The New York Knicks claimed Williams off waivers and they are reportedly talking to him right now about a contract. While it’s been a while since White Chocolate was relevant in the fantasy basketball world, signing with the Knicks would make him relevant once again.

The 33-year-old native of West Virginia would likely have a chance of starting for Mike D’Antoni. A point guard in D’Antoni’s offense is worth rostering on your fantasy team, as we saw last year with Chris Duhon. Once given the reins to D’Antoni’s offense, Duhon averaged 11.1 points and 7.2 assists last year for the Knicks.

While Duhon will likely start again for New York, D’Antoni may decide to go with Williams. A very good passer, Williams could rack up the assists when playing for the Knicks. His points per game would also improve.

Keep an eye on if Williams ends up with the Knicks. If he doesn’t, he’ll likely return to fantasy basketball irrelevancy.

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Lee, who has spent his first four season in the NBA with the New York Knicks, would give the Blazers some toughness down in the low blocks. When the Blazers lost to the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, a lack of toughness was one of the main reasons. Lee would be able to address that weakness.

However, looking at it with fantasy basketball in mind, Lee to the Blazers doesn’t help his fantasy value. With LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla already on the roster, where doe Lee fit in? Would he be happy coming off the bench? Would the Blazers think about going big and moving Aldridge to small forward?

If Lee signs with the Blazers, go ahead and lower his fantasy value until we get some answers. Last season, Lee averaged 16 points and 11.7 rebounds in 34.9 minutes per game. With Portland, Lee’s numbers would are sure to go down.

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Danilo Gallinari - Image: Newscom

In the middle of January, Gallinari returned to the court and was actually quite impressive. Showing a wide array of skills, Gallinari even caught the eye of many fantasy basketball owners. He seemed a perfect fit for Mike D’Antoni’s run-and-gun offense.

But now Gallinari’s back is hurting him once again. The Knicks allowed him to fly to Italy to get a second opinion. There is even talk of him requiring back surgery.

While any type of surgery will force him to miss the rest of the season, he may be out for the season even if he doesn’t go under the knife. The Knicks will play it safe with the 20-year-old rookie, so don’t expect to see any more of him this season. If you have him in a redraft fantasy basketball league, it’s safe to drop him.

In dynasty leagues, Gallinari still has a decent amount of upside. However, his back problems will hamper his stock until he proves he will be able to fully recover.

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Although he only played a few minutes, he looked decent. Obviously he’s out of shape – especially for D’Antoni’s system – but he wasn’t massively out of shape. He scored two points and pulled down two rebounds in his three minutes and hit his only attempt from the field.

Can Eddy Curry become relevant in the fantasy basketball world again? Probably not this year, but there’s a chance. If he can get in D’Antoni’s good graces, there’s nothing quite as fantasy friendly as D’Antoni’s offense.

However, it’s tough to imagine Curry playing the 25+ minutes per game necessary to become fantasy relevant. He’s never been known as a player who likes to run the court, which is a required attribute for a player with these Knicks.

Realistically, Curry’s best chance of becoming fantasy relevant this season is via trade. If he lands somewhere else (the Bobcats have been mentioned), he could see big minutes again and put up decent stats. Though if you are picking him up, you should check out the turnovers and missed free throws he accumulates before making your decision.

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For the Celtics, Marbury would give the team another scorer off the bench. While the bench is solid, it doesn’t have many true scorers outside of Eddie Houston. Marbury could also potentially fill part of the role Sam Cassell filled last season as a guy who comes into the game to put points on the board.

Although he may be useful for the Celtics, there’s not much of a chance that he’d be useful for your fantasy basketball team. First of all, the minutes likely won’t be there for him to do much. Second of all, he didn’t look very good last year and he might not have anything left in the tank.

The only way to even consider adding Marbury to your fantasy basketball team is if Rajon Rondo went down. Even then, it’d be hard to imagine Marbury playing more than 25 minutes per game.

The only way to rush and pick up Marbury is if he ends up signing with a team that will hand him a starting gig and 30+ minutes. He might be worthwhile at that point — but don’t count on that happening.

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Chris Paul, New Orleans
Although he turns the ball over more than three times a game, he easily makes up for it by posting more than 11 assists per game. In fact, Paul is the only player in the NBA who is currently averaging double-digits in assists. At 11.8 assists per game, there’s little to suggest that Paul will slow down anytime soon.

Jose Calderon, Toronto Raptors
Not only is Calderon second in the league in assists at 9.5, he amazingly turns the ball over only 1.9 times per game. Last year he put up a similar ratio for the entire season, so this stretch is definitely not a fluke for Calderon. The Raptors point guard knows how to create shots without turning the ball over.

