Theo Ratliff

Ratliff is the Spurs' fourth or fifth big man, which tells you that the frontcourt depth is in a pretty good place. He's a good insurance policy for Duncan.

Ratliff was brought in after having revived his career in Detroit last season. He won't provide a lot of punch for most fantasy teams, but he is a solid blocks contributor even with limited floor time.

With the T-Wolves rebuilding after the Kevin Garnett trade, Ratliff's greatest value to Minnesota is his $11 million expiring contract. As a result, he may be an afterthought for playing time as a defensive specialist who will share the center position with Mark Blount. He'll get his usual high number of blocked shots per minute, but may not see the floor much as the T-Wolves give younger players a look.

Ratliff, who came over to Boston with Sebastian Telfair, will back up Kendrick Perkins at center. At 33, Ratliff can still give a team 20-25 minutes a night if need be. That’s enough for him to be a specialist in the blocks category. He averages 2.7 per game over his career in 27.4 mpg. While we like Perkins the player, he didn’t play a full season last year because of a shoulder injury. Perkins is definitely the starter, but doesn’t have a clamp on the starting job, so Ratliff may find himself with more playing time.

Ratliff lost his starting job to Joel Przybilla midway through the 2004-05 season and will likely come off the bench this year. He can still be a productive force on defense and has been a prolific shot-blocker, averaging 2.8 blocks per game for his career and 2.5 last season in 27.5 minutes per game. New coach Nate McMillan could use him to back up Joel Przybilla at center and Zach Randolph at power forward, so he should get 25 minutes a night. That should be enough to give him fantasy value as a shot-blocker.

Beyond the blocks and the boards, there isn’t much to Ratliff’s game. He led the league with 3.61 blocks per game and averaged 4.4 bpg with Portland after coming over in a mid-season trade from Atlanta. He can keep you competitive in blocks, but you’ll need to surround him with scorers.

It took Ratliff awhile to regain his form with his new team and rebound from a major hip injury in 2001-02. In the first half of the season, Ratliff posted just 2.7 blocks per game and 7.9 points per game. In the second half he was back to being the best at the league in blocking shots with 4.1 blocks per game along with 9.9 points per game. He'll start at center and be a great source of blocked shots. And with Atlanta's thin roster, he may even take more shots.