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Nailing the center position in your fantasy basketball draft is one of the most important things you'll have to do as a fantasy manager, as there's a big drop-off in quality and a lack of depth around the league if you miss on your starting pick.
In order to protect against that, we've identified the top-15 fantasy basketball centers heading into the 2023-24 season and ranked them below. Make sure to check out the analysis of the 2023-24 center rankings below.
Top Fantasy Basketball Centers for 2023-24 Season
1. Nikola Jokic, DEN
2. Joel Embiid, PHI
3. Domantas Sabonis, SAC
4. Anthony Davis, LAL
5. Victor Wembanyama, SAS
6. Karl Anthony-Towns, MIN
7. Chet Holmgren, OKC
8. Bam Adebayo, MIA
9. Nikola Vucevic, CHI
10. Myles Turner, IND
11. Walker Kessler, UTA
12. DeAndre Ayton, POR
13. Kristaps Porzingis, BOS
14. Alperen Sengun, HOU
15. Nic Claxton, BKN
Fantasy Basketball Center Rankings Notes
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Despite missing out on the regular season MVP award last year, reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic takes the top spot. Jokic's assists (9.8) from the center spot give you such a team-building advantage along with his elite efficiency. Especially when factoring in positional scarcity, Jokic should be the consensus first pick in fantasy basketball drafts…Joel Embiid will settle in as a top-5 pick overall, but some regression should be expected. Embiid led the league in scoring on career-high efficiency numbers, but with a new coach and uncertain running mates (James Harden), there are more variables to consider with Joel Embiid than the usual injury concerns…
If you miss out on Jokic or Embiid, Domantas Sabonis is an awfully nice consolation. Sacramento had the league's best offense last year (no, really, look it up) and Sabonis offers a combination of durability and distributing not seen anywhere at the position outside of Jokic. Sabonis is a rock-solid first-round selection…
Grabbing the fourth spot is Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis, who has missed 114 games over the last three seasons and is now on the other side of 30. Davis averaged a career-high in rebounds last year and provides important defensive production, but your team immediately becomes hyper-fragile the moment you draft him…Rookies are usually overrated in fantasy basketball, but Victor Wembanyama is literally built different. It's not out of the question for him to immediately become a 3 blocks per game type player, but with the scoring and three-point shooting you almost never get when paying up for blocks. Kristaps Porzingis's rookie year numbers might honestly be closer to Wemby's floor than his ceiling right away…
Karl Anthony-Towns is a little underrated in fantasy circles. The defensive stats leave a lot to be desired, but a healthy KAT can give you super-efficient percentages and pair nicely with lead guards who do it all except shoot volume threes (SGA, Jimmy Butler, etc.)…You don't want to be late to the party with Chet Holmgren, who will give you loads of threes, blocks, and easy points playing alongside a bonafide superstar in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The upside is well worth the risk given his current ADP…
Bam Adebayo is going a little too high in drafts, as his defensive numbers seem to be declining and Miami might be in a state of flux after a failed offseason. There's more upside at the position going behind him in drafts…Nikola Vucevic has been a fantasy mainstay at the center position, but at 32 years old with the Bulls having so many other scorers, this is the year he finally takes a step back and has a harder time accounting for his lack of defensive production…
Myles Turner became a bigger offensive weapon for the Pacers under Rick Carlisle, and that should continue in Indiana's go-go offense with Tyrese Haliburton. You should be bullish on his continued offensive improvement and a bounceback year in the blocks category for a sneaky good Pacers team, but health is always a concern with Turner…Walker Kessler won't get you many points, but his per-36 averages of 13.1 rebounds and 3.7 blocks are the kind of things we dream about at night as fantasy basketball managers. Kessler's post-All-Star game playing time (right around 29 minutes a game) is a good sign he'll put up big defensive numbers this season and he pairs perfectly with a guard-heavy start…
DeAndre Ayton gets a new start in Portland, but young guards sometimes struggle to create for their bigs right away, and chemistry will be a work in progress in Portland. You should be most concerned with the presence of Robert Williams, who might be a better “real life” player than Ayton and could steal more minutes than what's ideal. Ayton will get his buckets, though…Kristaps Porzingis is finally playing meaningful basketball again and should feast off the gravity of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The counting stats might not be where they were last year, but the efficiency along with the threes and blocks makes him a great pick in fantasy basketball this season…
Alperen Sengun has the kind of fantasy game you can bring home to meet mom, but there's concern Houston will run less of the offense through him with a real point guard in Fred Van Vleet running the show now. Sengun is a rising talent, but the assists are one of the main appeals here…If you miss on Walker Kessler, Nic Claxton is an awfully nice consolation prize for rebounds and blocks at a high clip. Don't let that free throw percentage (54.1) scare you away, either. Claxton brought that up to 63 percent after the All-Star break and balances some of that out by leading the league in field goal percentage. He's a preferred middle-round target to other shot blockers like Rudy Gobert, Jarrett Allen, and a few others not listed above…
Fantasy Center Draft Strategy
If you miss out on Jokic or Embiid, don't panic. While it would be great to solidify the center position with one of the greatest players in the league, there are other options that can help your fantasy basketball team compete. Be willing to reach for wingspan monsters Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren, who have injury concerns baked into their current draft costs but don't seem to have their ceilings properly accounted for. Both of those guys will be getting the ball a lot, and have much more diverse skill sets than some of the centers being taken around them.
Try to avoid the “center dead zone” where drafters start to panic that they haven't filled the position. This usually happens right around the end of round five, where players like Ayton, Sengun, Allen, and Gobert get snatched up. It makes more sense to see if someone from that tier ends up falling, as drafters typically won't double-dip with centers early on. You can get reliable sources of rebounds and blocks from a player like Mark Williams nearly 40 picks later, or big rebound numbers with someone like Jusuf Nurkic.
If you miss out on a top-10 type option, go ahead and stack your team elsewhere and address the position with multiple picks deep into your draft. Some favorite late-round sleeper center choices include Mark Williams (CHA), Ivica Zubac (LAC), and Daniel Gafford (WAS), who are all currently clear starters on their teams with no real viable backups to steal away major minutes.
More than anything else, make sure you are familiar with your fantasy basketball league's rules and how that might impact both your rankings and the ADP. Even the slightest of changes can completely change a player's value…so spend some time with your scoring system and rankings pre-draft in order to maximize your results and get the starting center your fantasy basketball team needs to win a title this season.
