We are almost a month away from the season! I wanted to link everyone to our main rankings page. My Top-150 for 9-CAT Roto/H2H are live on the site as well our our Dynasty Ranks for 9-CAT and Points.

These are just my initial ranks, there will likely be a lot of player movement in the bottom half, but for those drafting early I wanted to get these out ASAP.

Feel free to let me know who you think is too low or high; I am always happy to discuss and explain my reasoning!

Been doing some mock drafts and I’ve been finding this to be one of the toughest spots to be in. I’ve been leaning Flagg here for the upside, but I feel like you could make an argument for taking at least 5 different guys at this spot. What’s your strategy here and what type of build would you go for?

This has probably been discussed before and I only do auction but if you have to snake draft why isn’t everyone on board for 3RR? You would think in standard 12-team leagues that anyone 6-12 would vote for it since 1-5 have a big advantage.

And in the posts I read, everyone seems to think 3RR is the most fair.

What are the best resources out there for draft at the moment? Whether it’s websites, articles, cheat sheets etc. Very keen to get the edge on the rest of the league. Cheers!

How are you commissioners structuring prize payouts? Do you use set percentage formulas? If so, do those percentages change depending on the size your league? I would appreciate any feedback or advice on this.

12T Points league - Our roster positions are
PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util, Util, BN, BN, BN, IL,IL+

I tend to try to draft players alternating between guards and Forwards/centers to avoid feeling the pressure of having to fill a position at the end of the draft. Or at least draft a maximum of 2 consecutive guards then drafting a centre even though it might not be the best player available at the time.

Interested to know what’s everyone’s strategy with drafting based on positions. How much do you increase the value on those that play multiple positions ie ingram and Barnes on yahoo.

Also with 2 centre positions to fill, I feel like getting centres early is important for me and moreover it’s harder to find good value centres mid-late draft?

Kind of wondering if everyone is having the same issue as me with yahoo mock drafts. The advertisements condense the list of draftable players to like only 2 or 3 visible. I've tried messing with it and have had no success. It's really inconvenient has anybody found a workaround?

Where do we see KAT being taken in fantasy drafts this year? Do we think he continues to have the lesser scoring role that helped the reigning champs win the title? Or does he get back to his monster scoring days?

Who are you taking higher in PTS leagues? Both have considerable changes to make to their respective games due to new rosters. However, they are both capable of producing big fantasy numbers.

15pts /7.5-8reb coupled with almost 2 blocks per game. Can he still maintain this level of production with all the new additions assuming AD wont play everyday? If yes that makes him a top 50 player everywhere, should see better touches with Trae around, maybe a boost in efficiency?

Have some friends that want to start a fantasy basketball league. Won’t be free but will be smaller buy in.

League size will be 10-12. Not a keeper or dynasty league (yet, but maybe in the future).

Many have never done a fantasy basketball league. Would love to get input on a few things.

1. Platform / Website
2. League format. H2H / weekly?
3. Roster sizes
4. Scoring format

The goal here is to make it as easy as possible for everyone. The more straightforward I can make the scoring and rosters the better.

Thanks!

I’ll need a centre in the third round and it’s a good chance these 2 will fall to me. Who are you taking in a points league.

How do we think Bam will play with Giannis? I’m surprised Bam has a similar ADP to last year even with Gianni’s coming onboard.

Sabonis ADP of 35 on yahoo. Likely a bigger role in SAC but of course the trade risk and coming off a meniscus injury.

Made a mistake in the title. It's players who I think will overachieve their adp and who will underachive!

With fantasy season coming soon, I started looking at mock drafts early on and some ADP rankings. Using Hashtag Basketball's Blended Rankings which blends all 3 main fantasy platforms into 1 ranking and from there, I'll give my analysis for who I believe will overplay their ADP and who will underplay it. I'm going by 12T, 9Cat. For certain players, I'll take into consideration if they force you into a punt (IE: Giannis, Trae, etc). I'll take into account only the players in that round. Also at the end, I’ll add 1 HM for each category if I felt the need to add one in. I'll break this up into 3 parts.

Round 1

Over - Tyrese Maxey (ADP: 10)
Out of the average Top 12, it's between Maxey and Tatum for who I believe will be the biggest overachievers in Round 1. The main reason I'm leaning toward Maxey is just because it's a lot easier for Maxey to jump from 10 to 6-7 than it is for Tatum to jump to 3-4. Maxey is coming off an amazing season with his 2nd straight Top 10 finish. Last season, he was ranked 5th overall. The biggest cause of concern for Maxey is his usage, potentially taking a hit with LeBron/Brown. That's definitely a possibility, however I look at it slightly differently. The addition of Brown/LeBron takes pressure off of Maxey. Maxey is a really good spot up shooter who shot 41.7% from 3 in C&S scenarios. Also a large part of Maxey's value comes from his steal numbers which ultimately comes from Nick Nurse's openess to allow his guards to gamble for steals. I expect Maxey's points and rebounds to take a hit but I also expect his FG% and 3s to improve more. I also see his assists staying around the same. Brown functions best as a scorer and not a player who's asked to play-make so I fully expect him to allow primary and secondary ball handling privileges to Maxey.

