Pair two players with chemistry in mind, then let the rest of your draft fall into place. This fantasy basketball guide uses Yahoo ADP to map the first 12 picks and identifies the best two-man fits to anchor your build in category leagues. Each pick comes with a dedicated pairing that amplifies scoring, rebounds, assists, and efficiency while planning for punted categories to maximize weekly upside.

From Booker with Durant to Jokic with Banchero, the article sketches a path where early duos shape the rest of the draft. It emphasizes balancing risk (FT% or three-pointers) against value across multiple categories, offering concrete pairings and viable alternates to keep your strategy flexible across different drafts.

Jalen Johnson could surge to a top-10 roto finish if health cooperates, tapping a 20/10 floor with blocks, steals, and 3s. LaMelo Ball’s usage stays sky-high even with injury risk, while Desmond Bane and Zion Williamson carry immense scoring upside, and Desmond Bane’s value hinges on his endurance. James Harden and Luka Doncic anchor fantasy rosters with elite counting stats, Embiid’s ceiling remains obscene but health is the wild card. Holmgren’s 20/10 ceiling looms large for the thin Thunder, and Embiid’s workload remains a key lever for the season.

Across teams from the Celtics’ wings to the Pistons’ guards and the Spurs-adjacent rookies, the article maps out bold, sometimes contradictory outcomes, emphasizing durability and role changes as the season’s X-factors. The overarching theme: expect big swings, but identify which players own the clearest paths to massive fantasy leverage and pounce when narratives align with value in drafts and in-season moves.

A fantasy basketball primer on the draft picks and the path after the top nine. Booker surfaces as a first‑round candidate amid Phoenix’s rebuild, while Harden’s durability and Durant’s all‑around game anchor veteran floors. Curry remains a high‑floor veteran, and Amen Thompson is named as a looming breakout option.

The piece sketches Booker’s likely usage spike, with 35–40 minutes and 20+ shots per night, potentially echoing a Houston Harden‑style season. It flags other strong options like Maxey, Sengun, Mobley, and LaMelo Ball, and stresses weighing minutes, shot volume, and risk in the late first/early second rounds.

Overall message: set a plan that blends elite stability with selective upside, then chase depth in the late rounds as injuries and team dynamics unfold.

The Sixers’ cap situation is razor-thin after Quentin Grimes’ one-year, $8.7M QO, leaving them with 14 standard contracts and roughly $194.6M in salary. They’re about $1.1M under the first apron and $12.9M under the second, delayingbig-MLE moves and nudging them toward tax-avoidance strategies.

They face roughly $7.3M in luxury tax, but repeater tax clocks are reset through 2028-29. Trade paths hinge on Stepien rules and asset juggling (notably 2026 top-4 to OKC and 2028 top-8 to Nets), with 2029 swaps vs Clippers in play. The balance of Grimes, Edwards and the rest will define this season’s fantasy upside and long-term flexibility.

RotoWire ranks active ringless stars by win shares, led by Chris Paul (215.13) and James Harden (174.70) with the Los Angeles Clippers, both chasing a first title. Jimmy Butler, Rudy Gobert, DeMar DeRozan, Mike Conley, Paul George, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jonas Valanciunas and Nikola Vucevic also headline the list, offering a mix of playmaking, scoring and defensive impact for fantasy managers.

Fantasy angles hinge on role clarity and health as Paul and Harden pursue a title, Gobert anchors defense, and DeRozan provides steady volume on a crowded landscape. Clippers sit around +1900; other top bets include Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Denver, New York and Houston, creating late-season buy/sell opportunities across guards, wings and bigs.