Steve Francis

Francis was traded to the Knicks at the end of last season, which makes his fantasy prospects for this year difficult to predict. While he seems to have lost some of his jaw-dropping athleticism, Francis still has the talent to be the 20/5/5 player that he was for most of his career. But fluctuating playing time (career-low 27.5 minutes per game with Knicks), an unclear role, and the presence of similar talents such as Stephon Marbury and Jamal Crawford combined to lead to dramatically career-lows of 10.8 ppg, 3.5 apg, and 3.0 rpg for Francis in 24 games for the Knicks. This season, with Isiah Thomas replacing Larry Brown on the bench, presumably the Knicks will run a more up-tempo, guard-friendly system that could allow Francis to bounce back. But with the playing rotation as yet undetermined, the safe bet is to expect Francis to come in below his career averages but higher than his low-water marks from last season. Considering that Francis doesn’t contribute at all from behind the arc and defensively has seen his steals drop down to a career-low 1.1 per game, his days as an elite fantasy producer seem to be over.

Stevie Franchise faces a lot of the same criticisms as Iverson and Marbury. “He’s a shoot-first point guard, probably better suited to playing without the ball,” say the pundits. This season, it appears we’ll find out if this is one of those occasions when the pundits are right; Francis will play the two-guard spot primarily, while some combination of Keyon Dooling and Jameer Nelson man the point. The move could help Francis’ already-impressive numbers. The Magic experimented with Francis at shooting guard last season, and his 21.3-point scoring average bettered his career mark by 1.6 points, while he still managed to contribute seven assists per game. The 6-3 Francis is also a very good rebounder for a guard; he pulled down 5.8 boards per contest last year.

Talk about needing a change of scenery! Francis should have a huge bounce back year now that he's away from Jeff Van Gundy's Yao-centric approach. Francis rivals Jason Kidd as a rebounding threat from the point guard position, and he may increase his assist totals now that his running mate Cuttino Mobley and new teammate Dwight Howard are in place to fill the lane and convert Francis passes into scores. Francis shot the poorest percentage of his career last season (40.3 percent), and should up that now that he's back in an offense he's comfortable in. Don't hesitate to grab Francis in the second or third round of your draft.

With the migraine headaches behind him, there's not much stopping Francis from being one of the top-10 and very likely top-5 fantasy guards in the NBA this season. He can score, pass, shoot the three, rebound and steal. He won't help your FG percentage, but he's still a fantasy star.