Chauncey Billups, Denver Nuggets
Billups went to the run-and-gun Nuggets and has turned around their whole culture. Now Denver takes good shots each possession and they don’t make nearly as many mistakes. Billups averages 7.2 assists and only 1.6 turnovers to give him an assist-to-turnover ratio of better than 4-to-1.

Chris Duhon, New York Knicks
Don’t look now but Chris Duhon is doing his best Steve Nash impersonation in New York. Playing for Mike D’Antoni, Duhon has been asked to create as many shot opportunities as possible. In his last five games, Duhon is averaging more than ten assists per game — including games of 23 assists and 13 assists in back-to-back affairs.

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Quentin Richardson, New York Knicks
Under Mike D’Antoni once again, Quentin Richardson is in line to have a huge year from beyond the three-point line. He already has made 35 threes and is shooting a very respectable 38%. If he stays healthy, there’s a good chance he could lead the league in three-pointers made.

Rashard Lewis, Orlando Magic
Although his touch isn’t quite there yet, Rashard Lewis is already shooting a ton of threes. He easily leads the league in three-pointers attempted and once he regains his touch, he will undoubtedly finish amongst the league leaders in three-pointers made. With Dwight Howard drawing a lot of attention, Lewis gets freed up for many good looks per game.

Rudy Fernandez, Portland Trail Blazers
The Blazers knew Rudy Fernandez had a good jumper but they didn’t know he’d be among the league leaders in three-pointers made while shooting better than 43% from deep. If Fernandez gets more playing time, he’ll be able to drop even more long distance bombs.

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As far as Randolph is concerned, this is unlikely to be good news for his fantasy basketball value. With the Knicks, he was putting up very good numbers and was see a ton of touches. Mike D’Antoni basically let him shoot whenever he wanted to.

With the Clippers, Randolph will have to find time between Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman on the frontline. The Clippers also play at a much slower pace than the Knicks. The only silver lining is that the Clippers are looking for an Elton Brand replacement and Randolph has a comparable game. For that reason, Randolph could eventually get a lot of touches down the line.

As far as Mobley and Thomas are concerned, this is very good news. Mobley could conceivably step into a starting role at shooting guard to replace the departed Crawford. He’ll likely get a lot more shots — as long as D’Antoni warms up to him. Thomas previously played for D’Antoni and flourished in his system. If he gets time, he too could become fantasy relevant once again.

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The New York Knicks made a pair of trades on Friday that had NBA and fantasy basketball analysts scrambling. Their first trade sent Jamal Crawford to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Al Harrington.

While the main point of this trade for the Knicks was to create more salary cap flexibility in 2010, this trade should be a great fantasy basketball-wise for Harrington owners. There’s a good chance that Harrington will start at center for the Mike D’Antoni Knicks, which will mean a lot of shot attempts — specifically, three-pointers. With his increased minutes and his role moving him to center, he can expect his rebound numbers to also go up. Now is a great time to buy low on Harrington before he becomes much more valuable on the Knicks.

The future for Crawford on the Warriors is much less clear. While in theory Crawford would flourish under Don Nelson, the question is how many minutes will he play. Right now he should get minutes but once Monta Ellis returns, Crawford could getting his playing time pinched. It’s going to be difficult for Nellie to juggle minutes between Crawford, Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike and the new sensation Anthony Morrow.

As of right now, consider Harrington’s fantasy basketball stock way up and Crawford’s about the same with the possibility it could drop.

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First of all, Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph both appear to be safe bets. Crawford has been very consistent over the last few years and should put up similar stats this year. Don’t expect to see a big jump in his production because although he has a green light this year, he’s always had a green light. Randolph, on the other hand, should see his production rise — due partly to D’Antoni and partly to Eddy Curry being out of the way.

At power forward, David Lee and Wilson Chandler are both interesting options. Lee is a player who can give you ten points and close to ten rebounds a night. He also shoots for a high percentage and does little to hurt a fantasy basketball team. Chandler, however, has the higher fantasy ceiling as he’s a multidimensional player who could really thrive in D’Antoni’s system.

Other players to keep an eye on are Nate Robinson, Chris Duhon and Quentin Richardson. Robinson could see his scoring numbers improve as he’s playing a lot of minutes off the ball this year. Duhon is the Knicks’ version of Steve Nash, although he’s not going to give you nearly the production. Still, Duhon is a solid fantasy option who should explode for a few big games this season. QRich, if he can get in shape and stay healthy, could produce a lot of three-pointers — just like he did previously under D’Antoni when both were with the Suns.

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