Fantasy Basketball Unicorns: Versatile Big Men and Efficient Scorers

October 14, 2026

Thunder Dan Palyo dives into the data to find players who can help in multiple different categories that are not usually correlated. These Fantasy "Unicorns" can be a league-winners.

If I am being honest (and I really try to be), I wasn't sure if I'd have the time or energy to finish this research project, compile my results, and share them with you before the season started. But the reaction to the first part of this series was so awesome that I decided I simply have to do it.

I owe it to all of you who showed interest in the last article and offered words of encouragement. I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I think the pursuit of uncovering new and interesting angles and perspectives on any topic, even something like fantasy basketball, is worthwhile!

Part one of the series focused on two prototypes. The first was players who could help win assists while also contributing to some stats that are not commonly associated with guards. The second was players who excelled in defensive stats while also being relatively efficient and therefore helpful in either field goal percentage, turnovers, or both. Today, we look at some more efficiency metrics, and I've sorted out six new stat pairings into two new prototypes. Let's get into it!

Correlational Matrix

I have to include the matrix in each article, as a handy reference to all the statistical correlations that I'll be referencing.

Remember, we are attempting to examine the categories that are negatively correlated with each other. We are, in essence, looking for players who can buck the trends of traditional punt builds by being useful in categories that do not typically marry well.

These results are from a data set that included 455 players from the 2025-2026 season. I used every player who averaged at least 10 or more minutes per game and who appeared in at least 10 games, trying to avoid as many statistical outliers as possible.

I'll remind you once again that the closer the correlation coefficient is to 1.0 or -1.0, the stronger the relationship. Out of 36 stat combinations, 27 were positively correlated, with only nine combinations negatively correlated (shown in red on the chart).

But wait! Remember that turnovers are bad, and the one statistic that we want fewer of than the others. So when we add those additional seven turnover pairings (all but FG% and turnovers, which showed no relationship), we end up with 16 stat combos with negative correlations.

Here they are grouped together in order from the strongest to weakest correlation.

I highlighted the combinations that I will be focusing on in this piece. They don't split evenly like last time; instead, I'll be pairing up PTS/TO with FG%/FT% and then grouping together three of the remaining four combinations as a unique way to evaluate big men.

Efficient Scorers

One of the first things that I hear people say when I start talking about turnovers is that "all the high usage players are high turnover players, so you just have to punt them." And while it's very true that high usage players are also usually high turnover players, it's not always the case.

Can we build a team that can win points consistently, while also remaining competitive in turnovers? If so, I think we have an edge on our opponents.

If we consult the matrix from the introduction, we can see that points correlate with turnovers at the second-highest rate, so finding players who contribute positively in both scoring without hurting us in assists is going to be tough. And to no surprise, it's a pretty small list.

Points and Turnovers

One other thing to remember here is that the z-scores were created with a relatively large sample size of players (445), a much deeper pool of players than 95% of the fantasy basketball leagues out there. The median scoring average was right around 12 points per game, but for the sake of keeping our results geared towards players who are relevant in standard 12-team leagues, I used 13 PPG as the cutoff for this list.

Some notable guys who got chopped off were Sam Merrill, Duncan Robinson, and Miles McBride. We love bench gunners who can hit threes at a high rate, but we aren't drafting those players in standard leagues.

The only 20+ points scorer on the list is Lauri Markkanen, which makes him officially our first unicorn of the article. He's a target of mine this year, as I think the Jazz should be competitive and will have a strong incentive to keep him in the lineup instead of shutting him down early as they have for the last 10 (I kid!), I mean, the last three seasons.

Another look at Lauri Markkanen’s windmill... in slow motion 🎥 https://t.co/pbL3a6JkOm

— NBA (@NBA) October 13, 2026

The rest of the crew here can be lumped into the "late-round" picks category. DeRozan will likely struggle to match his 18 PPG average from last season while coming off the bench in Denver. Bridges has averaged 16 per game in two seasons in New York. Harris and Portis are sixth-man types set to come off the bench.

I will say that Rui Hachimura may have a real shot at 20 points per game in L.A. this year as Darius Garland's primary sidekick, which puts him into the mix in the later rounds despite his lack of statistical diversity.

