Week 16 Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: NBA Centers

With NBA All-Star Weekend quickly approaching, 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 16 of the campaign.

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

Waiver Wire Centers for Right Now

Spencer Hawes (LAC, PF/C) - 46% Owned

In case you have been living under a rock or you don’t actually follow the NBA, Los Angeles Clippers All-Star forward Blake Griffin (or “that dude in the tracksuit in those Kia commercials” for those of you who haven't heard this) unexpectedly had to undergo elbow surgery due to a staph infection.

This launches Hawes into a starting role with massive minutes. He put up top 50 fantasy numbers last season when given a starting role for a pair of lottery teams in Philadelphia and Cleveland.

Hawes provides a unique combination of both threes and blocks out of the center position, averaging over 1.0 each in both categories last season (only Chris Bosh and Paul Millsap came close to that in 2013-2014, while only Millsap and three-point shooting break-out Serge Ibaka are doing so this season).

While Hawes may not quite get as many blocks alongside DeAndre Jordan as he did alongside more lackluster interior defensive threats in Cleveland and Philadelphia, he should still provide a few and will have plenty of opportunities to shoot the ball. If he is still available in your league, drop whoever you think is your worst player and pick up Hawes immediately.

Alex Len (PHO, C) - 15% Owned

Len might have been the guy you just dropped for Hawes, which is fine if you had no one else to drop. Or he might have already been dropped in by someone in an earlier transaction. If you are in a league that requires making moves a bit proactively – Hawes was grabbed immediately after news of Griffin’s injury broke in your league, maybe – Len is a guy to grab.

Len is out for the moment, but likely to return healthy after the All-Star break, which is coming only a few short days away. To grab him now only requires missing one or two possible games out of that lineup spot, and Len is capable of making up for that in the second half.

The 21-year old Ukrainian had been playing exceptionally well in limited minutes before his injury. In the month of January, he averaged a .588 FG%, .739 FT%, 7.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.4 steals, 2.2 blocks, and 1.5 turnovers. While the scoring doesn’t pop off the page, that is excellent rebounding and blocks in only 23.6 minutes a game, with a very nice FG% and no harm to your FT% (that’s a big point in his favor compared to many other sources of rebounding and blocks).

As he gets healthy again, I expect his minutes to keep ramping up as he keeps improving his consistency. Len’s post All-Star prospects are bright, so don’t let his injury scare you off from swooping in now if he is available.

Waiver Wire Centers in Deep Leagues

Jason Smith (NYK, PF/C) - 8% Owned

I talked about Smith a couple weeks ago, calling him “the ultimate combination of an opportunity and a complete lack of per-minute production.” That has continued to be true since I wrote that. The clearly tanking Knicks have given him heavy playing time to the tune of 31.7 minutes per game over the last ten games as of writing this (1/19 – 2/7).

This looks to continue in the near term, as an injured Amar'e Stoudemire may opt out of his Knicks contract to play for a contender (a move that I believe the Knicks would embrace) and Carmelo Anthony will continue to have his playing time restricted going forward.

In all that playing time, there has been the usual lack of high upside – 10.6 points, 6.3 rebounds. 3.5 assists, 0.4 threes, 0.5 steals, 0.8 blocks, 0.9 turnovers, .474 FG%, .857 FT% over that ten game span. While that is very unimpressive given over 30 minutes a game, it is still better than most other guys available in over 90% of leagues average, because they are barely approaching 20 minutes most nights.