Fantasy Basketball Draft Results - When The Smoke Clears

30 Oct, 2026

Originally started writing mid-October after the draft and before regular season started but life got in the way and posting now.

I wasn't able to get another post in for my road to draft writeups, and the draft came and gone, so I would like to share my results.

Biggest lesson of the year, all the research and looking up stats I do to prepare, will never be able to accurately predict drafting behavior. I thought Ace Bailey would have been in demand but I was able to draft him for $3. There was no demand for Maxime Raynaud even though he had an amazing end of season run. Even Devin Booker, a star player who averages 26 points and 6 assists a game didn't get chosen until the 20th pick. And Cameron Boozer, with all his hype, I had to spend $21 on, double the $10 I was expecting to spend.

For my draft picks and non-keepers, I spent a total of $116 over 10 players, averaging $11.60 per player. I actually only spent $185 total on all 13 players and surprisingly had $15 remaining once the draft was over. Could I have splurged a bit to pick up some more top players? Probably, I felt like I was playing too safe with my picks and wanted to be economical. Will I regret not spending more on a stronger player? Probably, but the season is young and crazy things can happen.

Stephon Castle for $9 is still a steal, and as long as his career continues progressing, he will stay on my team for as many seasons as I can keep him.

As far as my players' positions, for the 13 players I drafted, here is how it came out.

Most of my players played multiple positions which will help me in flexibility when setting my lineups throughout the season. I am a little thin on the Center position, but Cameron Boozer and Yaxel Lendeborg are both listed as PFs and if they start getting playing time as Cs, that position may be added to their profile later as the season progresses. So I'm not too worried about my positions distribution as I feel like it's pretty evened out.

Notice how I drafted both Cameron Boozer and Yaxel Lendeborg even though in my last post, I was against drafting multiple rookies. I feel like after reviewing their preseason and summer league games, I couldn't miss out on both of these players as they will both have large roles in their teams as well as be candidates for rookie of the year, and was willing to pay more than I thought for them once the draft started. Luckily I was the only one high on Yaxel that there wasn't much of a bidding battle for him compared to Cameron Boozer who has a lot of hype entering his rookie year.

But how well did I do in this draft? Well let's compare with my draft from the previous season.

There are 12 teams in this fantasy basketball league. As mentioned, in an auction draft, there is an order for teams to pick players, but whether or not you get the player depends on if you win the bid for it in an auction. So for this season, notice how I was able to draft Brandon Miller at the 12th pick by winning the auction and paying $29 for him. Eight picks later, I was able to draft Devin Booker by having the winning bid of $34. Generally, as the rounds progress, the better players start getting picked up and the costs of drafting lessens. An aggressive team will attempt to draft more players early on, to try to load up on better players.

For last season, I was more top heavy, spending $137 of my $200 on 3 players, Trae Young, Cooper Flagg, and Pascal Siakam. By the end of the season, I had none of those players on my roster. Trae Young was faced with injuries and a mid season trade and effectively shut down from the season in March. When my losses added up to the point where my season was effectively over, I decided to trade Pascal Siakam to a contender for some injured players to take back for possible keepers. The only mistake I made was giving up on Cooper Flagg too early when he was struggling and going through his rookie blues. I can't control injuries and whether or not a player plays but I learned to be more patient with my rookies. I did the same for Ace Bailey when his rookie season started with some lower than stellar numbers. Unfortunately, Flagg gained his footing and became good enough for rookie of the year and Ace Bailey had more instances of strong performances throughout the season. Rookie VJ Edgecombe was able to give solid production straight from the beginning of the season so I kept him for the rest of the season but this season I will not give up on Cameron Boozer or Yaxel Lendeborg if they don't come out the gate hot. (Since I started writing this, Yaxel is averaging 22.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in 5 games played and Cameron Boozer is averaging 15.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 4 games played!)

This season, for my players I spent $20 over on, I was able to spread out $144 over 5 players and I feel like I got some good deals. I did not have to spend $40 or more on any players, despite Brandon Miller, Devin Booker being first options and could easily have a bidding battle for them. I got lucky being able to have Anthony Edwards as a keeper, and Walker Kessler and Cameron Boozer are solid big men who should provide rebounds.

So if the team I drafted last year was to face off against the team I drafted this year, using last season's stats, which season of drafted players would've won? Did I draft better last year than this year? Here's a chart that will look deceiving at first but let me explain.

Judging from this graph, if my current team that I just drafted would face off against my previous team last season, my current team would win in FG%, FT%, 3PM, and Points. But would lose in the next 5 categories, effectively losing in an full season matchup. But here's the caveat, I currently have 2 rookies on my team this season in Cameron Boozer and Yaxel Lendeborg. Their stats would not be considered in last season's numbers, so this matchup is essentially an 11 vs 13 players match. We can say 11 vs 12 since last season, I drafted Chris Paul who only played 16 games, had bad numbers, and essentially got retired early. And even though the graph is comparing uneven teams against each other, the amount of games played is essentially the same with a delta of 13 games difference.

So because Boozer and Yaxel are big men, let's look at their rebounds. With these numbers, I need 591 rebounds to surpass last season's totals. Last season, a forward or forward-center who played 41 or more games, and averaged 28 or more minutes, their season total rebounds averaged to about 385. Using that as a base and combined with how the two rookies are currently playing at the beginning of the season, averaging 9 to 10 rebounds a game, both Boozer and Yaxel together, barring major injuries, should be able to provide at least strong rebounds production to surpass how I drafted last season.

So essentially, I would say my fantasy team is strong this season compared to last season but a lot of it hinges on the production of my 2 star rookies. And when looking at their numbers at the start of the season, things are looking good. As the season progresses, players will be injured, dropped, added, and the roster will change, but at least I feel confident on how I did at the starting line.

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#Fantasy Basketball #NBA