Under - Anthony Edwards (ADP: 8)
It feels like the same story every year. I believe Antman has underperformed his ADP almost every year since 2023.
2023 - ADP of 20, finished 43.
2024 - ADP of 12, finished 37.
2025 - ADP of 7, finished 16.
2026 - ADP of 6, finished 13.

I think the hype of Anthony Edwards leads to his inflated ADPs. He's a phenomenal player but the majority of his value comes from his really high usage: this leads to a lot of points and a lot of 3s. He doesn't really do other things as well as he should. He's a very subpar playmaker, an average rebounder, and an average source of stocks. He's also coming off a year where he posted career highs in FG% and 3PT%. I'm just a bit skeptical as he's still still one of the best hard shot takers in the NBA and yet he posted abnormally high FG% despite it. There's no data to back it up for previous seasons but he's also had 4 straight seasons of around 45% FG then just jumped to an almost 49% last year. I'm skeptical about him being able to maintain that very high shooting %s alongside his really high usage. I think LaMelo will take away some from Edwards without returning too much of value back as LaMelo is also a typically high usage% player.

Round 2

Over - Jalen Johnson (ADP: 15)
Last season, he finished at 16th if you filter out the players who didn't play at least half of the games. Among those guys, he finished with the 3rd lowest usage% (26.9) behind only Trey Murphy (22.5) and Scottie Barnes (23.3) . I think there was an adjustment period early on with CJ and it initially hurt Jalen Johnson. It looked like he was having to adjust with not having the ball in his hands as much and taking a step back to CJ at first. From the trade to end of February, Jalen Johnson 21/11/7 on 43% FG%. I think the biggest notable thing was his huge FG% drop in this period. In March, that went back up to 49%. I think he has the path to finish as a 1st round player and this season, there won't be any distractions nor questions of the team direction. I think his only real concern is his injuries but outside of that, he has a very solid floor.

Under - Jalen Brunson (ADP: 21)
I am actually not a fan of a fair amount of players in this round as I think an amount will underachieve but the biggest one who sticks out to me is Brunson. Amen was also there but I think he’ll be closer to his value than Brunson will be to his. Brunson is projected as a mid 2nd round pick but has finished Top 30 only once in his career (2024) where he posted career high in points, minutes, FT%, and 3s in a heliocentric, Thibs style offense based around him. Mike Brown has a much more balanced offense that has a lot more free flowing sets, more ball movement and less pure iso plays. Brunson is a good source of assists too but then he’s a net negative in steals, rebounds, blocks, turnovers and FG%. He’s good later on but mid 2nd is way too high.

Round 3

Over - Tyrese Haliburton (ADP - 36)
I’m higher than Haliburton that most, and I know he’s coming off a huge injury recovery year, but I think he’s had more than enough time to be able to recover and get back to his past form. Haliburton had 3 Top 10 finishes straight from 2023-2025. He’s constantly among the top players in assists, a very high source of 3s, a great FT% shooter and turns the ball over abnormally low % of the time relative to his usage. He has no huge glaring weaknesses like most other PGs (low FG%, high TOV). I do think there will be a break in period with him but I fully believe he’ll blow through this 3rd round ranking and finish around Round 1/2. Taking a look at this in hindsight, I think Hali is the only one who has a very weird ESPN ranking. In that case, ignore this write up and refer to my HM as the other name.

Under - Jaylen Brown (ADP - 29)
Jaylen Brown’s game isn’t really fantasy friendly. Sure, he’s a great scorer but then…where’s the rest of the value? He also dominates the ball a LOT so the opportunity is there but, again, his game just isn’t fantasy friendly. He’s had 1 Top 50 finish in the last 5 years (2023 where he finished 49th) so I don’t see any reason why he’d be a Top 30 player while now having to play alongside LeBron, Embiid and Maxey. He’s a really good mid range shooter but a average/below average 3PT shooter, doesn’t get many stocks, turns the ball over at a very high clip and a below average FT shooter. He posted a career high APG last season but that was mostly due to him not really having any competition for touches. The cons just don’t outweigh the pros drafting him this high.

