Year-two players anchor the 2025-26 fantasy landscape, led by Donovan Clingan's late-season move into Portland's starting lineup and strong rebounding/blocks. Edey, Sarr and Ware project sustained frontcourt value with varying health and role risk, while Missi and Castle offer versatile multi-category floors.

A deeper cohort—Buzelis, George, Sheppard, Bona, Filipowski, Wells, McCain, Carrington, Dunn, Risacher, Collier, da Silva, Holland and Mitchell—could swing fantasy leagues with minutes and fit should roster changes unlock roles.

Mid-round fantasy pivots with big upside: Kevin Porter Jr. steps into a primary role in Milwaukee, offering scoring, playmaking and three-point help as a high-usage option. Onyeka Okongwu benefits from Clint Capela’s departure, likely seeing expanded minutes and offensive touches. Payton Pritchard projects for a starter’s workload in Boston with growth in playmaking and off-ball scoring. Brandon Miller, Ausar Thompson, Andrew Nembhard, Kel'el Ware and Matas Buzelis all carry clear paths to meaningful roles and incremental production, giving managers multiple swing-for-value targets in the middle rounds.

These picks blend proven scoring with breakout potential and defensive impact, designed to stabilize weekly floors while offering ceiling leaps in minutes and usage as training camp and early-season rotations unfold. If you hit your early-rounds strong and target a couple of these mid-round pieces, you’ll diversify risk while maintaining upside across categories like points, assists, 3-pointers and stocks in rebounds/blocks.

Tyler Herro will miss the start of 2025-26 after left ankle surgery, with an eight-week timeline. Miami plugs in Norman Powell, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, and rookie Kel'el Ware as they open Oct. 22 at Orlando.

Powell steps into Herro's role; his 3-point stroke (41.8% last season) should spark spacing while Herro heals. Herro averaged 23.9 PPG and 5.5 APG and earned an All-Star nod. The Heat, coming off a playoff exit to Cleveland, sit in the middle of East contention with odds around +4500 to win the conference.