So if we have only one real impact scorer from this list, perhaps a better value to evaluate this combination is by looking at it differently. We're not winning points with a bunch of 15-point scorers. So let's instead focus on which high-scoring players have the least impact on turnovers.

We do that by sorting by points PER turnover. Here's our top ten, using 18 PPG as the cutoff.

There's our guy Lauri again. SGA, Kawhi, Murphy, and Maxey are all early-round picks who can be impactful scorers without absolutely killing us in turnovers. Let's see if any of those guys pop up in our next combo before we anoint any of them efficiency unicorns just yet.

Let's hope Franz Wagner can stay healthy this year. He's a guy I have ranked higher than his ADP because I really like his all-around game. He doesn't get defensive stats, but he can pile up counting stats efficiently.

And Norman Powell is one of the few 20-point scorers that you can get after pick 80 in drafts. His peripheral stats are lacking, but the solid FG% and low turnovers fit the mold of what we are looking for here.

While we are at it, we may as well see who the least turnover-friendly scorers are, too!

And people wonder why I am always so brutal with my Ja Morant rankings! His new teammate, Deni Avdija, was pretty bad last year, too. There are some pretty big names here with guys like Cunningham, Harden, Barnes, and Banchero. These players all have their statistical appeal, but turnovers are not their strength, and we should be mindful if we are being turnover-conscious!

FG% and FT%

The other efficiency categories that I want to explore for this prototype are field goal and free throw percentages. Plenty of players can contribute greatly in one, but hurt us in the other. If we're painting with broad strokes, it's usually guards who can tank our FG% (as they shoot more three-pointers and fewer shots closer to the hoop), while being good free-throw shooters.

The opposite is true of plenty of big men, who can bolster our FG% with a lot of dunks and layups but have a tough time at the charity stripe.

I am going to start with the bigger list this time. Here are all players who averaged at least 16 points per game last year, while also shooting 48% from the field and 78% from the line. The median for both categories was a tad lower than that, but I wanted to round up a bit and make this group as exclusive as possible.

Some very "close, but no cigar" players who just missed the cutoff by a percentage point in either category are Brandon Ingram (not all that relevant due to his injury), Ty Jerome, Cooper Flagg, Jaylen Brown, and Kon Knueppel.

If we raise the bar just a little higher to 50% FG% and 80% FT%, we are left with just these five.

• Nikola Jokic
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Kevin Durant
• Jimmy Butler III
• Scottie Barnes
• Kawhi Leonard
• Karl-Anthony Towns

But the impact of some of these players is far greater than others due to the volume of shots and free throws that they're making. When we pull the next leaderboard by the combined z-scores for these two categories, we get a chance to see just the real cream rise to the top.

This is where SGA thrives, and where Jokic, Kawhi, and KD separate themselves from the pack. SGA's percentages come on nearly 20 field goal attempts and nine free throw attempts per game. That type of volume efficiency creates a great foundation for your team and can help make up for a lot of sub-par shooting nights from other players.

It's also why I am so high on guys like Austin Reaves and Jamal Murray in round two. Their ability to anchor your percentages while also putting up counting stats from the guard position makes them incredibly valuable.

There was a day when DDR and Jimmy Butler were on a lot of my teams for this very reason, too, though I'm not likely to have either of them this year with Butler out indefinitely and DeRozan moving into a reserve role.

A quick shout-out to Desmond Bane, who is one of the few guys on this list who isn't a top-30 pick. He usually ends up on at least one of my teams every year. His ability to add two threes per game and solid rebounding numbers (for a guard) while remaining so uber-efficient is a combo I can appreciate.

Tyler Herro deserves a mention here, too, as well as Chet Holmgren - though Chet just doesn't quite shoot enough from the field or the line to make a huge impact despite his excellent percentages.

Efficient Scorer Unicorns

I put together a little leaderboard here with a Unicorn rating that combines both the points-per-turnover metric with the efficiency metric (FG% = FG%). Once we filter out those who scored less than 16 points per game, we're left with this group, sorted by their combined rating.

I allowed Saddiq Bey, Aaron Gordon, and VJ Edgecombe to stay even though they failed to hit one of the category thresholds. Bey and Edgecombe shot less than 47% from the field, while Gordon was just a hair under 77% from the line.

Those three aren't really targets of mine this year, each for their own different reason. But they deserve their moment in the sun.

