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Bruski 150SportsEthos 2026 Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide
Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide 2026: Forward Usage Monsters
Last Updated on October 14, 2026 8:35 pm by Keston Paul | Published: October 14, 2026
When you start to look at the underlying numbers, fantasy basketball can be a bit underwhelming. One thing that is often understood the most is usage rate. It can make or break your fantasy matchups in certain categories, so let’s study up together.
First, what exactly is usage? People often think it means how much someone gets to do on the court at one time. While that is somewhat true, there’s some specificity here that needs to be clarified. Usage is measured by possessions that end in a FG, FT or TO. Therefore, not every stat stuffer is a usage monster. The perfect example is Josh Giddey. Although he almost averaged a triple-double last season, Giddey was only 44th in usage (24.2%). This also doesn’t mean that lower usage players are void of fantasy value, as Derrick White was a top-30 player in 9-cat with a 21.8% usage rate. There are layers to this, as you can see.
For the purpose of these articles, we will be looking at guards, forwards and centers that have exceptional usage on the court, including a few players who could see a possible increase in usage this upcoming season. All three pieces are live in our Draft Guide.
Let’s set the table first:
For the articles on Guards and Forwards, we’ll only be considering players with a usage of 27.0% or higher.
For the Centers it will be a usage of 25.0% or higher. Centers are getting special treatment here since the list of centers is very finite already.
It’s time for the forwards.
Giannis Antetokounmpo (31.7% in 2025-26)
Want to get access to the 2026-27 SportsEthos Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide and continue reading this part of our three-part USAGE MONSTER series for Guards, Forwards & 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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Tim has been with the SportsEthos team for two years year. Residing in California, he graduated from the University of Southern California and fell in love with the weather during the process. A gym addict and competitor in both fighting games and fantasy basketball, Tim spends his time developing his craft and enjoying a nice chocolate chip cookie here and there.