2024 Draft Guide Home
Go To NBA FantasyPass
Go To NFL FantasyPass
Go To MLB FantasyPass
Go To WagerPass
Go To DFS Pass
Bruski 150SportsEthos 2026 Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide
Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2026: Second-Year Players
Last Updated on September 20, 2026 6:38 pm by Keston Paul | Published: September 20, 2026
The best way to win in a redraft league is to find excess production from your draft picks. In that vein, second-year players have some of the best chances to give you that return. That counterpoint is that these players have a wide range of variance for redraft leagues. Sometimes they become fantastic redraft steals like Donovan Clingan or tidy wins like Stephon Castle. Other times, they can disappoint like Bub Carrington or Kyle Filipowski.
How do we sift through the variance river to find the (fantasy) gold? It’s a mix of identifying opportunity, usage on offense, and potential impact via fantasy production per minute. But wait, there’s more! Then you have to pair those projections with ADP and determine if you can actually win on that draft pick price. It’s easy to say Cooper Flagg will bring oodles of production. It’s another thing to determine if you should take him late in the first round or not.
We’ll look at all relevant second-year players in this article. I’ve grouped them into Standard-League Radar Names, Late-Round Sleepers/Fliers, Watch-List Names and Stat Specialists. For each player, I’ll discuss where they currently stand and if you should aim to select that player in their current ADP range. Remember — if I say I wouldn’t draft this player, it’s because it’s all relative to ADP. It’s not necessarily because I don’t like them, but I’m out here to win.
All stats are from Basketball-Reference unless otherwise stated. All ADPs are from Yahoo and current as of 9/19.
Standard-League Radar
| Season | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FGM | FGA | FG% | FTM | FTA | FT% | 3PTM | 3PTA | 3PT% | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-26 | DAL | 70 | 70 | 33.5 | 8.0 | 17.1 | 46.8 | 4.0 | 4.9 | 82.7 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 29.5 | 21.0 | 6.7 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 2.3 |
Last year’s ADP: 42.3
Current ADP: 10.3
Cooper Flagg came into the league oozing potential across the 9-category board, but there were some doubts if his offense would translate immediately. Does 21.0 points on 46.8% as a rookie quell those doubts? Yes, yes it does. Even with lackluster spacing around him, Flagg impressed with his driving and finishing. It was not just the scoring where Flagg shined — he also added 6.7 boards and 4.5 assists a night, allowing Fagg to rack up impressive counting stats for a rookie. With plenty defensive production of 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks, Flagg put up a top-50 season.
Where does he go from here? Fantasy managers are predicting substantial improvement as evidenced by his current ADP in the late first. The most obvious spot for improvement is Flagg’s three-point shooting. Flagg only hit 1.0 threes a game last season on 29.5% behind the arc. While Flagg didn’t profile as an elite shooter coming out of college, he still projected as a league-average one. With better playmakers like Kyrie Irving in the fold, Flagg should be able to bump those three-point shooting numbers up a notch. If that occurs, Flagg could easily match his ADP. Flagg will make for a strong selection around the turn of the first round of standard leagues, although you are betting on that three-point improvement alongside a further bump in his ability as a lead offensive player.
| Season | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FGM | FGA | FG% | FTM | FTA | FT% | 3PTM | 3PTA | 3PT% | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-26 | CHA | 81 | 80 | 31.5 | 6.4 | 13.4 | 47.5 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 86.3 | 3.4 | 7.9 | 42.5 | 18.5 | 5.3 | 3.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.0 |
Mark C can help you make better redraft decisions on Second-Year Players thanks to his dynasty knowledge. Want to get access to the 2026-27 SportsEthos Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide and continue reading this article? You’ll need to have an Ethos 360, All-Sport or NBA FantasyPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
After years of playing redraft fantasy basketball leagues with my friends, I branched out to dynasty leagues. As my hunger for competitive leagues grew, I found myself having lengthy conversations in various forums and developing my own thoughts on rookies and veteran players alike. Among the dynasty community, I found a gap in understanding on-court play and valuing transactions properly and thought to myself “I have a lot to say that could help dynasty managers!” I eventually came onto Sports Ethos as the Dynasty Lead, producing Dynasty Fantasy Basketball content such as rankings, rookie profiles, and other sorts of articles to enable managers to make informed decisions on their own squads. I pride myself in marrying on-court NBA and fantasy basketball analysis, giving readers and listeners of my content a holistic knowledge base of not only dynasty basketball projects but also the NBA itself.