Week 12 Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire: NBA Centers

Coming up on the midway point 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 12 of the campaign.

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

Waiver Wire Centers for Right Now

Hassan Whiteside (MIA, C) - 33% Owned

I have been calling out centers while they were 1% owned and watching them catch fire the last two weeks, calling out Jusuf Nurkic in this space two weeks ago and Whiteside last week. Whiteside was already establishing himself as an excellent source of boards and blocks as a bench player coming into the Heat’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday the 11^th. Now it looks as if he has found his way into the starting lineup with his effort in that game with career highs across the board. The beautiful re-cap: 23 points on 10 of 13 shooting, 16 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 0 turnovers.

I expect Whiteside to still be somewhat inconsistent as far as minutes played, but he is now locked in as a huge source of rebounds and blocks, with good scoring and field goal percentage. The one drawback to him is that he is going to be a big drain on free throw percentage – he takes an awful lot of attempts when he is on the floor and only hits 42% of them. He is a poor man’s Andre Drummond in a lot of ways, but he projects to be right on par with Drummond when it comes to negative FT% impact.

In roto leagues, a category killing FT% like that wipes out most of his value – his FT% is arguably as bad in fantasy as his blocking is good. Because of this, I would fade him yearly roto leagues, where I suggest avoiding category killers like the plague. However, in a H2H league a bad FT% matters much less – you can either punt FT%, or you can get away with playing a poor FT shooter and still not lose the category every week. He is a great pickup in any weekly league.

Waiver Wire Centers in Deep Leagues

 Brandan Wright (PHO, PF/C) - 18% owned

He’s back! After a short exile in Boston, Wright is back on a Western Conference contender where he can get a chance to put up his usual extremely efficient 15-20 minutes of basketball. While there is no place quite as friendly for a guy with his skill set as alongside Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks, Phoenix is a decent landing spot. He has already moved past the punchless Miles Plumlee in the Suns rotation, with 15 minutes in his first game. It was double OT, so that exaggerates how much of a role he had, but it was more minutes than Plumlee (9:48) and it was his first game with a new team.

I expect Wright to carve out a decent 15 minute floor with the Suns similar to his floor with Dallas. I also foresee some considerable day-to-day upside in minutes, as he is playing behind a young starting center in Alex Len who is prone to inconsistency. Wright could really capitalize on Len’s occasional struggles. I will not recommend Wright yet for standard leagues, because I want to see if he can be as good in Phoenix as he was in Dallas. I do like him in deep leagues where you are looking for reasonably efficient minutes at center.

Waiver Wire Center to Keep an Eye On

Tarik Black (LAL, PF/C) - 1% owned

I will wrap up with a 1% owned center like I have the past two weeks, to see if I can keep up my hot streak. Clearly if I won betting 00 on roulette twice in a row, I should bet 00 a third time, right? Black is an intriguing high-energy young center who finally got a chance at some playing time for the Lakers in a competitive game on Friday, and he did the best with it. He hit every field goal attempt he took, scored 14 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, and blocked a shot all in just 17 minutes.

Black got the opportunity when Byron Scott decided the starting frontcourt of Ed Davis and Jordan Hill was not running hard enough. Scott benched them for Black and Carlos Boozer, who both came in and attached the boards, demolishing the hapless Magic.

On the one hand, it is going to be tough for Black to come up with big minutes in a front court with Davis, Hill, Boozer, and Robert Sacre. A game based on playing with high energy like Black’s is also difficult to stretch out over more minutes, too – just look at Jordan Hill and Ed Davis, who are former “high energy bench guys” now getting benched for not running hard enough as every night starters. All that said – I cannot imagine the Lakers don’t reward him for his play, and if the guys in front of him continue to not look as good, Scott will not hesitate to give Black a shot.