| RotoFreak.com: Los Angeles Fantasy Preview Authored by Craig Huffman - October 24, 2006 - 5:33 pm
| Current Featured Columns | | The First Three Weeks of 2008-09 Now that weve had a little time to watch free agency unfold, along with the usual accompaniment of trades, lets look at some of the key moves and how they impact the teams involved.
Grading The Deal: W's Sign Maggette And TuriafThe Boom Dizzle era is over, and the Warriors quickly recovered by signing two nice pieces to complement their young core.
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Lamar Odom His range over the last three years has been a rank of 35 to 60. If he can get his FT% up, he'll have a bit more upside. And if Kobe sits out, Lamar suddenly becomes the #1 option on the team. But, at this point, we can't assume that either of those things happen. We do know that it has been quite the downer of an offseason for Lamar, though. His infant son died and he was robbed at gunpoint, which caused him to take a step back from the game and enter into training camp out of shape. We're not expecting that to affect his fantasy value, and with Kobe not quite 100%, we could see a less passive and more productive Odom. Plus, with Mihm and Kwame out to start the year, we'll see Odom play some 5, likely causing his rebounds to increase. So, we're not shying away from him come draft time, ranking him 30th overall.
Vladimir Radmanovic He was the Lakers' key offseason signing, brought in to help spread the floor and take a bit of the load off of Kobe's shoulders. VladRad is a definite starter on this squad, and his off-the-bench, low points, no-turnover game has him mildly underrated in fantasyland. 35 mpg might be too much to ask for here; however, a slight bump on the 27 to 30 mpg that he's used to seems about right. He's battling a hand injury right now, though... and when 9/10's of your game is shooting, that's a concern. He is seeing a hand specialist, trying to see if therapy will cure the woes. Nonetheless, it's a concern and it nixes any upside in minutes. We have him ranked at the 90th pick, and the deeper and more competitive the league, the less risk we'll want to assume and the farther we'll let him fall.
Smush Parker Yet another year of mediocre point guards in LA, oh joy! Despite the lackluster performance versus the Suns in the playoffs (shooting 33 percent from the field and 15 percent from 3pt land), and little going for him outside of experience in the triangle and a decent perimeter shot, Smush comes in as the favorite to start. It's not all doom and gloom for him, though. He gives you threes/assists/steals, he doesn't hurt your FG%, and his turnovers are below 2 per game. That was enough for a rank of 70 last year. Considering he's a combo guard off the bench everywhere except LA, and he's far from ideal even in this system, he carries a load of risk with him. Farmar has been impressive in preseason play, Vujacic has another year under his belt, and it wouldn't take much to bring in a replacement. But the job is his for now and we'll assume that he keeps it. We have him ranked at the 80th spot - 10 ranks lower than last year's value. Because of the risk involved, and the fact that he's on few people's radars, it might be wise to let him fall a good 30 picks below that.
Kwame Brown He's finally found his place in the lineup, at the 5, and he turned it up a notch in the final month of the year and into the playoffs. Unfortunately for Kwame and his owners, that 'notch' was from the 250th rank to around 160. So, unless you're expecting a significant improvement on the little signs of life that he showed late last year, we don't think he's draftable in 12-teamers. He's out at least until mid-November with a shoulder injury as well. We have him around the 190th pick for now and are keeping an eye on his progress. We need more than a month to half to be convinced.
Chris Mihm It's been 8 months since ankle surgery and he's still having problems. There's an opportunity for decent minutes, a starting role and a 150th rank, if he gets healthy. All of the above looks like a longshot right now, though.
Sasha Vujacic A lights-out shooter... in practice. 35 percent from the field just isn't going to cut it this year, but we'll assume he gets that on track. Sasha brings FT% and decent hustle stats to the table; but, unless Smush stumbles in the starting role, there's no value here. Until then, Sasha can stay on the wire.
Maurice Evans He can produce in 9 categories, albeit unspectacularly. If Kobe misses significant time, we'll give Mo a look in deep leagues. The minutes won't be strong enough to make any sort of noise in fantasyland, otherwise.
Ronny Turiaf He's no longer just 'That Guy' who had open-heart surgery. His 4 years at Gonzaga make him ready to play now, and his play in preseason isn't going unnoticed. Clearly a 2nd-round steal, and definitely a guy to keep an eye on considering Mihm and Kwame are injured and Bynum is still a ways away from contributing. FT%, turnovers and a week mid-range game limit his upside; but, he might give us some value out of the gates if he can steal minutes from Brian Cook.
Jordan Farmar He's the other preseason surprise for the Lakers this summer. Farmar is an average defender with an average shot; however, he's a change-of-pace guard who could challenge for a starting role down the line. Probably not this year - too many turnovers, he needs time to learn the triangle and he might even get sent down to the D - but somebody to watch out for.
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