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Bruski 150SportsEthos 2026 Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide
Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2026: Forward Tiers
Last Updated on October 14, 2026 8:30 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 Cooper Flagg and Kevin Durant with your first two picks. The third time you’re up, Brandon Miller and Trey Murphy are on top of your rankings. Are you actually going to grab that third PG 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 Ausar Thompson, OG Anunoby and Michael Porter Jr. appear one after the other does not necessarily mean we rank Thompson ahead of Anunoby and Anunoby ahead of Porter — 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.
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 Guard Tiers can be found right here!
Our Center 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.
The forward class is loaded. You’re likely looking at two forwards getting taken in the first round of all drafts, with up to as many as four or five. Kawhi Leonard is the name that sticks out here because of his third-round ADP but that has everything to do with his injury risk and nothing to do with his per-game credentials. In terms of what he can do when he’s on the court, Leonard easily lands here.
Oh, and this is based on roto scoring, so you won’t find Giannis Antetokounmpo up here. If you’re happy to punt free throws he is most certainly among the elite group.
Want to see the full tier list for Forwards? 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.
