Fantasy Basketball Risers at Center - 2021-22 Season Review

September 10, 2022

Antonio Losada looks at fantasy basketball risers at the Center position from the 2021-22 NBA season who you should chase in fantasy drafts for the upcoming 2022-23 campaign based on their increase in performance.

We're this close to the regular season, and while there is a ton of hype about the incoming rookies (check out all of our NBA Draft analysis here), we still need to reflect on the 2021-2022 season and what happened just a few months back in time. We're having the first proper NBA offseason in a couple of years as COVID fades away, and it's now time to do some evaluation on another unique season as we prepare for the 2023 campaign.

We have nearly a full season of data for most players to crunch now. It's time to reflect on the 2021-22 season to see who were our "risers" and "fallers" in the rankings. A lot of young players are naturally going to be on the rise, while some older hoopers will definitely be part of the season fallers.

In this article, I will feature some of the players labeled as Centers who took the biggest jumps in their output so you can properly assess their value entering the 2022 draft season as we get closer to peak draft SZN.

Fantasy Basketball Risers - Centers

Jaren Jackson Jr., C - Memphis Grizzlies

2021 - 375th-Best Overall
2022 - 37th

With JJJ missing virtually all of the 2021 season, this was obviously going to happen. That said, though, it's not that Jackson's improvement last year was merely based on his playing 67 more games or nearly 1,900 more minutes and his raw/counting stats but on a honed game part of one of the most exciting and up-and-coming teams in the NBA. Not to mention his per-game and efficiency-based numbers.

Jackson's role (already showcased two seasons ago in a brief 11-game run) stayed the same over the full 2022 season (25+ USG%) in a quite pleasing way. JJJ finished the year averaging only 27 MPG, but that was enough for him to put up 31.6 FPPG and 1.16 FP/min in what was one of the most-efficient seasons among all fantasy NBA players on a per-minute basis.

The Grizzly hit more free-throw shots than ever thanks to a career-high 4.4 FTA per game to go with another career-high in his 13.3 FGA. All things considered, he nearly topped or tied all of his prior bests with his 16-6-1-1-3 per-game line.

JJJ is going to miss ample time after getting injured this summer, but he should be back mid-season (after the calendar turns to 2023 at least, mind you) as he's expected to miss four-to-six months back when the injured was reported in late June.

Mitchell Robinson, C - New York Knicks

2021 - 277th-Best Overall
2022 - 106th

Robinson had shown glimpses of his talents in the past already, but never quite exploded through his first three years in the NBA. And when he was starting to showcase his best game in 2021, he was injured and sidelined finishing the season with just 31 games played, even missing on the top-275 players in the fantasy realm.

Robinson came back to his healthy--and best--self last year, appearing in 72 games for the Knicks. He put up phenomenal numbers (8.5 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 1.8 BPG) in the categories he's always dominated and, to the pleasure of those banking on Robinson's very particular shooting, finished the season with ridiculous 76.1/00.0/48.6 shooting splits.

Yes, that's zero three-point attempts by Robinson but also a gaudy 76%+ in two-point shots. That's Robinson's calling card, it won't change any time soon, and we're not mad about that. The reason? His delicious 72% true shooting is a figure only reached by two other players with 4.5+ FGA in the history of the NBA: Rudy Gobert and Robert Williams III.

The Knicks have added Isaiah Hartenstein to their big-man rotation, though, so we have yet to see how the minutes work for the pair of giants. That said, Robinson is coming off his best rebounding season (17.9 TRB%) and his second-best blocking campaign (7.1 BLK%). The usage stayed ground-level low (11.4%) and that won't change, so keep that in mind.

Christian Wood, PF/C - Dallas Mavericks

2021 - 101st-Best Overall
2022 - 34th

Wood is hardly an unknown player these days. He was a few years back, but not after his explosion in Detroit back in 2020. In his two years in Houston as the go-to center (108 of 109 games started playing 31+ MPG), Wood went on to average 1.22 FP/min and 38+ FPPG. He's coming off his best fantasy season ever after finishing as a top-seven C and top-34 player overall, no position filters applied.

Wood fell a hair short of averaging a double-double in 2021 but did so last year with averages of 18 PPG, 10+ RPG, 2+ APG, 1 BPG, and nearly one steal a pop too. He can stretch the floor (39% three-point shooting on 4.9 3PA per game) and will be part of a much stronger team than Houston offered him.

That might actually be his undoing depending on how the rotation ends shaping up in Dallas (some beat reporters think he will come off the bench with the Mavs having also added JaVale McGee). It'd be a little bit surprising, though, to find Wood flopping that much--if at all--considering he should be entering his peak at age 27 next season.

Wood has steadily improved on all fronts for two seasons in a row while manning a prominent role, so he should not have any trouble in Dallas. It's time to build on his first double-double season and the vastly improved context he'll find himself in should also boost some of his other numbers, such as the assists and three-point shooting (a certain Luka Doncic will be out there dishing out passes, for example).

Robert Williams III, C - Boston Celtics

2021 - 163rd-Best Overall
2022 - 97th

It's happening, folks. We had to wait, but the moment has arrived. It took years, literally, for us truthers to be vindicated, but Robert Williams graced us believers with his first top-100 fantasy season and top-20 among players eligible at the C position. Not that we didn't know or expect it to eventually be the case.

Williams had been a ridiculously efficient player for the Celtics since entering the league in 2019. Of course, he never got to enjoy meaningful minutes as part of Boston's rotation (he logged 8+, 13+, and 19 MPG in his first three seasons) so that entirely murdered his fantasy upside down to finishes below the 330th player overall with a career-best 160th OVR in 2021. Not last year, though, as Williams went on to play 61 games (all of them starting) and logged 29.6 MPG.

There were concerns about Williams keeping his efficiency up with a larger dose of minutes, but he was more than good at it. Williams posted a 1.04 FP/min figure in 2022, even playing nearly 30 minutes a pop and finishing as close as possible to a dub-dub with 10 PPG and 9.6 RPG. Throw his 2 APG and 2+ BPG into the equation and you get a generational fantasy player right there. Seriously. Only Joakim Noah, Anthony Davis, and Jusuf Nurkic have posted a 10-9-2-1-2 line in the last decade of play, and none of them did so committing less than 2 TOPG. Ooooofff...

Williams will retain his role intact next season because Boston hasn't made any changes that could affect him. Horford is still in tow (and somehow improving his game yearly...) but he shouldn't eat from Williams' cake at this point in their respective careers. Williams is one of the safest picks for fantasy GMs and a center with upside for 10+ years of top-10 finishes at the position starting next season.

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