Week 14 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 14 of the campaign.

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

Waiver Wire Centers for Right Now

Brandon Bass (BOS, PF/C) – 20% Owned

The Celtics situation at center has been in flux for much of the season, flipping back and forth most of the year between Kelly Olynyk and Tyler Zeller at the whim of coach Brad Stevens, who is probably using some excellent advanced analytics to decide which big man would work better in a given matchup. Now that Olynyk is out until at least the all-star break, Bass has found his way into the mix-up, starting several games ahead of Tyler Zeller.

From a fantasy perspective, Bass as a starter is not nearly as valuable as Olynyk or Zeller when they are starting, because the former can add threes, while the latter has spotless efficiency rates. But if Bass is the one who is starting, you have to take what is given to you. Bass can score, rebound, and provide some nice rates (just a bit below Zeller’s). He doesn’t do all that much of anything else. But if you need a quick fix of scoring and boards, you are not going to find that much better than Bass at under 50% owned.

Zaza Pachulia (MIL, C) – 17% Owned

Pachulia will also have plenty of opportunity in the short term. Larry Sanders is potentially out for the season, while John Henson left Sunday’s game against San Antonio with an ankle injury. As a result, a big role is inevitable for Pachulia in the near term.

While he is not going to get you those blocks or threes, he is an excellent rebounder and a decent scorer who gets to the line a lot, where he shoots well. He is also quite a nifty passer for a big man. In heavy minutes, Pachulia can contribute decent numbers in points, rebounds, assists, and free throw percentage out of the center spot. His upside is still too low for me to give him a blanket endorsement in all standard leagues, but he can be valuable if you are desperate for a short term fill-in or if you are punting certain big man statistics, like FG% or blocks.

Waiver Wire Center for Deep Leagues

Jason Smith (NYK, PF/C) – 7% Owned

Smith provides the ultimate combination of an opportunity and a complete lack of per-minute production – and the opportunity is still winning out. He has averaged close to 34 minutes a game in his last 4 games (1/19 – 1/24). In that stretch, he has averaged 11.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.5 steals, and 2.0 blocks. He did also hit 3 of 4 three point attempts in a win against the Magic on January 23, but he has only attempted two other three point shots (missing both) all season, and only hit 18 of 64 in his entire 376 game NBA career. So I think we can write those off as a Knicks attempt at tanking against the Magic gone awry.

He can provide blocks -- 1.4 per 36 minutes in his career. But he is not a great rebounder – only 7.4 per 36, which is low for a center. Otherwise, he can score double-digits if given minutes, and that is about it. If you are in a standard league all the minutes in the world are not enough to make Smith worth rostering, but in deeper leagues such as 14 teamers or leagues with multiple extra roster spots, Smith can provide a reasonable bump in scoring and blocks.