Fantasy Basketball 2026 Early-Round Rankings and NBA Mock Draft Analysis

The 2026-27 NBA preseason has arrived, and it brought fantasy draft prep season along with it.

With less than two weeks remaining before the campaign's opening tip gets tossed, fantasy managers need to move through this process pretty quickly.

While there are a ton of things to tackle before you're on the clock, we're here to help ease some of that burden. After running through our early-round draft rankings, we'll examine two recent expert mock drafts.

ESPN's fantasy team threw together a recent 10-team, head-to-head categories mock draft. While things mostly went according to plan, there were (as always) some surprises on the board.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, for instance, lasted until the 15th pick—landing behind, among others, reigning Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg and the post-Achilles version of Tyrese Haliburton. That just goes to show how limiting Antetokounmpo's lack of perimeter production (0.4 threes last season) and shaky free-throw shooting (career 69.1 percent) can be in this format.

Jalen Johnson, meanwhile, went sixth overall, directly ahead of Cade Cunningham and Jayson Tatum. Johnson, a first-time All-Star last season, can't match their name recognition, but he does stuff a stat sheet about as well as anyone: 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, 7.9 assists and 1.2 steals in 2025-26.

LaMelo Ball, now piloting the Minnesota Timberwolves attack, was the 27th overall pick, sandwiched in between Josh Giddey and Jamal Murray. Stephen Curry, a longtime fantasy superstar, went 30th overall—two spots ahead of Charlotte's new franchise face, Kon Knueppel, and three spots in front of Austin Reaves.

Yahoo Sports' Dan Titus recently participated in—and, fortunately for us, shared—a 12-team, points-league industry mock.

The scoring format featured several changes from the categories mock, starting with Victor Wembanyama leapfrogging Nikola Jokić for the No. 1 spot. Cade Cunningham, the No. 7 pick in ESPN, went No. 5 here, and Giannis Antetokounmpo jumped all the way to No. 6.

Jalen Johnson (No. 9) remained in the top 10, and Cooper Flagg (No. 10) joined him there. Tyrese Haliburton nearly made the cut (No. 11), indicating how much the fantasy community trusts his recovery. Titus actually made that pick and explained "I'd rather take that swing at the 1-2 turn than settle for a safer player with a lower ceiling."

Bam Adebayo (No. 28) saw a 10-spot drop from his categories-league placement (No. 18), while Trae Young (No. 25) enjoyed a 20-spot climb (from No. 45). This mock also showed more love to new Philadelphia 76ers teammates Jaylen Brown (No. 32) and LeBron James (No. 35) than the categories mock did (Nos. 46 and 64, respectively).

Broadcaster sorry for false LeBron rumor