a ton of upside, and all value will disappear when Lopez finally returns, but he makes an excellent fill-in C in deep leagues.