For the second straight season myself along with Kostas and Jay from Razzball joined the Yahoo! Friends and Family League. If you don’t remember, it’s a showcase league of fantasy industry titans and then me. We’ve got the Athletic, Yahoo, Hashtag, Rotoworld, Rotowire, Old Man Squad, and others that make a ton of great content. We had our draft this week, a 14-team 9 category H2H.
https://basketball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/friendsandfamily2026
There it is, if you want to check the draft and anything out. I’ll be mining this for content all year. It’s a great group of smart people (and then myself) so
If you missed it, Kostas had a solid set of projections on our front page.
As a quick exercise, I want to highlight some guys who went much lower than Jay’s projections in the draft. It’s a good way to find guys who are steals at their position in your respective leagues.
Jalen Duren: 20/10/2 with 66% shooting and 1 Steal and Block
Projected 11th, picked 51 by Alex Burns
The contract situation has been resolved, but that doesn’t explain why he was ranked 11th and why his perceived value is so much lower. Don’t worry about his playoff run last year. He’s a young explosive big man who can still improve. Projections have him at 21/10 with 66% shooting and almost a steal and block per game. The projections have him ranked over Cooper Flagg, Cade Cunningham, and Chet Holmgren, all of whom went in the top 30 picks in the F&F league. You don’t need to pick him that high, but you can get a rock-solid center in the fourth round and just count the stats pouring in.
Trey Murphy: 21.1/5/3 with 3.3 3PM and 1.3 ST
Projected 20th, drafted 35 overall by 9CatNinja (Eric Oong)
Murphy is a guy that doesn’t fit my usual build (I prefer the BEAST) so I missed his top-20 projection. Most others did too as he went late in the second round, right ahead of guys like Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard, and James Harden. If I were to pick a wing at this stage, I would take Murphy as well ahead of the aging brigade. The elderly gentlemen may outperform him on a game basis, but it’s more of a sure bet that Murphy plays more of them and is more valuable in year-long leagues.
Jalen Brunson: 25/3/7 with 2.4 3PM, 0.9 ST
Projected 51st, drafted 34 by Alex Burns
Oh, Burns is on here twice! Don’t hate the writer, just the data. There’s a huge discrepancy between Brunson’s real-life value and his imaginary basketball one. He’s a top-ten player in the league, but 51st in fantasy projections. The lack of defensive stats and high turnovers hurt in a category league, as does his shooting inefficiency. Enjoy watching Brunson, but do it safely from a later pick.
Neemias Queta: 9/8/2 with 1 St, 1.3 BLK, 1 TO, and 65% FG%
Projected 69, drafted 100 by Kostas
Kostas figured out some things, like in an H2H you need to spam low-turnover guys and high percentages. Queta is both. He’s fallen in drafts due to Mitchell Robinson coming to Boston but don’t fall into that trap. Robinson is a 20-minute guy at best; Queta’s numbers and role are safe. Solid work by Kostas and maybe the lesson is to do your own projections? Nah, I’m not doing that. I have this one and my guy Waldo at Roster Report’s to compare. For my money, and to be fair they’re both free projections, they’re all you need. And did I mention free? f
Queta was picked after Jusuf Nurkic, Caleb Wilson, Day’Ron Sharpe and in the same area as Myles Turner and Khaman Malauch and he just may be the best pick of the lot.
Paolo Banchero: 22/8/5, 1.5 3PM, below 1 ST/BLK, 46% FG%, 3 TO
Projected 110, drafted 62 by, you guessed it, Alex Burns!
According to my probably flawed math, this is the biggest discrepancy in projections compared to where he’s drafted. Banchero is probably a good basketball player. His playoff numbers are sublime. But in a category league, a PF with no blocks is hard to roster, especially when paired with a lot of turnovers and a lower shooting percentage than you want from a big man. Basically, he’s got inefficient guard stats in a 6-10 PF body. Now don’t get mad. I’m not doing a comparison. But he’s like Zach LaVine was but at PF. So it’s about fake basketball, not real ball. Now let me go look at Burns’ draft and see what else I can find.
Banchero was picke around Matas Buzelis, OG Anunoby, and Ausar Thompson and I would take all of them over Banchero.
Dylan Harper: 14.6/4/4.8, 1 ST, 47% FG%, 1.3 TO
Projected 98, drafted 77 by some dolt named Kelder
I get the low projection, but I’m standing by this pick. Projections don’t always account for playing time spikes (check, the coach says he’s going to play a lot) and for sudden improvement by high-level talent (yes, Harper is an elite prospect). There’s a high liklihood that Harper is a top-50 asset next year.
Harper was picked over Damian Lillard, Ty Jerome, Payton Pritchard, and Cedric Coward and by golly, I stand by it.
There’s a lot more to comb through, and I plan to do so over the weekend and hit you with some more content about this elite group and how they drafted. This is but an appetizer, Razzballer. Enjoy and have a great day, thanks for reading!
