What do you guys think about Gilbert next season? He should be fully healthy at the start of the season, so will we see the return of Agent Zero?

Where should he be drafted?

I'm giving him a steep discount after 2 disappointing seasons. I MIGHT take him in the 4th or 5th round, which means I won't have a chance to take him because some knucklehead will take him a lot earlier.

I'm in the same boat... I think he'll be good but he's a headache. I have him on my "Sleepers" list because he might slip in the draft more than he should, but I am pretty confident someone else will take him before me.

If you had the chance to keep him in the 5th round, would you do it?

There's always a sucker who'll pickup Arenas, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, Tony Parker and Derrick Rose earlier than they should. Don't be that sucker.

Deron doesn't belong in that company...

also in H2H dwight is a monster

Facts are facts. Deron Williams has not merited a late first or early second round pick yet in his career.

Whether he will merit such a pick next year is anyone's guess, but over the past couple years, he hasn't.

You should be elated if you get Gilbert Arenas in the 4th/5th round. Injury riddled-seasons aside this guy is a dominating fantasy player and can carry your team in PPG/FT%/3PTM/SPG while being serviceable at the PG position with his APG/RPG totals. Even if he isn't the same 30PPG Gilbert Arenas and isn't scoring as much as he was prior to the injury he could easily average a stat line similar to that of:
24PPG/80%FT (5-8FTA)/2-3PTM/2SPG/5APG/4RPG/40%FG/3TOPG. That easily merits a 4th/5th round pick and his upside is huge as the season progresses and his legs get under him, he could end up with 1st round value in 9-category leagues.

In reality however, Gilbert won't last that long in 12-team leagues - he and Caron Butler are already getting hyped up with the hiring of Flip Saunders to open up the offense and I would be surprised to see him get past the third round in standard sized leagues.

some knucklehead will draft arenas at the end of the 2nd. I wouldn't take him until 4th likely. But then again, I said the same thing about durant this year..... the "knucklehead" who took him at the end of the 3rd round ended up laughing at us all.

Funny you say that, I took Deron and Howard in my H2H league back to back at 10 and 11, my team dominated and won the championship and they had a lot to do with it. Id take Arenas in the third round if I got a chance though, hopefully after all this time off he can come back and play a full season (or close too).

Those guys are fine in H2H. In roto they are not 10th or 11th pick-worthy.

There are 13 players on your team. Just because you took Deron and Howard at 10 and 11 and dominated your league doesn't mean they were smart picks. You dominated your league because you had Murphy, Bargnani, Conley... etc, not because you drafted Deron and Dwight at 10/11. There are tons of better players available at those positions.

Agreed.

They weren't genius picks by any means. They're solid picks. Even in hindsight, I still wouldn't have taken them 10/11. I think that's slightly too high for Deron. Not a huge fan of him in fantasy.

Now let's say you drafted Wade at the 10 pick (who shoots a not so-nice FT%), then I would definitely take Dwight at the 11th, and would brag about that combo. But Dwight kills your FT%, which is one of Deron's strengths.

I'm hoping that Yahoo doesn't rank him so high so that I can have a chance to draft him in the 4th or 5th rounds. Most GMs forget about players injured the year before who aren't highly ranked by Yahoo. I've managed to luck out in the last two drafts because of this.

i'll stay far far away no matter where he is at.

I second that. Even if healthy, the drain in fg%, tos, and 3% (a cat in my settings) is tough to plan around

Listen, im not saying they were the perfect picks or anything, but Howard won me Rbs and Blocks every week and D-Will kept me in the running for assists every week. I clearly lost Ft% and turnovers every week, but I truly feel that Deron and Howard had a lot to do with me winning the championship.

Owners who "gambled" on Wade and Yao have spent the last 6 months laughing a lot more than those who went with "sure things" like Garnett and Nash.

Come on, nobody took Nash or Garnett over Wade this year. If they did, they were idiots.

As for Yao, the guys who took Nash or Garnett over him were laughing the previous 3 or 4 years, so I think they're still a bit ahead in the laughter column.

very much so...it is risk vs reward...you could overcome the loss should Arenas fail to prduce as a 5th rounder, but you would be well ahead of the curve if he pans out.

No one took Wade over Garnett? That sure is easy to say in hindsight, now that Wade's been healthy all year. This very forum's pre-rankings, as per the 1-140 thread:

1. Chris Paul
2. Lebron James
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Amare Stoudemire
5. Dirk Nowitzki
6. Shawn Marion
7. Dwyane Wade-
8. Kevin Garnett
9. Elton Brand
10. Caron Butler
11. Allen Iverson
12. Josh Smith

A whopping 1 spot difference.

Who says the Yao/Wade crowd didn't have Nash and KG those other years? Gambling sometimes doesn't mean you have to gamble everytime. You don't always hit on 13, but you don't never do it either.

You know what? I was all ready to show you a bunch of stuff that proved Wade was the clear pick over Garnett this year, but Garnett went a pick before Wade in both my roto drafts this year. Mea culpa.

But the point remains. Just because those injury-prone guys stayed healthy for a year doesn't make those picks wrong. It's like playing poker, and you play the odds but lose to an inferior hand. It doesn't mean your decision was bad, it just means that luck wasn't on your side this time.

What about the owners who gambled on Brand, Baron, Camby?

Word.

