{"id":69,"date":"2016-08-15T19:36:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T19:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=69"},"modified":"2017-10-25T14:21:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T18:21:43","slug":"three-nba-centers-who-will-fly-under-the-radar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2016\/08\/15\/three-nba-centers-who-will-fly-under-the-radar\/","title":{"rendered":"Three NBA Centers Who Will Fly Under the Radar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the season a few months away, we take a look at the centers who might potentially surprise us.<\/p>\n<p>Every year we have these breakout players that seemingly came out of nowhere. Last\u00a0year it was <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccolcj01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">C.J. McCollum<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bartowi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Will Barton<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/turneev01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Turner<\/a>,<\/strong> and many more to name.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, here are the giants not getting enough\u00a0recognition who have\u00a0the potential to breakout this coming season.<\/p>\n<h2>Three NBA Centers Who Will Fly Under the Radar<\/h2>\n<h3><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lenal01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Len<\/a> \u2013 Phoenix Suns\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This past season was arguably Len\u2019s best season in his 3 years in the league.<\/p>\n<p>He averaged 9.0 ppg and 7.6 rpg while playing only in a little over 23.3 mpg. Prior to the start of the season, the Suns signed veteran <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chandty01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyson Chandler<\/a><\/strong> for 4 years and $52 million to try and lure <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/aldrila01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LaMarcus Aldridge<\/a><\/strong>. Even though the plan failed, the team found themselves a mentor for the young <strong>Ukrainian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Post<strong> All-Star<\/strong> break, Len averaged an impressive double-double. He posted 13.0 ppg and 10.3 rpg in 30 mpg, which is a pretty impressive stat line.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Len enjoyed improved success, the\u00a0weaknesses in his game still show from time to time (not very polished offensively, shot just a little over 40 percent from the field). It is a weakness that is very fixable during the summer. Remember what they always say, big guys take a little longer to develop.<\/p>\n<p>This article was originally posted on our parent site,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Sports<\/a>. It can be read in full at the site. We are now expanding, with a dedicated site for all your basketball analysis, news and opinion. So stay tuned to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Last Word on Baskeball<\/a>, where we will bring you all of your favorite Last Word features, and much more, from now on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the season a few months away, we take a look at the centers who might potentially surprise us. Every year we have these breakout players that seemingly came out of nowhere. Last\u00a0year it was C.J. McCollum, Will Barton, Evan Turner, and many more to name. With that said, here are the giants not getting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[46,45],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-alex-len","tag-nerlens-noel"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}