Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2025: Face-off, Payton Pritchard vs. Jordan Poole

Last Updated on October 18, 2025 7:17 pm by Keston Paul | Published: October 18, 2025

Our Fantasy Face-Off series will feature two SportsEthos staffers making their arguments in a head-to-head battle of comparable fantasy players.

This time we have two guards coming off standout seasons, one thriving as a featured player tasked with playmaking responsibility and the other soaring up the ranks as a high-level sixth man (with a chance of starting) in an elite offense. Both are being taken in the middle rounds, with one’s expected promotion pushing him into uncharted territory. Today it’s Yoel Abulef backing Payton Pritchard and Mark C taking up the battle for Jordan Poole.

Last Season

Payton Pritchard

PG, Boston Celtics

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
24-25	BOS	80	3	28.4	5.1	10.8	47.2	0.9	1.1	84.5	3.2	7.8	40.7	14.3	3.8	3.5	0.9	0.2	1.0
23-24	BOS	82	5	22.3	3.6	7.7	46.8	0.6	0.7	82.1	1.8	4.7	38.5	9.6	3.2	3.4	0.5	0.1	0.7

Jordan Poole

PG, New Orleans Pelicans

Season	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%	PTS	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO
24-25	WAS	68	68	29.4	6.7	15.5	43.2	3.6	4.0	88.3	3.5	9.1	37.8	20.5	3.0	4.5	1.3	0.4	3.0
23-24	WAS	78	66	30.1	6.3	15.2	41.3	2.5	2.8	87.7	2.4	7.2	32.6	17.4	2.7	4.4	1.1	0.3	2.4

Pritchard floated a soft trade request a couple years back but the Celtics stayed patient and now have themselves a bargain with his four-year deal. It was a true breakout season for the Oregon product, who earned Sixth Man of the Year honors will piling up big stats as the top reserve for Boston’s lethal offense. He always provided solid points, assists and 3-pointers, with plenty of pop games whenever the team was shorthanded. Given how locked into the second seed Boston was all year, that meant lots of pop games. He put up 20-plus points 22 times, with single games of 30-plus and 40-plus points. There were only six games all season in which he didn’t hit a 3-pointer, compared to 22 of five or more including one ridiculous 10-triple performance. Pritchard was a legitimate early-round value for stretches of time and he ended up at 100/79 in 8/9-cat scoring. Now it’s expected he’ll move into the starting lineup.

Poole burned a lot of overeager fantasy managers in 2023-24 as he was a FG% anchor in his first season of unfettered usage in Washington. The team seemed to figure out that putting him at the controls raised his game late in that campaign, and it paid off last year. Poole ran as Washington’s point guard, more or less, and delivered a big season for astute fantasy GMs that bought the dip. His points, threes and steals represent career-best averages while his assists per game were also tied for a personal best. Poole was outside the top-100 once the Wizards started tanking but still ended up 52/72 in the final 8/9-cat rankings. Poole was traded to the Pelicans, who might allow him to gain even more reps at PG in the absence of Dejounte Murray.