Yahoo Default Rankings: Early Values and Fades for 2026 Fantasy Basketball

August 21, 2026

Dan Besbris reviews the initial Yahoo pre-ranks and offers his thoughts on which players are mispriced for upcoming fantasy basketball drafts.

Yahoo leagues are open, which means our boat, floating aimlessly for months, has at long last docked into the official start of the Fantasy NBA draft season. It also means the first public rankings are available, and they are packed with wild values and massive potential pitfalls.

The best steals are not localized in any one particular part of the draft. Players pre-ranked in the fifth round may end up at the top of the board, while others pre-ranked inside the top-20 may sink your team.

Our job is to isolate the winners - and the losers - to make sure that you come out of draft day with a juggernaut of a squad. As the longtime host of some of your favorite podcasts in the fantasy hoops space, I hope you will put your trust in me as I highlight the players who can start you on your road to a title.

Fantasy Basketball: Early Yahoo Steals

Dejounte Murray, PG - New Orleans Pelicans
Yahoo Rank - 60

Friends, the stars have aligned. Dejounte Murray is roughly 19 months removed from tearing his Achilles tendon, and we saw just enough last season to feel confident in his health without over-exposing him to the public eye.

Last year, in his limited run, Murray averaged 16.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.6 steals in just under 28 minutes per game. That was good enough for a 9-category rank right around where he's being ranked for this coming season.

DAMN I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THIS DUDE OFF MIN RESTRICTION IN OCTOBER!!! 😂 https://t.co/PfrkpfpLbA

— Dejounte Murray (@DejounteMurray) June 23, 2026

But this rank does not factor in the uptick in minutes and how quickly he can pile up numbers when playing primarily point guard. I expect Murray to be a top-40 player in 9-category leagues with second-round upside for folks who deem turnovers an unnecessary burden.

Norman Powell, SG - Chicago Bulls
Yahoo Rank - 99

Everyone who has followed my "Old Man Squad" strategy to win fantasy leagues over the years knows Norman Powell's name. Powell is far from a buzzy player, barely bothering to rebound or pass during his NBA career. What he lacks in non-scoring counting stats, he makes up for in efficiency.

FG% and FT%, the forgotten fantasy categories, are where Powell butters his bread, and over the first half of the season in each of the last two years, we have witnessed Powell star in a partial fill-in role - first, for Kawhi Leonard with the Clippers, and then for Tyler Herro with the Heat.

To our delight, Norm has found a nearly perfect landing spot with the Chicago Bulls. Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis are the other two players set to get touches, which leaves a boatload of shots left for our percentages hero.

As the number-two option on Miami last year (with Herro out), Powell was a third-round value, averaging a tick under 24 points, 3.0 threes and 1.3 steals on positive impact percentages. He has a shot to replicate that in 2026.

The lone fear is that Powell's contract is extremely team-friendly and he will almost undoubtedly be the subject of trade talks. His role would be diminished on another club, but at this absurdly cheap draft day price, that is a risk we simply have to take.

Stephen Curry, PG - Golden State Warriors
Yahoo Rank - 26

Forget Old Man Squad, Curry is just an old man. Red flags are everywhere, too, after Steph missed two months last season with a sore knee.

Still, Curry is a first-round player in fantasy basketball, posting the types of stat lines that can serve as a foundation to your team. Before he went down for nearly 30 games last season, Curry was the 9th-ranked player in 9-category leagues, posting 27.2 points, an eye-popping 4.5 threes, 4.8 assists and a 93.1% free-throw shooting clip.

Curry's role is unlikely to change, too. The Warriors are old as dirt, with Jimmy Butler out until mid-season, Kristaps Porzingis and his nebulous health listed as the starting center, Moses Moody still on the shelf, and players like Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos the next in line for usage.

Make no mistake, the risk is real, but getting a potential top-10 player in the third round is a juicy steal.

Tyler Herro, SG - Milwaukee Bucks
Yahoo Rank - 59

Giannis Antetokounmpo heading to Miami made the bigger splash, but the player set to benefit the most from that blockbuster trade is the cool customer headed to Milwaukee.

By all accounts, Tyler Herro had a complete mess of a 2025-26 season in Miami. He played in just 33 games, and every time it seemed like he was about to get fully healthy, something else knocked him out. Yet, despite all of the setbacks, Herro still posted top-50 value!

In Milwaukee, Herro will have almost zero competition for touches. He goes from playing alongside Bam Adebayo, Norman Powell, and Andrew Wiggins to sharing the basketball with Ryan Rollins and a cast of misfits. It was only two seasons back when Herro was the #29 ranked player in all of fantasy basketball, and with just two more field goal attempts per game, he might just get back there.

Other Strong Values

Lauri Markkanen, PF - Utah Jazz
Yahoo Rank - 45

Markkanen was a first-round value last year. His usage will take a hit with Jaren Jackson Jr. and Darryn Peterson added to the mix, but I still have the Jazz power forward finishing inside the top-25. Risk of tanking was always the reason to avoid Markkanen in the past, but a retooled roster and new draft lottery rules make those fears a thing of the past.

