2026-2027 Fantasy Basketball: Dan Besbris's Buckets (Tiered Rankings) and Draft Guide

October 14, 2026

Use Dan Besbris's "Buckets" system to navigate your fantasy basketball drafts. Dan ranks and sorts out players to create an easy-to-use system on draft night.

Like any analyst worth his salt, I make fantasy basketball rankings. I just happen to make mine with containers!

The concept of the "Bucket" is pretty straightforward, at least in theory. Players are separated into tiers based on where I see quantifiable drop-offs. The tiers function like a rankings list, but with a bit more leeway given toward choices. As we move from the beginning of the draft board to the end, the Buckets contain more players. This should also make sense mathematically, since players are more closely grouped in value near the back end of the rankings than up on top.

Ultimately, though, these are still rankings, and anyone working through them should have a pretty clear idea of who I like, who I don't, and strategies to employ to maximize not just the quality of their picks, but the quantity of strong ones, as well. Let's begin by gazing upon the Buckets in all their glory!

Fantasy Basketball Rankings: The Besbris Buckets

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How Do I Use the Buckets?

The simple answer is that, if you really wanted, you can draft in the order of the Bucket ranks. It's not perfect, but it would work. The Buckets do, generally, line players up in a very rough draft order, with a pair of exceptions: there are spots in the list where I have chosen to move a player slightly forward or backward to give readers a better shot at maximizing targets; and there are other spots I exaggerated a rank to ensure readers go snatch up a particular player. Still, again, converting the Buckets to a rank list should hold up.

I would prefer, however, that managers use the Bucket Board in more clever ways to achieve two simultaneous goals.

Goal number one: Draft a team where the pieces fit.

Within each tier are players that pull down stats in a variety of categories. If you draft from the Buckets with zero context, you might end up with 11 guards! Karl-Anthony Towns and James Harden, for example, are together in Bucket 10, despite one being a key producer in rebounds and the other in most guard-linked categories. Only you know what stats your team needs the most in the heat of battle. The Buckets will guide you to the best available player of each type: you pick the piece of the puzzle that snaps into place.

Goal two (mentioned above, in the introduction): draft the most value picks, not just the biggest.

This is one of my favorite concepts to wax on during podcasts. Getting a big win on draft night feels fantastic; getting multiple is how you win your league. To do this, you need the Buckets, and you need to understand the likely draft order.

Take a look at Bucket 17. Bucket 17 contains six names (in no particular order): OG Anunoby, Michael Porter Jr., Dyson Daniels, Ryan Rollins, Kel'el Ware, and Paul George.

Those who have followed my work this fantasy draft season know I love all of these players, but for this example we can ignore that affection. Right now, I need you, the reader, to imagine yourself in a 12-team draft room. It's almost your turn in the 5th round. You have pick 58, and then very shortly thereafter, 63.

Your goal with these two picks is not just to get one of those six targets above; the goal is to get TWO! Use the Buckets to understand how to position yourself for value, and use the most likely draft order to give yourself the best shot of getting more winners.

Continuing that example, Porter, Daniels, and Rollins are typically going earlier than Anunoby, Ware, and George. You might feel Ware is the juiciest grab in the group, but by combining two pieces of information (Bucket Board and draft order), you may want to grab Porter at 58 and Ware at 63. Yes, managers run the risk of not getting the favorite for this hypothetical (Ware), but by playing the odds, managers get more targets from the earliest possible Buckets.

As you near the end of the Bucket Board, you will undoubtedly notice the Flier Tiers. These are to be treated differently than the individual Buckets.

The Flier Tier players are listed in order of preference and should be drafted in that order. No nuance. This abrupt change in strategy is because there is no real pattern to what your opponents are doing in later rounds. Trying to predict which players might "get back to you" in the next round is a pointless endeavor. Maximizing volume is no longer the goal. Getting the one or two home run fliers is all that matters.

You may also note that there are still Buckets wedged in between Flier Tiers. Bucket 24, for instance, contains low-upside, slightly higher-floor types that I have graded out somewhere near the edge of the top-100. These names are less exciting than the fliers, but still hold value in standard leagues. They may be the proper choice for teams that have already taken on a fair amount of risk. Feel free to jump over the Flier Tier for a safe Bucket name if you need the simple plodder.

