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Bruski 150SportsEthos 2026 Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide
Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2026: Busts
Last Updated on October 5, 2026 2:45 pm by Mike Passador | Published: October 5, 2026
Everyone loves sleepers, and who wouldn’t? There’s nothing more satisfying than taking a big swing and hitting a home run late in the draft that proves you did your homework better than your leaguemates. Sometimes, however, it’s the mistakes not made — the things you decided to forgo — that determine your fantasy fate. Picking a key sleeper can help you to victory, but dodging the landmines on draft day can also get you to the top of the mountain. You know what that means: it’s time for Busts.
Between the disappointment of watching a player fail to live up to his draft slot and the opportunity cost of missing out on better options, the wrong choice can haunt you all year long. Let’s try to avoid that, shall we?
The fantasy community is getting sharper and sharper every year any reasonable analyst will give you a passable baseline. As a result, it’s getting harder and harder to look at draft boards and point out the obvious busts. There aren’t many players left who totally flame out, or any guys who clearly won’t sniff their ADP a la late-career Russell Westbrook (so long, partner). When we label someone as a bust here, it’s not saying that they’re going to be way outside the scope of standard-league relevance necessarily, but rather that they will fall short of expectations by a reasonable margin. Someone can be a bust and also deliver must-start value, and the key to a successful draft is maximizing your profit margin and avoiding the players who come up too short.
Let’s see who we’ve got circled as the players to avoid in drafts this season.
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Mike graduated from Boston University’s Dual Degree Program with a BA in Economics and a BS in Business with Concentrations in Marketing and Operations Management. He is a faithful supporter of Toronto sports and the Detroit Lions and is always ready to be let down. Tweet to him @Mike_Pandador, but if you badmouth Jose Calderon you might get blocked.
