Fantasy Basketball Rankings: DraftKings 2024 Best Ball Guard Rankings 1-15

Best ball, best sportsbook, best time of the year. Welcome to NBA Best Ball on DraftKings.

This format gives players a chance to draft a fantasy basketball team for a season-long competition that requires no active in-season management. Each week your highest scoring players are automatically slotted into your starting lineup and their scores will count towards your fantasy point total.

You can find all the details, scoring, and rules for this format in Stan Son’s overview post along with links to the rest of our season preview content.

I have ranked my top 15 guards for the 2024 DraftKings NBA Best Ball season.

We’ll be providing additional Best Ball content as the season progresses. Good luck!

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3. Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks

Dejounte Murray’s departure will open up usage for Trae Young in a way we haven’t seen since the first half of his career. Young will presumably return to 31% or more usage and could feasibly get back to almost 30PPG for this upcoming season. The Hawks will continue to rely on Young’s elite playmaking and scoring abilities as they develop their shiny new toy Zaccharie Risacher, the most recent number one overall draft pick. Clint Capela and Jalen Johnson round out the rest of Atlanta’s starting front court to comprise a competitive team. The Hawks are young but dangerous.

It’s no secret that Trae’s percentages aren’t pretty. For someone whose distance shooting is as lauded as Young’s is, his career mark from beyond the arc is only 35.5%. But you have to factor in the difficult of the shots he takes: step-backs, pull-ups, and half court bombs are all part of his routine. He’ll be a nice double-double threat, but it’ll be rare to see him cashing in on the three fantasy points given for triple doubles in Best Ball. He’s never averaged more than 5 rebounds in his career. Regardless, I’m bullish on Young this season because there isn’t really a secondary ball-handler who will share creation duties with him. Young will have complete control over Atlanta’s offense and will have a nice arsenal to work with; rim rollers in Capela and Onyeka Okongwu, perimeter shooters in Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter, and an athletic cutter in Jalen Johnson, who is looking to build off an MIP-worthy effort last season.

9. James Harden, Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers are in a weird spot this season. They’re theoretically contending even sans-Paul George, but they’re reliant upon two star players past their prime buoyed by a deep supporting cast. Terance Mann, Norman Powell, Derrick Jones Jr., Ivica Zubac, Amir Coffey, Nic Batum, and PJ Tucker are excellent surrounding pieces. Newly-returned Kevin Porter Jr. offers some nice playmaking off the bench with upside.

James Harden’s ranking here is heavily influenced by Kawhi Leonard’s availability this season; or lack thereof. Harden’s PPG has been in steady decline every season since 2018-19. Last season he averaged a bland 16.6 PPG (he hasn’t fallen under 17 PPG since his last season in OKC), 5.1 RPG, and 8.1 APG. He’s clearly not the fantasy scoring machine he once was, but he’s still a top tier guard option who will be asked to run the Clippers’ offense. Now that George is gone, his usage should climb back up from 20.6% (again, a low mark last seen during his OKC days) into the mid 20’s.

His presumed increase in usage shouldn’t be our green light to go ahead and grab him with the same eagerness we’d snatch up a younger, emerging player. It’s probable that Harden’s best days are fully behind him and that his stats will continue to gradually dip in his twilight years. That being said, James Harden remains an excellent early-round option due to his captainship of the Clippers’ offense and ability to triple double with ease, landing you an extra three fantasy points in NBA Best Ball.

10. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

Fresh off a heroic Olympics performance, aging superstar Stephen Curry returns for his 15th season in the NBA in the loaded Western conference. He’s been a fantasy stud for a long time, but his decline is coming sooner or later. Put another way: it’s unlikely he’s going to increase his games played count season by season from this point onwards. Golden State is keen on preserving their star’s health for another twilight Finals run. Does that mean I’m counting Steph out? Maybe a little bit.

Curry averaged a respectable 43.03 fantasy points in the Best Ball format last season. This game type isn’t kind to players like Curry; he doesn’t accumulate enough counting stats to hit the double-double or triple-double bonuses, and three point shots only add an extra .5 points to his fantasy point total. He’s also likely to sit a lot of back to back sets this season, a trend much to the ire of Adam Silver, fantasy basketball players, and early ticket buyers. But it’s tough to fade Steph too far down the draft board. We all know he’s capable of exploding for monster performances with double digit three pointers at any moment; the question is whether his health will hold up enough to play a meaningful number of games.

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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.