Since we already determined that Lauri is our top unicorn in this prototype, and that SGA is a one-of-one type of player as well, let's skip down the list to a few others.

Trey Murphy III and Kawhi Leonard stand out to me as players you can draft in the third or fourth rounds who have first-round potential. Murphy's upside may be a bit capped this year in New Orleans as the Pelicans have a healthy Dejounte Murray and Zion Williamson (well, for now), but that won't discourage me from drafting him.

It's always about Kawhi's health more than anything else. He's a proven first-round guy in 9-CAT, even in the second half of his career. I think he's well worth the risk if you really like what he brings to the table.

Jamal Murray is a repeat from the first article. I guess he's an extra unique unicorn!

Last but not least is Franz Wagner, who got the nod for the cover of this article! 20-point scorers with such good percentages and low turnovers are indeed a rare commodity. Stay healthy, Herr Wagner!

Versatile Bigs: FT% Matters

We usually associate poor free throw shooting with centers and power forwards. And while there are some exceptions like Dyson Daniels and Ausar Thompson (two of our unicorns from part one), this trend holds more often than not.

But what if I want to build a team that is competitive in traditional big man stats (like boards and blocks), without punting FT%? This feels like a good way to get some leverage against other teams that lean heavily into a big-man stat build.

You know the drill by now! Here's our first leaderboard, which features the most impactful players in FT% and rebounds. Remember that players who are not neutral or better in one category are excluded

FT% and Rebounds

Jokic and Wemby at the top - who knew? Let's not skip over KAT, though, as he's even more impactful here than Wemby thanks to his 86% from the line on 5.5 attempts per game.

We haven't really spent much time talking about Joel Embiid, but a healthy Embiid would be a first- or second-round pick every year. It's a bummer that his balky knees have robbed us of another freakish fantasy player.

I think Zach Edey deserves a mention here, as he has huge rebounding potential and a very palatable 78% FT% last season. He shot 71% in his rookie year and around the same in college, so maybe he regresses a bit this year.

Jalen Johnson and Kevin Durant are obviously very good fantasy players who are being taken in the top 15 to 20 picks, while Bam Adebayo is available in the third round.

Bennedict Mathurin would be a great unicorn choice here if he hadn't just been traded to New Orleans and is now buried in a deep rotation. That leaves us with...Michael Porter Jr.!

MPJ after Q1:

• 10 PTS
• 4-6 FG
• 2-3 3FG https://t.co/i57QjbQB7m

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) October 6, 2026

MPJ's first year in Brooklyn was a massive success. The only bummer was the games missed due to rest and the early shutdown, which we saw coming a mile away. But the Nets have a more competitive team around him this year, and perhaps the anti-tanking rules force Brooklyn into playing him till the end of the season.

His seven boards per game and 86% from the line (on 4.4 attempts per game) are a winning combo, especially when you consider his impact as a scorer (24.3 points) and outside shooter (3.4 threes). He might not be a traditional big man, but he's a solid rebounder from the wing and an excellent free-throw shooter. He's available in the fifth round this year; unlike last year, I'm in on him.

FT% and Blocks

Very few guards can make an impact in blocks the same way that forwards and centers can. But Derrick White, Tyrese Maxey, and SGA are three guards who certainly can. While Maxey's 0.8 blocks were a bit of an outlier compared to his career average of 0.4 per game, SGA's 0.8 blocks are right in line with his career numbers, and White's 1.3 blocks are the ultimate "out-of-position" stat. White has blocked over a shot per game now in three straight seasons and sits at 1.0 blocks per game over his 9-year career.

The rest of this list is primarily big men, with Scottie Barnes, Matas Buzelis, Keegan Murray, and KD being hybrid wing players. It's fun looking at the z-score values because you can see that Wemby's combined value here is nearly twice that of the next closest tier of Embiid and SGA.

This is Chet Holmgren's wheelhouse, and Jay Huff, when given minutes, can do a pretty solid Chet impression (including the threes!) This is also where Porzingis shines, though I doubt you're drafting him this year with his lingering health issues.

I mentioned in part one of this series that I'm not sure that Keegan Murray's block rate from last year is sustainable, but Buzelis's 1.5 blocks line up with the per-minute production from his rookie season - not that I needed another reason to tout Matas as a great upside pick in the mid-tier!

