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Bruski 150SportsEthos 2026 Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide
Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2026: Center Tiers
Last Updated on October 14, 2026 8:31 pm by Mike Passador | Published: October 14, 2026
We all consult fantasy rankings in the lead up to draft day and lean on them in the drafts themselves. That’s the name of the game in a lot of ways, and finding rankings you trust (and tweaking them with your own knowledge) puts you way ahead of the competition. But rankings are static, and a draft room is anything but. You need to adapt to the draft as it unfolds, and the context around each pick changes each player’s value to you as a manager. Say, for example, that the rankings lead you to Anthony Edwards and Donovan Mitchell with your first two picks. The third time you’re up, Austin Reaves and Steph Curry are on top of your rankings. Are you actually going to grab that third guard and build the rest of your roster around middle-round talents, or are you going to spread the wealth?
That’s where tiers come in.
The general idea is that by putting players into tiers, you can group different guys together to establish ballpark value ranges. If you’re stuck between a guard and a center you both like, but the center is the last of his tier while there are four or five more similarly valued guards on the board, it makes your choice a little clearer. In the first couple of rounds, set rankings should do the job. After that, relying on tiers and the fluidity they allow opens up a lot of doors and helps set the table for level-headed decisions.
We’ll explain what we think each tier is, highlight any notable names in each and then, for the lower tiers, shout out a player who is most likely to jump up a level or two. Keep in mind that the names in these tiers are not displayed in any particular order. Just because Bam Adebayo, Walker Kessler and Onyeka Okongwu appear one after the other does not necessarily mean we rank Bam ahead of Kessler and Kessler ahead of Okongwu — that’s what a standard rankings list would show, but that’s not what we’re doing here. It’s placing all three into a bucket that says they should produce similarly and can all be considered in a certain range of the draft. The differences in their stat sets and their fit with your other roster players should inform that decision.
You’re not a monorail — you can deviate from the rankings and tiers as much as you like! This is just how we see the field. Treat the tiers as guardrails when it comes to drafting. It’s all about extracting value from your picks, and if you can use the tiers to get ahead of, avoid or exploit positional runs, you’ll be better off for it.
Our Forward Tiers can be found right here!
Our Guard Tiers can be found right here!
Tier 1
The elite of the elite. This is the no-brainer, can’t-miss tier of guys who are going to be taken at the top of drafts.
You know who it is: Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic. Which one you pick is totally up to your personal preference. If you’re lucky enough to get the first pick in a draft, then you’ve got an elite building block. If you land No. 2, your decision gets made for you but you still end up with a dominant talent. Not a bad outcome. These two are so good that third-round reversals are becoming common, which speaks to their level of output.
Want to see the full tier list for Centers? 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
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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.
