Bobby Simmons

Simmons missed the entire 2006-07 season with a heel injury, then spent all of last season fighting for playing-time scraps on a Milwaukee team with a glut of players on the wing. He’s something of a sleeper this year; his fantasy value will depend entirely on the sort of role he carves out on a New Jersey team deep into rebuilding mode. He could wind up as a starter on the wing, replacing Richard Jefferson. A good shooter, he could emerge as Laurence Frank’s go-to bench scorer. But he could just as easily wind up as an eighth or ninth man.

Simmons was the Bucks' big free agent signing before the 2005-06 season, but never lived up to expectations and then a foot injury caused him to miss all of 2006-07. At this point Simmons will need to prove something during training camp to regain his starter status, with Desmond Mason being his biggest competition.

After signing a 5-year, $47 million contract with Milwaukee last year, Simmons averaged a modest 13.4 points and 4.4 rebounds last year as the Bucks starting small forward. He’ll have to do a lot more than that to earn his money and, with the offseason acquisition of the defensive-minded Ruben Patterson, Simmons will be challenged for playing time immediately. Simmons has a smooth jump shot with three-point range (1.4 three’s per game last year) but with the Bucks loaded on offense (they added offensive-minded Charlie Villaneuva this offseason), it’s doubtful he will get more than the 10.8 shots per game he averaged last year.

The Clippers finally gave Simmons some PT last year, and boy did he run with it—all the way to winning the league's most improved player award. With the team change in free agency, however, come new challenges, primarily for touches and minutes. Michael Redd will be camped out at the two and the Bucks already slot Jiri Welsch and Desmond Mason at the three. But the team didn't shell out more than $9 million per year for Simmons to ride the bench. Already a quality rebounder for a swingman, Simmons could see those numbers jump with the weak front line in Milwaukee. And he will slot into the four spot when the team runs with a small lineup. Don't bank on another 43.5% shooting performance from beyond the arc, but do expect he'll keep shooting threes and hit a respectable percentage from the field overall.

Simmons played well at times last season, but his production and playing time are too erratic for him to have much fantasy value.

Simmons is a streaky shooter who plays good defense, but he's strictly an end of the bench kind of guy. He's expected to battle Tremaine Fowlkes, Marko Jaric and Keyon Dooling for the right to back up Corey Maggette and Quentin Richardson, respectively.