James Harden, PG - Cleveland Cavaliers
Yahoo Rank - 35

Fresh off signing a new three-year deal with Cleveland, Harden will look to build on the chemistry he had already started to develop last season. He may very well finish as a third-rounder in 9-category formats, but a small bump in 8-category leagues, combined with the statistical scarcity of his strongest category - assists - makes this a viable play.

Kel'el Ware, C - Milwaukee Bucks
Yahoo Rank - 82

Kel'el Ware was #59 in 9-category formats in just 22 minutes per game last season. The Bucks are going to be looking for ways to play Ware more, making this a colossal upside swing.

Ty Jerome, PG/SG - Memphis Grizzlies
Yahoo Rank - 87

There is an outside shot the Grizzlies decide to go with a new wave of players, but we have seen Jerome post top-50 fantasy numbers in only 22 minutes. Even if Jerome gets docked down to 20 minutes, he should still reach this 9th round valuation. And if we catch lightning in a bottle and playing time goes up, he has legitimate top-35 appeal.

Fantasy Basketball: Early Yahoo Fades

Jaylen Brown, SG/SF - Philadelphia 76ers
Yahoo Rank - 40

This rank almost undoubtedly will not hold. Outside of this most recent season when Brown was the face of the Celtics, he has finished somewhere between sixth- and eighth-round fantasy value.

My advice is to wipe the 2025-26 season from your mind, Men in Black De-Neuralyzer style. Brown goes from being the first option on one team to likely the fourth option on another. Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey are still in control of the 76ers, and LeBron James can fit in as more of a point guard. Jaylen Brown is the player who does not have the easy road to touches in that group.

Avoiding Sixers is not a bad strategy in total, if you wanted to simplify the game a bit. But out of the bunch, Jaylen Brown and a 4th-round price tag is the worst deal.

VJ Edgecombe, SG - Philadelphia 76ers
Yahoo Rank - 70

One of the best rookie stories in the NBA in 2025 was VJ Edgecombe. It's a shame it's not repeatable.

If Jaylen Brown is in trouble of losing most of his touches (and he is), Edgecombe is right there alongside Brown fighting for scraps. The marginally good news for Edgecombe is that he can still have some value with steals, decent rebounding from the guard position, and a handful of assists, but after finishing top-60 last season, a drop is almost guaranteed.

Darryn Peterson, SG - Utah Jazz 
Yahoo Rank - 92

Folks are getting way ahead of themselves on Darryn Peterson, and Summer League gets the blame. Peterson, the second pick in the draft, averaged an eye-popping 23 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and over a block and a steal during his 5-game run at two Summer League locations.

Don't be bamboozled, though, friends. The only high-usage Jazz teammate that joined Peterson at Summer League was Keyonte George, and he was with the club in a coaching role!

Annual reminder to read this @owenlhjphillips columnhttps://t.co/64NTItMeOX pic.twitter.com/hKsrNakowF

— Noah Rubin (@NoahRubin22) July 4, 2026

Once the regular season begins, Peterson will slide down the team pecking order behind George, Markkanen, Jackson, and possibly Ace Bailey. That is already enough to knock him outside the top-100, but you can also expect a large rookie learning curve when the opponents also change from confused Summer Leaguers to big, mean, real NBA talent.

Peterson will almost definitely improve as the year goes on, but I expect that he will sit outside the top-150 for multiple months before a gradual ascent to a less repugnant rank.

Jalen Brunson, PG - New York Knicks 
Yahoo Rank - 27

This one requires a long explanation, so buckle up.

Jalen Brunson suffers from a fantasy basketball malady that should basically be named after him. Let's call it "Jalen Brunsonitis."

Brunsonitis is a syndrome characterized by very strong fantasy numbers in the most public categories and surprisingly poor marks in categories where the expectation is already low. Confused? An example might help. We can use Brunson himself.

Last year, Brunson averaged 26 points and 6.8 assists per game. Those are, by any standards, outstanding marks. He was also serviceable in a few other departments, posting 2.6 threes, 46.7% shooting from the field, and 84% from the foul line.

At a glance, it feels like a player with those averages should be a top-30 fantasy star. But Brunson was ranked #47 last season, and it had nothing to do with turnovers, where his 2.4 giveaways per game were also quite average.

The issue lies in the remaining categories: rebounds, steals and blocks, where the Finals MVP posted full-season marks of just 3.3 boards, 0.8 steals and 0.1 blocks per game. "But wait," you say, "Who cares how many rebounds or blocks a point guard gets?"

And that question is what keeps Brunson from reaching his ADP every year. Brunson isn't just bad at those categories; he is bad even for a guard. As a point of comparison, no other player ranked inside the top-65 has less than 1.1 combined steals and blocks.

If Brunson could just get his defensive stats up by a tenth in each, he could bounce up the rank board. But he won't, and off a Finals run, we should fade his regular season, regardless.

Other Early Fades

Stephon Castle, PG/SG - San Antonio Spurs
Yahoo Rank - 69

Castle needs a rather sizable correction to his turnover rate and free throw percentage to get anywhere near this mark.

Deni Avdija, PF - Portland Trail Blazers
Yahoo Rank - 41

Avdija was already more of a punt-turnover play before the addition of Ja Morant and the return of Damian Lillard. Any erosion off last season's numbers spells doom for Deni getting anywhere near the 4th round.

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