Chris Paul at #3 is interesting, but wouldn't a healthy Kobe and Wade be better? It truly is tough. We have to keep track of his condition and recovery closely. My issue, and only issue with Paul, is that he his DNP to Seasons played ratio is tipping towards risky zones for such a high pick…

Wade was O-Ranked at 9 for the 2008-09 season if I remember correctly. That's a pretty big drop.

I think Paul will come in at 4 or 5 (and in pure H2H leagues he should go top 3, like EJ said above). He gives too much value to fall further than that. Bryant will surely start dropping down rankings as his minutes decrease and he continues to age gracefully. Dunno about Wade, depends where he ends up I think (better teammates will impact his fantasy value)

Yeah, compared to Wade (or just about anyone else in the league), Paul's 78, 64, 80, 78 shouldn't be enough to drop him out of the Top 5 (unless something really strange happens with his surgery and/or recovery). You could probably make an argument to take Kobe at #3 because he doesn't really seem to be aging at all (let alone gracefully). Wade's numbers are down across the board, so I don't see how he gets ahead of Paul especially with a lot more career games missed than CP. And that's before even bringing up the idea that he might be on a totally different team next season.

If we're dropping CP3 for injuries, Kobe shouldn't be the guy to replace him in the top 3 imo. Over the past month Kobe has been dealing with his own injuries and isn't even in the top 50 on the player rater. Plus in H2H leagues Kobe is not the guy you want down the stretch because of how good the Lakers are. You know he's going to start playing 25mpg or even sitting out entire games during your H2H finals!!

Which is one reason why I think, much like fantasy football not counting week 17 stats, fantasy basketball leagues should get rid of the last week of the NBA season, especially in H2H formats.

Wade had an argument to move ahead of Paul after last season but this season he has been a disappointment and really has to play out of his mind to have more value in the fantasy game than Paul does just being Chris Paul. I view Kobe and Dirk as guaranteed top 10 finishers annually so if you don't have confidence in a guy like Melo in the top 10 you really can't go wrong drafting either of them at any point outside of the top 2.

CP3 and Wade have potential to do even more than Kobe and Dirk but aren't as much of a sure thing. I'll obviously keep an eye on how CP3 looks if he returns this year and any bad news over the offseason would drop him on my lists, but he is too young and too good in the fantasy game. I could see the top of my list looking something like 1) Bron, 2) Durant, 3) CP3, 4) Wade, 5) Melo, 6) Dirk, 7) Kobe

After that it gets crazy. Is Brook Lopez now a top 10 player? How about Steve Nash? Will Chris Bosh duplicate this season's performance in a non-contract year? (Obviously depends partially on where he ends up). Can Deron get back in the top 10? Crash?

Right after I posted I realized that I forgot to mention Granger as a possible top 10 pick for next year. He is in the mix for sure, but seriously, are you dying to draft him next year? He missed significant time again and is taking his sweet time getting his shooting stroke back. As of now I'd say 8ish is fair for him next year, after the 7 that I mentioned in my previous post. I'd rather go with the sure things that Kobe/Dirk represent over Granger at this point even though their upside is slightly less, whereas I'm more willing to roll the the dice on guys like Melo and Wade.

I just feel like if A) Obie got canned (which would slow down the pace of the Pacers inefficient offense), or B) Indy got some better players that Granger would be a guy more likely to suffer statistically than Melo or Wade, who are legitimate NBA superstars. Also, this is two years in a row now that he's missed significant time with foot problems and if he still has lingering pain he is a good shut down candidate for this year because Indy is soon to be eliminated.

If I had him this year I'd be trying to trade him (I fear the shutdown), and I'm not sure that there is much he can do given his injuries that would convince me to put him in my top 7 and I will consider the merits of taking guys like Nash, Lopez, Bosh, and Deron over him when the time comes.

So trading for Chris Paul in a GMTR league is not as favorable as it is in “regular” leagues.