Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2025: Reviewing Last Year’s Sleepers

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  • By Mike Passador

    Last Updated on August 14, 2025 11:58 am by Mike Passador | Published: August 14, 2025

    Transparency and honesty are key attributes in many arenas —  especially fantasy analysis. It’s always nice to win one, but even when you’re off the mark it’s good to go back and look at the totality of things; what went right, what went wrong and why. With that in mind we like to take some time in each Draft Guide to look back at last year’s hits and misses, with particular attention paid to the marquee Sleepers category. It’s everyone’s favorite topic, after all.

    There’s something beautiful about the simplicity; hitting on a sleeper communicates the basic idea that you knew your stuff better than your opponents. All of the players we picked as sleepers last year were available for every single one of your leaguemates, and if you snatched one (or more) of them up then you were just rolling in profits. Not everyone had the chance to pick Nikola Jokic, but everyone had multiple chances to select every player on this list. Every year we tend to come away with one or two big wins, and in 2024-25 we might’ve hit the jackpot.

    Standard Leagues

    Dyson Daniels

    Results: Daniels blossomed as a full-time starter, posting all the expected career-highs while leading the league at a ridiculous 3.0 steals per game.

    Verdict: Our annual smash victory

    Reason: Daniels didn’t come out of nowhere and was a popular late-round target for a reason, but anyone who heeded our advice and made sure to reach for him ended up laughing their way to the bank. The youngster was plugged in as a starter and saw his playing time increase by 50%, leading to big gains in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and 3-pointers. Even better, Daniels put up a career-best mark from the field on over double his previous high shot volume. We’re burying the lede a bit here, as the real money was found in Daniels averaging an absurd 3.0 steals per game. He was one of the rare players who could win a category all on his own; Daniels was worth the draft pick for his steals alone and everything else was gravy. A top-20 season makes this our best sleeper call so far.

    Ivica Zubac

    Results: Zubac stepped into a big role and rose to fantasy’s top-35 behind a sturdy stat set and tons of playing time.

    Verdict: Big W


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    August 14, 2025, 11:58 am