Caron Butler

Butler spent time with the Bucks and Thunder during the 2013-14 campaign. The 34-year-old veteran finished the season with averages of 10.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.8 three-pointers while logging 25 minutes per game in 56 appearances. Long gone are the days of Butler being a quality second or third scoring option. Now he's a role player and three-point threat off the bench. Butler signed with the Pistons over the summer, and they're looking for a new starter at small forward after last year's debacle of Josh Smith playing out of position there. Even if Butler is considered for the starting role, don't expect the 13-year vet to exceed last year's workload, as the Pistons have multiple players expected to see run at small forward (Smith, Kyle Singler, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Luigi Datome). Butler will provide the Pistons with some much-needed help beyond the arc, which is the only category he's likely to contribute in for fantasy purposes as well.

Bringing in Butler at the end of August put the finishing touches on a fairly bizarre offseason. However, while the move is a bit puzzling, Butler is on an expiring contract and should shore up the small forward position for a season. He’ll be the starter but will likely split time with Carlos Delfino and Khris Middleton, to a lesser degree.

The big news for Butler last season, when he was coming off a serious knee injury, was that he stayed healthy and only missed three games all year. He seemed to have lost some athleticism, but overall, had a respectable season in his first year in LA. Entering year two, his role won’t change. Butler will continue to start at small forward and even with Grant Hill and Lamar Odom now in the mix, you can probably expect similar minutes and similar production for the savvy veteran in the upcoming season.

The oft-injured Butler only played in 29 games with the Mavericks last season due to a knee injury, but says that he is 100% healthy and ready to play for the Clippers in 2011-12. He will immediately be their most talented wingman, with the ability to contribute offensively, grab a few boards, and contribute some steals. When healthy, he is undoubtedly a dynamic scorer, but we wouldn’t count on a full season from Butler.

Although having come close, at points, to approaching something like "star" status in his NBA career, Butler profiles more as "solid-average" by most fantasy formats. Points per game, rebounds, assists, threes, blocks, field-goal percentage: he's likely to finish close to average – again, given a standard-format player pool – in all those cats. Of course, that's not a bad thing, necessarily. There's definitely some value in guaranteed competence. If there's a place where Butler has distinguished himself, it's in steals. He's averaged 1.7 per game for his career, while fantasy average typically sits around 1.0 or 1.1. After peaking in the low-2s in steals between the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, Butler's numbers have declined there over the last two, coming in at 1.6 during both. Is that a sign of physical decline, perhaps? One can't say for sure, but the fact that Butler's now 30 years old doesn't necessarily bode well. Butler's also a consistently good free-throw shooter (85% for his career). The other obvious question about Butler – besides age and its possible effects – is how playing for the Mavericks will affect his production. The biggest concern here is playing time: after playing 39.4 minutes per game with the Wizards, Butler averaged only 34.4 in his 27 games with Dallas. Nor did that change much in the playoffs, where Butler actually averaged fewer minutes (33.6).

Butler notched a career-high with 20.8 points per game last season as part of another strong all-around year. He was one of the few 20-point/six-rebound/four-assist players in the NBA, added almost two steals and a trey per, and shot solid percentages from both the field and the line. The problem is that he also missed at least 15 games due to injury for the third straight season, a trend that makes it risky to draft him in the range where his actual per-game production would indicate. At 6-7, 217, Butler has prototype size and athletic ability for a small forward, with a strong midrange jumper and a deceptively quick first step. He has also added more shooting range of late, with two straight seasons of at least one trey per game. At 29, he’s in the midst of his athletic prime, and with new offense-friendly coach Flip Saunders running the team Butler should be in for another strong season. Butler’s scoring may decrease a bit with Gilbert Arenas back in the line-up for the Wizards, but Butler has opened eyes with his passing ability (4.3 apg over last three seasons) and with his total package he belongs among the fantasy elite – if he can stay on the floor, that is.

Butler might have been the most frustrating player in fantasy last season. With Gilbert Arenas sidelined, Butler became the focal point of Washington’s powerful offense and was putting up huge numbers before he was sidelined by bum hip. Initially thought to be a short-term problem, the injury kept Butler out from late January until early March, save for a two-game cameo in early February. He also missed time later in the season with wrist and hamstring injuries, running his two-year total to 43 games missed due to injury. In most cases, that would mean a big fire engine-red flag, but Butler’s upside is so high, he’s worth the risk. In his abbreviated 2007-08 season he set new career highs in points (20.3), assists (4.9), threes (1.1), shooting percentage (46.6%), free-throw percentage (90.1%) and steals (2.2), while grabbing a healthy 6.7 boards per game.

Butler emerged as a fantasy superstar in his second season with The Wiz before a broken hand prematurely ended his season. A perfect fit in Washington’s frenetic offense, Butler meshes remarkably well with point guard Gilbert Arenas and power forward Antawn Jamison to form a “big three” as good as anyone’s. Before the injury, Butler established new career-bests in minutes (39.3), scoring (19.1), shooting (46.3%), boards (7.4), assists (3.7) and steals (2.1) and was named to his first all-star team. The only categories he won’t help are blocks (.3 per game) and threes (just 18 made on the season, on 25% shooting from downtown). Butler’s hand should be fully-recovered to open this year’s campaign.

Butler did his best to make Wizards fans forget about Larry Hughes last year and turned Washington’s big 2 (Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison) into a big 3. After starting the season last year as the Wizards sixth man, Butler put up impressive numbers once he was inserted into the starting lineup. In 54 games as a starter, he averaged 18.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 39 minutes of play. Backup small forward Jarvis Hayes is coming off of knee surgery and Jared Jeffries signed with the Knicks this summer, so Butler should see plenty of minutes this year as Washington’s lone true small forward. With the Wizards needing to outscore opponents due to their defensive deficiencies, Butler should continue to thrive offensively in 2007.

Although Larry Hughes he's not, Butler has quietly put up some very strong numbers in Miami and Los Angeles. A knee injury derailed his 2003-04 season in Miami, and he was seemingly a toss-in in the Shaq trade to L.A. But in his two healthy years, Butler has shown a penchant for steals, solid scoring, good free throw shooting and, last year, respectable shooting from the field. He steps into a much better situation in Washington, where he'll be the third option behind Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison and should see more than the 11.9 shots per game he's taken thus far in his career.

After a very promising rookie campaign, a knee injury derailed Butler for much of last season, and even when he got healthy, he never seemed to find his rhythm. Then during the offseason, he was shipped to the Lakers in the Shaquille O'Neal deal, where he now joins a crowded forward situation in Los Angeles. As a result, he'll usually come off the bench, backing up Lamar Odom and holding off Devean George for minutes as well. As it stands, Butler doesn't figure to have a huge role in Los Angeles, but he's certainly worth keeping an eye on, given his scoring ability and overall talent level when healthy.

The second year star from Connecticut is out to prove that his rookie campaign was no fluke. Averaging over 36 minutes a game and almost 16 points, Butler made some teams regret letting him slip to the Heat with the 10th pick of the 2002 draft. Butler is on a short list of budding superstars in the NBA, and running alongside faster teammates such as Wade and Odom should only make him better. 18 points, six boards, four assists and two steals a game, as high as they are, are very achievable numbers for Caron.