It's sort of hard to rank players in such a cut and dry manner like that, being that this is such a young team, and roles really haven't been defined yet, but here's a shot, with players being ranked in terms of how crucial each player will be to the teams success in the upcoming year.
1. Jalen Rose -- A no brainer. Right now he's the catalyst for the rest of the team. The only easy one to rank. After this, it all gets kind of hazy.
2. Jay Williams -- He probably has the best chance of anyone being an impact player this year, outside of Rose. I'm fairly confident that he will iron out the problems he had with his poor shooting and high turnovers.
3. Tyson Chandler -- His offense is still lacking somewhat, but if he could establish himself as a defensive presence this year, it would mean a lot to this team.
4. Eddy Curry -- Offensively he has it. Defensively, he doesn't, from the looks of it. If he could turn himself into an adequate defender this year, along with his low post offense to spread the floor out, he would do this team very well.
5. Eddie Robinson -- This is assuming he's healthy and is as good as management makes him out to be. No one really know how good he is yet, or isn't, for that matter. But with the money we're paying him, and the high praises Krause and Bill Cartwright has for him, I would assume he'd get around 30-36 minutes a night.
6. Jamal Crawford -- I really have no idea where to put him. I guess this spot is as good as any. If he is our starting pg, you could probably put him at number two, but I really have no clue. He's still an enigma of sorts.
7. Marcus Fizer -- He's probably the best post player on this team, despite the hype around everyone else. He was probably our most consistent scorer last year besides Jalen. If he could just play a little more defense and shoot a higher %, people would have to stop compaining about him.
8. Trenton Hassell -- He probably deserves to be higher, but oh well. There's a good chance he'll be our starting SG, so his impact will definitely be felt. He is a very good role player, usually makes smart decisions, doesn't demand the ball all that much on offense, and plays very good D. Sort of a glue guy.
9. Cory Blount -- He'll probably play 15-20 minutes a game, grab some rebounds, play some defennse, and get garbage buckets, just like he's always done.
10. Dalibor Bagaric -- I wish I could put him lower, but he'll probably see 10 minutes a game. He really doesn't do anything well but foul.
11. Fred Hoiberg -- If he could find his shot again, it would help. Without it, he's practically useless.
12. Lonny Baxter -- It looks like he'll make the team. He'll probably split time on the IR and being a twelfth man, where he'll mostly get DNP-CD's, and maybe 5-10 minutes here and there.
13. Roger Mason Jr. -- See above.
If there are any more players on the team right now, I can't think of them, which probably means they aren't important, so this shoud give you a decent idea. Of course, it's only my opinion, and I'm sure others will disagree, but hopefully this is what you were looking for.
But in all honesty, it's very hard to tell with this team, with the lack of defined roles, and all the trade speculation. Really, the most realistic way to define our players' importance would be to place them into four groups like:
1. Jalen Rose our star.
2. All the young players who figure to get heavy minutes (Fizer, Tyson, Jamal, Jay, Eddy, E-Rob)
3. The bit role players (Dali, Fred, Cory)
4. And the fringe, IR players (Lonny, Roger, whoever else makes the team.)
Atleast that's the way I see it.
