16+ Players That Were Drafted in 2024 Drafts That Will NOT Be Fantasy Basketball Relevant This Season + NEW PODCAST EPISODE

NBA Fantasy Draft Gold.

Jul 14, 2025

Every year, there are players that fall on and off draft boards for various reasons. Upon reflecting on 2024 Yahoo ADP, I’ve spotted at least 16 players drafted inside the top 125 that will either not be draftable, or completely irrelevant for 12 team, standard fantasy leagues. There are also a handful of additional names that are on the fringes of this distinction, I will gloss over in the honorable mentions section at the end.

After round 10 of fantasy drafts, you enter “late round flier” territory, where it really doesn’t matter who you pick, and I’m not going to disagree with you if you want to draft any of these names in that range of the draft. For the players that are on this list due to extended injuries, I would actually encourage drafting them with one of your picks after round 10, because there is no harm in drafting them right into an IL slot.

(2024 Yahoo ADP)

Tyrese Haliburton (8.1) / Jayson Tatum (9.2) / Damian Lillard (24.9) / Kyrie Irving (26.6)

The top of fantasy drafts are going to look very different with an unprecedented amount of injuries with long recovery timelines. Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, & Kyrie Irving all suffered career-altering injuries very late into the season. As I said earlier, it doesn’t hurt to draft these players with your last pick or two, but their path to returning anything meaningful in standard leagues is extremely unlikely.

Kyrie Irving probably has the strongest chance to return value with his torn ACL occurring in early March, but what does his return even look like? Between getting his legs back under him, a slow minutes ramp up, rest on back to back game nights, and random unannounced rests as well, his production is likely to be fringe at best, and probably not even worth it in most league formats.

Brook Lopez (79.6)

Brook Lopez has essentially been a must-roster player for his entire 16-year career, but that streak will be coming to a screeching halt as he joins the Los Angeles Clippers as Ivica Zubac’s backup. I doubt there will be much crossover, if at all between the two centers. I fully expect there to be some nights where Lopez outplays Zubac, but outside of those rare instances and possible spot streams, Brook Lopez is far from draftable.

Jabari Smith (80.2)

Jabari Smith had very few stretches where he was worth rostering last season, and his path to fantasy relevancy is only getting murkier. Kevin Durant & Dorian Finney-Smith both join Houston and play the same position. Amen Thompson & Tari Eason are only getting better, and improving exponentially quicker than Jabari. Steven Adams was extended and started to play the four next to Alperen Sengun increasingly more frequently as the season progressed. Clint Capela was signed and practically eliminates any Jabari Smith minutes at center. Are these enough factors that scare you off drafting Jabari Smith? He’s probably closer to late round flier territory than most names on this list, but I’m perfectly fine passing myself.

Jusuf Nurkic (83.8)

Nurkic was traded to Utah, and it looks like he will be the backup to Walker Kessler although I’m not even confident that Nurkic is on the Jazz roster on opening night. Kyle Filipowski is still there as well. If Walker Kessler is traded, there could be a world where we convince ourselves into drafting Nurkic, but that is unlikely, and even then, he’s still competing for minutes.

Jonas Valanciunas (89.4)

Jonas Valanciunas is in the same situation as Brook Lopez, as he moves to a strict backup role behind Nikola Jokic. He’ll be must roster if Jokic ever misses time, but he’s far from draftable in standard leagues.

FIRST PODCAST EPISODE OF THE SEASON!!!

Alex Caruso (101.8)

It’s not hyperbole to say that Alex Caruso is one of the best players in the NBA, and his per-minute fantasy game is still elite. I’m not confident that the Thunder win their championship without Caruso on the roster. That being said, I don't see how his fantasy value is any different going into this season. His minutes were limited to just 19.3 MPG last season, despite how valuable and impactful he was in those minutes. His extensive injury history, combined with the Thunder’s deep roster, give them no incentive to ramp up his minutes as they keep him 100% heading into the postseason.

Chris Paul (104.4)

At the time of me writing this, Chris Paul currently remains unsigned. He’s already announced that the 2025-26 season will be his last, and I’m expecting him to sign with one of the teams in Los Angeles in a backup role. Regardless of who he signs with, I find it extremely unlikely that any team will give him enough minutes to be fantasy relevant.

Clint Capela (105.8)

Clint Capela was finally benched in Atlanta towards the end of last season, and proceeded to sit out the final month of the season. He signs with the Houston Rockets where he might not even be in the rotation some nights behind Alperen Sengun & Steven Adams.

