Gary Payton

Payton’s role will be vastly different than it has ever been this season. Payton will serve a valuable role to the team where he’ll be asked to be a veteran leader who brings a defensive presence to the second unit. Payton will not come anywhere near his career averages of 17 pts and 7.2 assists per game. Let someone else overpay for Payton as his current fantasy value is significantly less than his current NBA value.

No player in the NBA went south quicker than Payton last season: he put up career lows in just about every category, and at press time it was unclear whether or not Payton would even report to the Celtics. Even if he does bother to show up for camp, you can't count on Payton to give you much more than 15 points and 5-6 assists a game at this stage in his career. Will Payton be able to swallow his pride and play second fiddle to Paul Pierce? Will he lose patience with the chucking of Ricky Davis? At this point in his career, the Glove is only a good fit for your fantasy roster if you can grab him late.

Payton will run the show in Los Angeles. His points per game average should decrease to around 17 per game, but his assists per game should stay around seven or eight. Payton's fantasy value should take a small hit because he won't be the first or second offensive option on the Lakers, but he's still a top-10 and possibly top-5 guard.