Rebounds and Turnovers

This one is tough because it's not a combination that I would usually think of as negatively correlated. We usually associate centers and post players with lower turnover rates because they handle the ball much less often. But big men who are offensive hubs (like Jokic, Domantas Sabonis, Alperen Sengun types) are usually higher turnover players.

This list isolates the best rebounders who are also positive impacts on turnovers. As we can predict, this is mainly comprised of fairly one-dimensional fantasy players who are more traditional centers. They play with their back to the basket or make their living as rebounders, shot-blockers, and alley-oop finishers.

Though there are a few players from this group who stand out as different from the rest in terms of this prototype. The first one is Donovan Clingan, who can shoot the three-ball and can pass it a bit. He's the only player on this list to average more than two assists per game (Moussa just misses at 1.9).

Donovan Clingan AND ONE 🦍

- Look at him be the hub of this offense.

Tuff move. Need it ALL SEASON! https://t.co/y14egKu83q

— ItsAllLove (@nbanerdd) October 8, 2026

The other one is Kel'el Ware, who averaged 1.2 threes per game and is an elite rebounder on a per-minute basis (9.0 rebounds per game in just 22 minutes). Please, Milwaukee, give this young man 25 to 30 minutes a night!

FT% and Turnovers

I had a really hard time trying to figure out how this stat combination fit into any of the prototypes that we've been evaluating. If we look at the leaderboard for the combined value of free throw percentage and turnovers, it's a very odd mix of players.

Our efficiency god, Lauri Markkanen, is in there, along with legends DeMar DeRozan and Kawhi Leonard. But then we get a mishmash of players with bench-gunners like Isaiah Joe, Seth Curry, Cam Payne, and Tim Hardaway having very little in common with players like Tobias Harris and Saddiq Bey, who are also quite different from bigs like Luke Kornet and Kristaps Porzingis.

Maybe I'm just tired of crunching all the data, but this is one combination of categories that I don't think needs further investigation, and I am not going to include it in my composite unicorn score with the other three category combos.

Versatile Big Man Unicorns

We don't have any players who make all three lists, but five players show up on both the FT%/Blocks and FT%/Rebounds lists.

• Victor Wembanyama
• Joel Embiid
• Zach Edey
• Kevin Durant
• Nikola Jokic

Zach Edey is in some lofty company there; let's hope he can stay on the court this season.

When I build a unicorn model that incorporates the impact of low turnovers (from our REB/TO values), here are the players who pop.

I think we touched on most of this list already, with Jalen Duren being a guy who may have slipped through the cracks a bit due to some mediocre FT%. The same goes for Zubac, who shoots a worse percentage at 71%, but on half the attempts of Duren.

Moussa Diabate's FT% stands out among the group, but he also doesn't really take that many attempts (2.4) per game to hurt you, and 65% is not as bad as Mitchell Robinson-level. If we are looking for late-round options, I think we've found one in Moussa.

Jayson Tatum is probably not averaging 10 boards a game (small sample size alert), but 8-9 is a real possibility, and his FT% impact is substantial. His o.2 blocks per game is also flukily low, as he's usually good for closer to 0.6 or 0.7. And yes, Tatum is ranked FIFTH in my 9-CAT ranks this season!

Conclusion

As I did in part one, let's do a quick recap since this thing got pretty long, pretty quickly.

I'm trying to avoid obvious statements, such as "that Nikola Jokic fella is such a unique player, target him this season." Because, well, if you don't land the first or second pick in your draft, you're simply not going to get a chance to roster the Joker...or Wemby. And unless you pick third or fourth, you're not getting SGA either.

So which players did we identify today that are perhaps undervalued in drafts, or at least properly valued and fall outside the first round, where most of the unicorns live! Here's the list I compiled, and don't worry, I'll do a big conclusion in the third piece with all the unicorns from all three pieces in one place! Players' ADP is listed in parentheses.

• Trey Murphy III (36.5)
• Lauri Markkanen (36.6)
• Donovan Clingan (43.6)
• Franz Wagner (51.8)
• Desmond Bane (53)
• Michael Porter Jr. (62)
• Zach Edey (75.1)
• Kel'el Ware (76.4)

Again, I'm signing off on drafting all of these gents ahead of their ADP!

There's still one more part of this series - stay tuned, and happy draft week!

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