I say avoid Gilbert like the plague. 120 million guaranteed and 2 successive KNEE injury seasons will keep me far far away. Also, there is a glut of young point guards ready to take over in the NBA. I'd rather wait a few rounds and take Brooks, Chalmers, or Conley. Also, I would definitely pick Rondo or maybe even Westbrook (around the 5th) before Gilbert this next season.

Of course, I love to gamble so all this could change come draft day.

conley will be the best of the three out of that bunch

By definition, not all gambles pay off.

Though Camby wasn't that bad. His problem was more of when he got hurt. BBM 9-cat by totals ranks him #44 overall. For comparison, Deron ranks #39 overall, and I've seen a bunch of people listing him in their top 15-20 for next year.

Baron was bad, but not significantly worse than the usually reliable Iverson.

I didn't like Brand's situation from the get-go, even when healthy. Being a Clipper fan, I remember the disaster that was the first pairing of Dre Miller and Brand.

were gonna have to wait for reports on his health to come out around september and october to see how hes doing. but for now i really like him for next year. he seemed healthy when he played in 2 games this past season and his health should only be improving from here on out. if reports in the fall say hes fully healthy then ill be targetting him in my draft and expect the 25 ppg, gil of old.

"Gilbert Arenas' weight is the lowest it's been in five years, and he is said to fully trust his surgically repaired knee."

Anyone dare pick this guy up early?

you guys have failed to say a few things about Arenas.

1. Monitor Preseason Games - if this guy is healthy..he will get playing time.

2. this guy has a huge contract. Huge Contract=Lots of Playing Time. he is getting paid alot of money. he better put up stats to validate all the money he's getting paid

3. he is on a team that plays like the "phoenix suns of the eastern conference"

Definite early 4th Round or late 5th Round Material if his preseason showing is good.

2. A lot of players should up stats that validate their worth. Eddy Curry, Jared Jeffries and Beno Udrih are pretty good examples of guys who get a nice paycheck but severely under perform on the court. Just coz their paychecks are huge, doesn't necessarily mean they'll do well...

3. That title actually belongs to New York and if I remember correctly, Flip Saunders is now in charge of the Wiz... And he likes his defense along with his offense...

Depending on just how good he looks in preseason, I might even be convinced to pick him up in round 3.

Would love to see Gilbert be anything of his former self. Can't even imagine pairing him up with Durant, Granger, and Amare as my main core in my dynasty league.

Mmmmm... Round 4 seems like a safer choice I think... People seem to have really given up him but I think he could be a steal at the 4th...

4th seems to be where I exepect his value to be, but if he is a must have then I think you need to grab him in the 3rd. That part is up to each of us though. I think personally that he will finish with top 15 per game value easily, I just don't have a clue how many games we will get out of him and am still a bit nervous about that. I think it ends up bing between 65-75.

Yeesh, 65 games would just be plain horrible... Like JO's last season in Indiana... Makes me consider not picking him up again...

I would sign up right now for 65 games for agent 0 right now.

I see a lot of people are quite bullish on Mr. Arenas for next year. I'm just not a believer at the moment. I just cant think of many people that ever recover from 3 major knee surgeries in such a short duration to the same knee. I'm especially concerned with Gilbert because so much of his game is predicated of quickness and explosiveness. Im just concerned that he will be relegated to jump shooting pg with little ability to get to the hole. To me, he looked like a total shell of his former self when he returned last year. Its was actually quite sad to see. I put very little stock in Gilbert's assesment that he fully trusts his knee now. We have all heard him say these things before only to dissapoint fans and fantasy gms alike.

I may change my mind after watching a few pre-season games, but until then i wouldn't even consider him until the 7th or 8th round. He still can be very punishing in the fg% and to cats. The fg% is especially of concern if he doesnt regain the ability to slash to the basket and finish around the rim. Just my 2 cents............

i came across some photos on gils yahoo page of doing some intense workouts with tim grover. he looks like hes really into this comeback and appears to be in good spirits....

here are the pics:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3540/p...Zhf7C5djR6hPKB4

Jesus christ, Gilbert may now be the most tattooed player in the league.

I think that title belongs to JR Smith.


Hahaha, The man with the best looking tatoos has to be Robert Swift:

http://www.all-nba-all-basketball.com/imag...T_UGLIEST_1.jpg

...the man without a tatoo has the best looking.

He's making some pretty painful faces there... Probably just the workout... right?

A Yahoo rank of 31 isn't doing anyone any good. He'll be a second round pick by mid october so he won't be on any of my teams.

I'd imagine Gilbert will be fine. I am more worried about him being sat out games for precautionary reasons and his minutes possibly being limited more than any possible knee re-injury.

it looks like alot of those tattoos are on his left leg.... hmmm, maybe he got them specifically on his left leg as a sign of his rehab...

I'm surprised he doesn't have a tattoo that says "NOT THIS KNEE," after all the surgeries he's had.

been talkin about this guy with a couple of my friends who i play in a league with. Seems like people are looking to pick him up in 2nd round.

WEll they crazyto take that kind of risk on him. at the 2nd round i'll let someone else take that chance.

I agree. I'd take a proven and reliable impact player (over the last three seasons) in the second round over the hope that Gil will return to form. Even in the event that Gil returns to form, his fg% and to's were still a bit of a turn off and this year the wiz are much deeper so who knows how his minutes will play out.

I'd probably just pass on Gilbert all together unless he somehow slipped to around the 6th round which he will not.