Stromile Swift

While the jury is still out on Darko Milicic, 2003's second overall pick, Swift, 2000's second overall pick, clearly isn't the player expected at that draft position. He will be the first sub in at center or power forward; he'll see some time, but not a lot. He's been pretty much an eight-point, four-rebound guy the past couple years, and there's no reason to believe he'll improve much this season.

The 2005-06 edition of Stromile Swift is the kind of player fantasy championships are won and lost with. On the one hand, Swift has spent the last five years with the stigma of being the No. 2 pick in the 2000 draft and not being able to crack the starting lineup on the Grizzlies. But on the other, Swift is still young (25), talented, and athletic, and puts up some nice per-minute averages -- if you projected his stats from last season out to 37 or 38 minutes per game, which he's likely to get for the first time in his career, you get an 18-point, nine-rebound, three-block per night kind of player. In addition to swarming the boards, Swift has developed a decent mid-range jumper, which can come in handy when defenses collapse on Yao or swarm to T-Mac. Can Swift make it happen as the third wheel in Houston? The Rockets have over five million reasons a year to think so.

Swift would move quickly up these rankings if he changed teams - he's a very active rebounder and shot blocker, and has a not-horrible offensive game. But he'll struggle to get enough minutes in Hubie Brown's rotation to make a major contribution as a fantasy player.

Swift will have a hard time finding enough playing time to post good fantasy numbers. He could however average nine points, six boards, and a couple blocks a game.