The 2025-26 NBA season is set to tip off on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET with an exciting doubleheader featuring the Houston Rockets facing the Oklahoma City Thunder, followed by a marquee matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors. This season’s start also marks a critical moment for fantasy basketball managers, who now have just a few hours left to finalize their draft strategies for the upcoming 2025 fantasy basketball season. With numerous team changes and evolving player roles, making informed decisions is more important than ever.
According to the latest fantasy basketball rankings released by SportsLine, three players stand out as the consensus top picks heading into the new season: Nikola Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Victor Wembanyama. These stars are expected to anchor fantasy teams across various leagues, but with several players switching teams this offseason, the fantasy landscape is shaking up considerably. Key players such as Kevin Durant, Jordan Poole, Cam Johnson, Myles Turner, and Michael Porter Jr. have all changed addresses, raising questions about their ability to maintain or improve their fantasy production amid new systems and teammates.
For fantasy managers, the challenge lies in distinguishing between players who will thrive in their new environments and those who might struggle to meet expectations. Will these players remain near the top of the fantasy rankings, or should they be approached with caution as potential busts? To navigate these uncertainties, SportsLine’s advanced fantasy basketball rankings and cheat sheets, powered by a proven computer model, offer invaluable insights. This model simulates the entire NBA season 10,000 times, providing highly reliable projections that have consistently outperformed consensus predictions in past years.
SportsLine’s model is developed by the same experts who have powered projections for all three major fantasy platforms, making their cheat sheets an essential tool for fantasy basketball enthusiasts. These rankings are updated multiple times daily, reflecting the latest news, injuries, and roster changes to keep managers ahead of the curve. Last season, for example, the model predicted a breakout year for Stephon Castle, who finished 25 spots higher than his average draft position (ADP) and went on to win NBA Rookie of the Year honors. Similarly, the model identified James Harden as a sleeper before his first All-Star season in three years and accurately forecasted the rookie breakout seasons of Paolo Banchero and Victor Wembanyama.
Heading into the 2025-26 season, SportsLine is spotlighting several players as sleepers, breakouts, or busts based on their simulations. One notable sleeper is Milwaukee Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr., who showed tremendous improvement down the stretch last season. In his final 30 regular-season games with the Bucks, Porter shot an impressive 40.8% from three-point range while averaging 11.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in under 20 minutes per game—a significant jump from his earlier form in Los Angeles, where he shot just 24.5% from beyond the arc.
Porter’s production surged even further during the final stretch without Damian Lillard, averaging 14.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.7 assists on efficient shooting. He carried this momentum into the 2025 playoffs, connecting on 46.7% of his three-pointers and averaging 11.2 points, 5.4 assists, and 3.6 rebounds over five postseason games. Overall, Porter has career averages of 13.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.6 assists, with solid shooting splits of 43.5% from the field and 35.1% from three. Now projected as the starting point guard for Milwaukee, he is one of only two players on the Bucks’ roster last season to average at least 2.9 assists per game. Given his expanded role and late-season surge, Porter is expected to outperform his ADP of 72 and emerge as a valuable fantasy contributor in 2025-26.
Another breakout candidate to watch is Utah Jazz point guard Isaiah Collier, who currently holds an ADP of just 137 overall. Collier, the former No. 1 overall recruit, was the penultimate pick in the first round of last year’s draft and started his rookie year coming off the bench. However, he quickly ascended to the starting point guard role and steadily increased his scoring average over the final four