With word that the Trailblazers will take C Greg Oden and Seattle will take SF Kevin Durant, all that remains is the determination of selections numbered 3 through 60. The flack being put out by the various clubs looking to jockey into and out of those various spots makes those projections difficult. To make things more challenging, most of these players will spend the majority of the 2007-08 NBA season in the free agent pool/reserve list of your typical fantasy basketball league.
I have as little doubt as I can possibly have that Greg Oden will contribute at center. A stat line of 10 ppg/10 rpg/2 bpg gets a player on every active roster. His hype guarantees it also. Kevin Durant will also find himself contributing to some team although I can imagine him contributing less to his fantasy team than Oden will for his. There are a lot of SF available. Yahoo! may set his position at PF which could help some, but then you'd have to be confident he will get enough rebounds to fill that slot. I worry some because 185 lbs on the bench in a 6'10 frame sounds less than ideal for 8+ rpg.
From that point, there will be rookie point guards who will contribute given they need only five assists per game to be active. The hype says Mike Conley will do this, but I am warming to Acie Law becoming as valuable a fantasy player. There will certainly be SGs who find themselves on and off active rosters as they have a good two or three game stretch and then get shut down for a few more.
The question is where will this draft's Dwayne Wade be. That is a player who provides as much fantasy value as the more hyped #1/#2 picks. Is it going to be USC's Nick Young who seems to be on the fringe of the lottery right now? Or do the past few seasons demonstrate that the player will come out of the mid-single digit picks (2006 Brandon Roy #6, 2005 Chris Paul #4, 2003 Carmelo Anthony #3 & Dwayne Wade #5, 2002 Amare Stoudamire #9)?
Either way, the fantasy contribution of most rookies is typically as swingmen/injury/suspension fill-ins.
ESPN has an open chat during the NBA draft. Click here to open. Bring back anything of interest i.e. the Hawks take Yi and deal #11 for a guard with questionable ability to handle the point.