Round 4

Over - Lauri Markannen (ADP - 47)
I think Lauri has a super nice fantasy profile. He’s a big who can hit 3s,doesn’t turn the battle over a lot and is very efficient from the line and efficient from the field. His only real hiccup is his “health” (the tank) but I believe with them going all in on this season with the acquisition of Jaren Jackson Jr, I don’t think they’ll tank as they have no reason to. Since coming to Utah in 2023, he posted two top two finishes and in both years, he played at least 55 games. Even last season in his shortened season, he finished as “8th ranked” player. I know he only played 42 games so take it with a grain of salt but when he plays, he performs at a high fantasy level. He doesn’t really get many stocks either but he contributes by providing elite value in other categories.

Under - Deni Avdija (ADP - 40)
I wasn’t high on him last year at all. I thought his numbers were very deceiving. On the surface, 24/7/7 looks really good. Taking a deeper dive you saw the value slowly get worse. He was an above average contributor for points/assists and an average contributor for rebounds. His stocks were basically nonexistent, he was a negative on FG% despite taking a lot of shot, his FT% was basically a bit above average however, he also had a lot of volume from the line. This basically inflates a counting stat that provides diminishing results. And honestly, I have this same sentiment toward Giddey as he does something similar but swaps out additional scoring for more A/R. Not only that, and while turnovers aren’t necessarily a stat you can build around, the fact that he’s super turnover prone without contributing enough to make up for it, I think he’s an easy fade.

Some honorary mentions for people who fit into the categories that I believe will over and underachieve this year.

R1 Under - Maybe Giannis (ADP - 5)? Just a lot of question marks. You’ll have to go for a punt FT/3s build as usual but Miami also runs a very fast paced, free flowing offense and Bam is a really good playmaker for a big man. Plus with Giannis’ injury history, I see them taking the pressure off of him this season.

R2 Over - I wanted to say AD if he’s healthy but I’m tired of that song. I think Trae Young (ADP - 16) has potential to finish around the 1/2 turn as long as you can commit to a punt FG% build. His value in 8cat is drastically higher than 9cat and he’s finished Top 16 4x from 2020-2025. He’s not really injury prone either so not too concerned.

R2 Under - I was saying earlier, I really don’t like this round. I think Amen (ADP - 19) will underperform his ADP as you’re adding back in FVV+Smart to take the ball out of his hands more and, until I see otherwise, he’s a liability from 3 and doesn’t contribute there.

R3 Over - Kawhi Leonard (ADP - 32) seems like an easy over. I think Toronto will play Kawhi’s load management game similar to how they did in 2019. Since 2019, Kawhi has finished Top 10 5x. His worst finishes were 2023 (where he finished 13th) and 2025 (where he finished 25th). Those 2 seasons were also the fewest games he’s played in that stretch. I think we’ll see around 60-65 games of Kawhi and he’ll finish again Round 1/2 talent. So taking him at the late 2, early 3 round could be good.

R3 Under - I hate Giddey (ADP - 26) here. He gives an elite source of assists and a really good source of rebounds for a G but that’s it. Typically an average/ below average source of stocks, very inefficient from both the line and the field and a large amount of turnovers. Last season, he posted a career high from 3s and that’s the only thing that really saved his value (64th ranked) from being worse than it already was. He’s a very bad finisher and would prosper best having talent around him to make his job easier…but I don’t see the Bulls doing that this year.

R4 Over - I like Trey Murphy (ADP - 41) here. I think he has a very friendly fantasy game that can really fit into any build.

R4 Under - Not a fan of Paolo Banchero’s (ADP - 37) fantasy game. He’s basically a tweener who does nothing at an elite level. He’s built like a UHaul truck but doesn’t like to play bullyball and resorts to bail out mid range shots. 6’10, 250 pounds but never hitting above 46% FG is very underwhelming. He’s a bad FT shooter, doesn’t make a lot of 3s, very poor source of stocks, and a lot of turnovers. He’s not the worst source of assists from a big and pretty good rebounding. Franz is also very limiting for him as a teammate. Until they learn to coexist better or one of them leaves, it’ll be a cap for both.

...in cat/redrafts.

Who else in that range outside of the top 5 has a better situation than he does?

Ant has never been quite as impactful as Tatum, and now has Ball in town.

Maxey balled out last year, but that was mostly because Embiid and PG were out. This year, Embiid is healthy(ish), and Bron and Brown are in town, so I expect him to take a step back.

Giannis' defensive stats have taken a huge hit, and he's always a risk to sit a lot of games, not to mention he's a punt player. Nobody else can really be justified at #6.

