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With most of the dust having settled in free agency and Yahoo! having opened up fantasy basketball leagues for the 2026-27 campaign, it’s “mock draft season.” Recently, NBC Sports fantasy basketball writers Raphielle Johnson and Noah Rubin participated in a 12-team, nine-category head-to-head industry mock draft organized by Menace Podmen‘s Steve St-Pierre. And, in an interesting twist, they held the first two picks in the 14-round draft (no third-round reversal). Below is how the draft played out, with Johnson offering some thoughts along the way.
Round 1
After a few seasons in which the question of who should go first overall focused on Nuggets center Nikola Jokić and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, we’ve begun a new era. SGA certainly hasn’t dropped off in his play, but Spurs center Victor Wembanyama has replaced him in this conversation. Wemby was second in nine-cat, per-game value last season, trailing only Jokić, with SGA coming in third. With another year of experience under his belt, the 7-foot-4 Spurs center has everything needed to take over the top spot in the fantasy rankings next season.
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Between Wembanyama and Jokić, there really isn’t a bad choice. I went with the former due to the ability to sew up the blocks category immediately, not to mention everything else that Wemby brings to the table. Given his offensive skill set, it would be unsurprising if Jokić put together another top-ranked fantasy season. However, Denver’s depth has taken a hit with Peyton Watson‘s departure, even if they signed DeMar DeRozan shortly after losing the young wing via sign-and-trade. That may require Jokić to do even more, which could slightly affect his efficiency numbers.
As for the rest of the first round, Tatum and Flagg’s draft positions caught the eye. The former will be further removed from the Achilles tendon rupture he suffered during the 2025 playoffs, and Jaylen Brown has been replaced by Paul George, whose availability was an issue in Philadelphia. A healthy Tatum is an elite fantasy player. The return of Kyrie Irving should help Flagg’s value, and the reigning Rookie of the Year has…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/12-team-9-cat-mock-130000373.html
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Publish date : 2026-08-24 13:00:00
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