Off Season Transaction and Their Fantasy Implications September 29, 2002 Chauncey Billups signed a 6 year 35 million dollar free agent contract with Detroit. Detroit also traded away Jerry Stackhouse, their leading scorer, and received Richard Hamilton and Hubert Davis. Billups should get plenty of playing time at point guard having only to compete with Chucky Atkins as well as shooting guard. Billups and Hamilton will both be relied upon for scoring for Detroit. Billups could end up as the most valuable fantasy player on the Pistons because of his steals, assists, and treys. I would expect in Washington Stackhouse will have similar value as he had in Detroit last season. Note that last season Stack's role with the team was diminished. But after the aging Michael Jordan, Stackhouse is the most proven player on the Wizards. Larry Hughes signed a 3 year 14.7 million dollar contract with Washington. Once again a team will be hoping that Hughes can play effectively at the point seeing as shooting guard minutes will be handled mainly by Stackhouse. This is the same experiment that eventually failed last season with Golden State so don't expect a break out year from Hughes although he may begin the season as a starter. Boston traded Kenny Anderson, Vitaly Potapenko, and Joseph Forte to Seattle for Vin Baker and Shammond Williams. This trade should wipe out the minimal fantasy value Kenny Anderson had last season for the Celtics as he will now backup up Gary Payton. Note though there is a possibility that Payton could get traded as he wants to play for a contender. I would not count on this happening though. Expect Vin Baker to continue to put up mediocre numbers for the Celtics. Shammond should see an increase in value with the Celtics who need a point guard but it is doubtful he will produce consistent numbers. San Antonio re-signed Malik Rose to a 7 year, $42 million contract. If David Robinson misses games due to injury Rose should have some fantasy value. Cleveland traded Andre Miller and Bryant Stith to the LA Clippers for Darius Miles and Harold Jamison. Cleveland also trade Lamond Murray to Toronto for stiff Michael Stewart and a future first round pick. These trades leave the door wide open for Miles to have a break out season. Ricky Davis may also become a 20 ppg scorer for Cleveland since they have few scoring options. Rookie Dejuan Wagner should get lots of playing time despite having little collegiate experience and could end up being one of the more valuable rookie fantasy players. Andre Miller will continue to put up solid numbers in LA although his scoring may decrease some. Miami drafted Caron Butler and Kendall Gill signed with Minnesota. Butler should end up as the starting small forward for the Heat and have more fantasy value than someone who was drafted as late in the first round as he was. Chicago signed free agents Donyell Marshall and Corie Blount. With Eddie Robinson and Marcus Fizer also on the roster, it makes it somewhat difficult to predict who much playing time Tyson Chandler will get in his second season. Eddie Robinson may now end up as a backup next season in contrast to last year when he was set to be a starter before he got hurt. Utah signed Matt Harpring to a 4 year, $18.5 million contract. He should take over the role Donyell Marshall had last season for the Jazz. Look for an increase in Harpring's scoring as he plays next to John Stockton instead of Allen Iverson. Milwaukee traded Glenn Robinson to Atlanta for Toni Kukoc. It is doubtful this trade will have much impact on the fantasy value of either player. If anything Robinson may get off to a slow start as he adjusts to fighting for touches with a new group of players. San Antonio traded Antonio Daniels, Charles Smith, and Amal McCaskill for Erick Barkley, Steve Kerr, and a 2nd round draft pick. Portland also signed free agent Jeff McInnis. The result of this trade is to wipe out the fantasy value of Damon Stoudamire and Jeff McInnis as they now need to compete with each other for playing time. Damon Stoudamire may end up getting traded but McInnis would still need to compete with Antonio Daniels. Portland also signed Sabonis. He should play as a backup but will take playing time away from Dale Davis. Philadelphia traded Dikembe Mutombo to New Jersey for Keith Van Horn and Todd MacCulloch. The result of this trade is to make Richard Jefferson a starter for the Nets. He should see an increase in playing time but needs to work on making his game complete before he becomes a desirable fantasy player. New Jersey signed Rodney Rogers to a 3 year, $9.3 million contract. He will continue as a backup with minimal value but may press Jefferson for playing time if Jefferson does not produce as the starter. Alonzo Mourning will likely miss much of the 2002-2003 season because of his kidney disease. This leaves the Heat center position wide open. It will likely be a center by committee situation but perhaps a player like Vladimir Stepania will be able earn consistent playing time. To see how these players rank according to your leagues scoring system order the HoopsKlyce Player rating report. Previous Article Next Article Copyright © Hoops Klyce 2002 - All Rights Reserved Website Designed by Lelnet Failed to execute script '../cgi-local/ax.cgi': Win32 Error Code = 2