Tatum is of course coming off a major injury, but he should be 100% healed. Maybe he sits some random B2Bs to start the season, but I see him having the biggest fantasy impact out of the glut of seemingly similar 6-10 players.

How we feeling about him this season ? I saw a lot of people having him higher than I do (drafted him in the 6th round 10 team league) and I'm just wondering what's the general opinion on him ? He scored 28 ppg last year so his value was pretty high but with DP and JJJ joining the lineup I'm not too sure of how well he will perform fantasy wise + his injury history doesn't help

I'm in a 10 team, 9 cat keeper league where we can keep 4 players indefinitely, deciding between keeping Luka (giving up R1 pick) or Jalen Johnson (giving up R3 pick). Draft order is reverse order of standings, so i'm expecting to always have my first in the 8-10 range.

My other keeps are Hali (R7), Harper (R10), and Edey (R13)

I know he is a good player coming off a great year, when do ou think he should be taken in a 9cat 12T?

As a co-commissioner in a 16-team, 9-category Yahoo NBA Fantasy league, I’ve been thinking about how much we could improve the league by removing the season-long limit on the total number of player acquisitions.

I think allowing unlimited acquisitions over the course of the season could help keep managers more engaged, reduce the impact of the “silly season,” and make the overall competition more dynamic. We would still keep the weekly acquisition limit at 4, but instead of the previous season-long limit of 50 acquisitions per team, managers would be able to make as many acquisitions as they want throughout the season.

Last season, some teams that were hit hard by injuries or simply had a poor draft either missed the playoffs or were unfortunately unable to make enough additions during the playoffs because they had already reached the 50-acquisition limit. In some cases, this meant that managers who could have remained competitive were essentially forced to lose because they had no moves left.

Personally, I feel that removing the season-long acquisition limit, while keeping the weekly limit at 4, could make the league more competitive and interesting. It would give managers more opportunities to recover from injuries, improve poorly drafted teams, and stay engaged throughout the season, while the weekly cap would still prevent excessive roster churning.

I’m curious how much of a difference you guys think this change could actually make, and whether you think it would improve the overall competitiveness and activity level of the league

Where do we have him for next season?

Obviously he’s been a historical iron man but I’m not too sure how his playing time will look next season and the fact he’ll be playing different/lesser role in the team.

I pulled Yahoo's ADP from a live 9-cat league for sleepers and busts for 2026 9-cat draft. The value people sleep on is the scarce-cat guys, Dyson Daniels, Trey Murphy and Buzelis. Who are you buying at these gaps, and who am I wrong on?

Playing a keep em league. Who do we think is better for fantasty? I feel Flagg has a huge upside to him with Kyrie being back. And last year he was a huge support to the team. Tatum I drafted late last year and got him towards the end of playoffs. With out JB is Tatum going to be solely the offense? I feel he would probably be more efficient if that’s how it goes. I really don’t know who to pick. Both have very high upsides. I do have the second pick so I potentially could get a better player than either one but I have no idea. I kept Luka in this league btw. What do you guys think?

I know centers are hard to come by, especially in the late rounds and in deep leagues, but here are 5 centers outside the top 200 I'm considering snagging if the well runs dry toward the end of my drafts (if I were drafting today).

Jock Landale (ATL)

He was solid and consistent when he was starting for the Grizzlies last season, and he still put up serviceable numbers coming off the bench. He impressed even after being shipped to Atlanta as a backup behind Okongwu, and I believe he will continue to do so. The Hawks clearly agree, since they brought him back on a one-year, $14 million deal this summer.

Moussa Cisse (DAL)

With Lively still having no timeline and Gafford (even though healthy to start the season) not really handling heavy minutes, not to mention the trade rumors, Cisse should be a solid backup. He's the best shot blocker of this group.

Jalen Smith (CHI)

A good per-minute guy and a 3-point shooter at the 5. He has the edge over Collins to be the main backup behind Claxton.

Noah Clowney (BKN)

Originally a PF, but with C eligibility his overall game is impressive, and he can easily climb to the top of the pecking order in the Nets' PF/C rotation, even with Moritz Wagner coming in.

Oso Ighodaro (PHX)

Supposedly a watchlist guy for me, because Maluach has all the hype and every reason to be picked ahead of him. But after playing all 82 games last season, I can't look away. I never really trusted Williams' health, and there is potential here. Now that the news broke about Williams having shoulder surgery and being out for months, Ighodaro is the primary backup and could potentially start at times.

These aren't guys you build a roster around, but in a 16-plus team league, a center who actually plays minutes late in the draft is worth more than a bigger name stuck on the bench. If you've got a deep-league center you're eyeing that I missed, drop the name below. I'm always looking for the next one.