Last Updated on August 25, 2026 9:44 am by André Lemos | Published: August 30, 2025

This is the review of the impact of different punts last season. That includes single-category punts (so one for each of the nine categories) as well punt pairs (like 3s and FT%) or even punt groupings (FG%, FT% and TOV).

For the purposes of exploration, I included a few weirder punt builds among the multi-punt sections. Some of those may be better than others.

What is the goal here? We are establishing the types of players who succeed in certain punt builds. For the most part, many of the players I pick out from the tables will likely repeat some level of success in certain punt builds. For example, 55% free-throw shooters do not become 85% free-throw shooters overnight. However, the roles and skills of some players will change. Chris Paul, a successful player in many punts, is not likely to have a large enough role in 2025-26 to be viable in standard formats. There are also rookies coming in who have certain strengths and weaknesses. Those players will join the ecosystems of various punt builds. Rookie bigs and wings tend to struggle with efficiency and turnovers, typically making them better in those punts. Rookie big men may slot into the typical areas you expect relating to their strengths and weaknesses for their position.

I broke each punt build into four sections.

Core Player(s): The top players to build the punt around, as well as the top performers in the punt. You will likely be trying to land a few players from this section to carry your punt.

Out of Position Fits: If a punt is favorable toward players who fill specific positions, it may be less favorable toward players of another position. You still have to fill your entire fantasy lineup consistently, so we would essentially be looking at the best out-of-position options who either gain value or their value loss is minimal. In some instances, the options may be very limited, so you might still have to choose a player who contradicts the build. At worst, we want to limit that to one or two players at most who provide specific value in one or two needed areas despite losing a lot of value in the punt. Those “poor fits” can be supplemented by the better out-of-position choices who are better complemented or not as bad in the punt.

Other Beneficiaries: Other players whose value rose in the punt. Many of these players might be either mid-to-late-round or deep-league targets. Still, don’t stay married to that. You are likely to find players from the “core” section who fall into the mid-to-late rounds of typical drafts too. You don’t want to reach by five-plus rounds for those guys. That defeats the purpose of the punt. If the core targets are getting sparse, then you can move on to these guys.

Potential Issues: Positional and statistical weaknesses can arise from certain punts. This addresses that you so can stay sharp about avoiding certain pitfalls.

The tables I am providing (one for single punts and one for multiple punts) should be viewed as the main pieces of this article. I have over 10,000 words of stuff taken from the tables, but those are structured observations. If you go through the tables yourself and sort by different metrics, you should learn a lot.

I cut off the tables at the No. 355 player in per-game 9-cat rankings in 2024-25, who was Kyle Kuzma. Anyone after him was not very pertinent to season-long calculations. However, some silly-season players who only played a handful of games still snuck their way into the top-355 of per-game value.

Also, remember. The goal is to gain value by punting. If a top-100 ADP player becomes a top-40 player in your punt, you should not be reaching for that player inside the top-40. That is ludicrous. Reaching by a round or two later on is fine to “get your guy.” You have so many other good players to choose from before that player is at risk of being taken.

If you are looking to learn more technical punting skills, read my Punt Strategy Guide here.

2024-25 Per-Game
Single-Punt Rankings

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