Terry Rozier (106.7)

Terry Rozier didn’t look like he belonged in the NBA for most of last season, and found himself out of the rotation for the last month and into the playoffs. On the bright side, it quite literally could not get worse this upcoming season, although it would take something drastic for Rozier to find himself back into standard league relevancy.

Klay Thompson (108.4)

Klay Thompson has gotten progressively worse every season since his back to back season ending lower body injuries. He was basically unrosterable from the first week of the season, and I have no reason to believe any of that will change this upcoming season. Even when Dallas were missing Kyrie Irving & Anthony Davis, and had Spencer Dinwiddie & Brandon Williams as their only guards, Klay was still unrosterable.

Khris Middleton (112.6)

The entire Wizards roster is pretty hard to read with a logjam featuring many Veterans that are still somewhat useful, and a collection of young players breathing down their necks. I expect Middleton to start, and could be rosterable at the beginning of the season, even on low minutes. He will still rest back to backs, and the low minutes might not even be useful on a per game basis. As the season progresses, it becomes increasingly unlikely that he remains in Washington, or he sees his playing time reduced with rests becoming more frequent as Washington pivots to youth.

Tyus Jones (117.0)

Tyus Jones was fringe for standard leagues last season as a starter for Phoenix, and he moved to a worse situation for playing time in Orlando as a backup to Jalen Suggs. Suggs will inevitably miss games for some reason, and in that case we can look towards Tyus Jones. Anthony Black is still there, and the Magic likely view Jones as an insurance policy as they prepare for a deep playoff run.

Trayce Jackson-Davis (125.5)

Trayce-Jackson Davis was an interesting flyer pick last season as he showed some interesting flashes in his rookie season with a promising fantasy game for category leagues. He was eventually benched for rookie Quinten Post, and his future with the Warriors is uncertain.

Honorable Mentions:

Dejounte Murray (35.6)

Murray is in the same category as Haliburton, Tatum, Lillard, and Irving, although Murray’s torn achilles happened earlier in the season than that group of guys. I’m not sure exactly where he gets drafted, but it’s definitely outside of the top 100. The ramp up will be long, and it’s unlikely that New Orleans will be playing any meaningful basketball this season, giving them no reason to rush his ramp up timeline. It’s also worth checking how many IL spots your league allows because there is only one IL slot, I wouldn’t even draft him at all.

Bradley Beal (71.8)

Beal was still a must roster player for the entirety of last season despite the missed games. He’s on the honorable mentions section of this list because his status in Phoenix is currently in limbo with rumors of a buyout. He’s still likely worth drafting, but his landing spot and preseason headlines will be worth following before you make the decision to draft Beal.

CJ McCollum (87.1)

McCollum joins new teammate Khris Middleton on this list, and most of my thoughts surrounding Middleton apply to McCollum. This difference between the two is McCollum’s durability, and much more valuable fantasy game than Middleton at this point in their careers. He will be draftable, but there’s a decent chance he’ll be droppable before the end of the season.

Jonathan Kuminga (90.4)

Jonathan Kuminga has completely fallen out of favor in Golden State and remains unsigned as a restricted free agent. His ADP last season reflects a perceived jump in development which clearly did not come to fruition. He’ll probably remain in Golden State, although that’s far from a certainty. Even if he hypothetically sees a larger role, his fantasy game isn’t very useful in category leagues, and I’ll likely be passing entirely from drafting him. He’s much closer to a late round flier in points leagues.

Bogdan Bogdanovic (91.0)

I enjoyed drafting Bogdanovic at this ADP as he blew past it in Atlanta the previous season, and I was under the impression his role would stay the same. He was injured after the first game of the season, and by the time he came back his role was gone before being shipped off to Los Angeles.

The Clippers recently traded away Norman Powell, which does open up more playing time for Bogdanovic so I’ll likely be taking him with one of my last picks to see what happens. He found himself into fantasy relevancy in Los Angeles when Kawhi missed games last season, which could boost him even further as a potential sleeper going into draft season. Bradley Beal is currently favored to land with the Clippers, which could kill his value entirely, but Bogdanovic is definitely on my radar.

Jerami Grant (109.6)

The concept of Jerami Grant is hilarious. Is he still a good basketball player? Is he ever actually injured? It’s almost a guarantee that he won’t play many games, if any, in March and April. He’s had a few great fantasy seasons, but I don’t know if that's ever coming back. Even if you ignore the egregious resting, he’s barely even been rosterable on a per game basis. Take a shot on him if you want I guess, but I’m perfectly fine watching him go undrafted.

Ben - Fantasy Ball 365

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