What Are These Weird Extra Notes?

Ah, you must mean the "Health Bucket" and the names in red, gray, or green font!

The Health Bucket is a new addition for 2026, and something I had decided I wanted to add to the Bucket Board when I repeatedly found myself struggling to grade how the riskiest seasons turned out during my end-of-season review last year. Originally, it was going to be called the Health and Tank Bucket, but tanking might be dead, so we can leave that off for this season. The reason this type of player was nearly impossible to grade was that the same player might be viewed as a win by some and a devastating loss by others.

Michael Porter Jr. might be the best example from last season, though Lauri Markkanen certainly qualifies as well. These players were known tanking risks, absolutely annihilated their draft position, and then took the last two months of the season to catch up on reading.

Porter was a 3rd-round value on a per-game basis last year, but missed 30 games and finished as a 7th-round totals value. Folks playing in games cap formats loved his season; managers with head-to-head playoffs likely hated it. There was no truly correct answer on whether his year was a fantasy success or not. We needed a better way to sort these risk targets into the overall board.

The new Health Bucket contains a short list of ultra-high-risk players, typically those returning from a season-ending injury or with a painfully long history of missed games. These players should not be stacked on top of one another in unlimited games leagues. I would suggest drafting one player from this Bucket, and only after the pick listed in parentheses. The good news is that diminished tanking means the missed games might not land right on top of your playoffs, but the sheer volume of days off can still be a buzzkill.

The Board also features two extra font colors. The red font applies to players that should be drafted using the Minus-1 Ranking system. This is a method of ranking players where they are graded after eliminating their worst category. Right out of the gate, readers will notice that both Cade Cunningham and Giannis Antetokounmpo are listed in red with a category labeled in parentheses. I am strongly suggesting that those players should be drafted in that Bucket, but only if you are punting their worst category.

The gray font shows where I believe those same players should be drafted if you are still attempting to be competitive in that same worst category.

The punting discussion is a long one we can save for another day, but given that my main aim as an analyst is to make fantasy basketball easier for my readers and listeners, I will leave you all with this: you do not have to punt free throws if you draft Giannis, but building a winning team is easier if you do.

The names in dark green denote the players that I pushed up the board partway to my projected final rank. I did this because I feel there is enough room to reach on these targets while also acknowledging that you can typically wait a little longer to make your move.

Who Do You Love, Dan?

I went back and forth on dropping a background color on names where I am markedly ahead of or behind consensus. Currently, they are not color-coded. By the time you read this, I might have changed my mind and added some flavoring. The green font discussed above is the exception because those players are getting something of a Bucket special treatment.

Here's the thing: it doesn't matter! If you use the Bucket Board as intended - loading names into your draft queue as each previous Bucket gets exhausted while also attacking the two goals we discussed earlier - your team will reflect my likes and dislikes, and you won't even need to know how you got there.

Plus, you all know who I like by now! I have written enough pieces and produced enough shows for everyone and their mother to know I am spending like a full-blown lunatic on Paul George, Dejounte Murray, Ty Jerome, Austin Reaves, Jamal Murray, half the guys in the 5th round, and later, Norman Powell and a nice crop of Fliers. Oops, did I type a bunch of them out for you again? You're welcome.

Count the passes leading to AR’s three-ball!

Austin Reaves has a game-high 19 on @NBATV 🔥 https://t.co/Zeh2q7qp5S

— NBA (@NBA) October 14, 2026

Go through the Buckets. You will quickly see who is surprisingly early and who (cough, Jaylen Brown) is laughably late.

Are We Ready to Draft?

Pretty much! If I could make one wish as a fantasy analyst, it is that you can win your league doing roughly five percent of the amount of work that I do.

Run a handful of mock drafts to understand draft order trends. Familiarize yourself with the Buckets and the player types that land in each one. Stay locked in on the draft room and do not let your focus stray. Use the queue religiously. Dominate.

You can do everything right, and half your team could be injured by Christmas.

Sometimes it's about the process. They say happiness is a journey, not the destination.

It'll be fun, either way. Good luck!

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