By the way – I great new look for the site. Well done

I _thought_ there was something funny about that list. And then I realized - it’s totally incomplete! Where’s Shaq? Yao Ming? Brad Miller? i dunno why they have a page like that or what’s going on that makes it so incomplete, but i think it’s safe to say there are more centers in the league than there are on that list.

Rook - here’s the thing with position scarcity. For me, i don’t stress it for the first 3 or 4 rounds other than “big” vs “small,” i.e. i don’t wanna get stuck with my top 4 players being guards. But the best way to not end up in that situation in round three is to have done your homework - know who’s worth taking in the third round, the sixth round, even the eigth round. Not having a good center after 5 rounds isn’t a bad situation as long as you’ve got some mid-late round targets still up on your board, y’know? and so you won’t feel the urge to stretch for that marginal center in round 3.

I meant to throw out the link to the page at in my first comment, but it slipped my mind until after I submitted. I was going off the the Yahoo player page, which included both C’s and FC’s. I’m not sure when the last time this page was updated, but if those are all the centers in the league, then I can see why there is a need to bump up the value of players who qualify.

I’m basing this off of Yahoo!’s rosters … for example, here is where Lamarcus Aldridge lost his C potential, and where Brandon Roy picked up PG eligibility: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/por/roster

Pmad, i agree that that’s a real small amount of C’s … are you counting guys that are “FC’s” as well?

Jeremy,
You wont see me calling you crazy for drafting brad miller in the 2nd round last year. In fact, during our mock draft last year, he was our first player taken in the second round! but yes, as much as we preach PG’s here, centers are the RB’s of fantasy basketball. Scarce, yet necessary.

Finally, we won’t speak badly of deshawn stevenson here at FBB HQ. anyone that contributes to jared jeffries getting the hell out of washington is ok with us.

I think that in order to have a successful fantasy team, you need to have two QUALITY starting centers, as well as some other FC or C eligible players to fill in.

As far as C’s are concerned, I’d include Amare, Diaw, Brad Miller, Bosh, Yao, Kaman, Okur, Boozer, D.Howard, Bogut, J.Oneal, Wallace^2, Big Z, Okafor, Camby, Duncan and Gasol as the best of the bunch.

Other potentially capable centers are K.Perkins, Krstic, Diogu, Dalembert and Pryzbilla/Magloire. Perkins needs to stay healthy, Dalembert needs to keep his head, Diogu just needs minutes, Krstic is solid, and is one of Pryz/Magloire gets hurt, then the value of the other goes up significantly.

Overall, I think that you need to have 2 or 3 of these guys to do well in fantasy league, but you need to take into account what each player gets you. Dalemembert, when at potential, gets like 5 blocks a night, wheras Boozer might get you a block in 5 games. Diogu and Bosh help your FT%, which is quite rare for a big man.

Overall, if you’re going in to the 3rd round (and certainly the 4th/5th round) and don’t have one center yet, you better start looking around, because you don’t want to get pinched by scarcity.

I’ve almost thought about trying to punt 3’s this year and load up on big guys on PG’s (who can shoot). Big guys help you out with rebounds, Offensive Rebounds, Blocks, and FG%…and they don’t usually get TO’s either. If you pair that with some guards who rack up the steals and assists, then you can run the tables on almost every category except for 3ptsm.

Aight…enough rambling on…but I think my point is clear. It’s hard to acquire quality C talent…especially off the waiver wire for more than a few games. It’s much easier to find someone who plays SG/SF who can come in and score some points, hit a three and grab a steal for you. Take this in mind near the late rounds of your draft if you think you can get more value out of some potential steals.

…and above all else MINUTES ARE THE BEST PREDICTOR OF FANTASY SUCCESS (unless your name is DeShawn Stevenson).