Updated: 19 September 2026 — final lockout edition
The first three rounds of an NBL27 fantasy draft are supposed to feel comfortable.
You know the names. Bryce Cotton, Kendric Davis, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Luke Travers, Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. The argument is mostly about order.
The interesting part starts later.
That is where a draft can turn from “solid” into genuinely difficult to beat.
This list is about the players we think can outperform the pick you actually need to spend on them. Not every name is outside our NBL27 Fantasy Draft Top 50, because a sleeper is not necessarily an unknown player. Sometimes it is simply someone whose likely role is stronger than the room is pricing.
We are looking for one or more of four things:
- a bigger role than last season;
- a fantasy-friendly stat profile that does not depend only on scoring;
- a realistic path to more minutes;
- a current draft price likely to lag behind the role.
This is deliberately different from our SuperCoach sleepers guide. Salary does not matter here. A cheap cash cow can be a brilliant SuperCoach pick and still be only a final-round fantasy draft option.
And one timely note before we start: Anthony Dell'Orso is not on this list anymore. Brandon Knight's arrival in Perth is a direct hit to the extra creation role Dell'Orso carried through preseason. He is still draftable in deeper leagues, but the pathway is narrower now. Our full Brandon Knight fantasy impact analysis explains why.
Buckets' 10 NBL27 fantasy draft sleepers
| Rank | Player | Team | Draft range | Why we like him |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Mackinnon | Brisbane | Middle rounds | Ready-made scorer with rebounds and secondary creation |
| 2 | David Johnson | Tasmania | Middle rounds | Returning import with a larger offensive ceiling than last year's average |
| 3 | D'Shawn Schwartz | South East Melbourne | Middle-to-late | Starting wing role with scoring and rebounding floor |
| 4 | Nick Marshall | Tasmania | Middle-to-late | Efficient wing who contributes without needing huge usage |
| 5 | Andrew Carr | Sydney | Late rounds | F/C flexibility plus rebounds, passing and shooting |
| 6 | Dash Daniels | South East Melbourne | Late rounds | Steals give him a fantasy pathway even before the offence grows |
| 7 | Makuach Maluach | Sydney | Late rounds | Young wing whose late NBL26 growth carried into preseason |
| 8 | Ben Gold | Tasmania | Final rounds | Rebounding production can become useful quickly if minutes hold |
| 9 | Jayden Stone | Sydney | Final rounds | Mature rookie guard with a path to rotation minutes |
| 10 | Reyne Smith | Cairns | Final rounds | Shooting upside at a point in the draft where volatility is cheap |
The rankings are not saying Mackinnon should be drafted after Smith if your room behaves differently. They are simply our order of confidence in the combination of role, floor and upside.
1. Max Mackinnon, Brisbane Bullets
Buckets draft range: middle rounds
Mackinnon is our favourite “do not let the rookie label fool you” target.
Brisbane did not bring him home to hide him.
He averaged 15.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists at LSU last season, won Finals MVP at the 2026 adidas Eurocamp and then opened the NBL Blitz with 26 points against Tasmania. The role is not theoretical.
The Bullets are deep, which is the only reason Mackinnon is not already in the early-round conversation. Arnas Velička will organise the offence, Nate Hinton will take possessions and Tyrell Harrison remains a major interior piece.
That can actually help Mackinnon. He does not need to become Brisbane's full-time point guard to score in fantasy. He can attack secondary actions, rebound well for a guard/wing and produce enough assists to avoid being just another shot-dependent scorer.
Why he can beat his draft slot: NBA-level potential, a meaningful role and multiple stat categories.
What could go wrong: Brisbane's depth turns 28 projected minutes into 22-24.
Our current Top 50 has Mackinnon at No. 26. We would be very happy if a room let him drift beyond that.
2. David Johnson, Tasmania JackJumpers
Buckets draft range: middle rounds
Johnson's NBL26 average does not tell the full story.
His first season in Tasmania was interrupted by injury, but the JackJumpers still brought him back because the upside was obvious. Scott Roth has spoken about Johnson becoming more dynamic in pick-and-roll, while the club believes it has only scratched the surface of what he can do.
He averaged 12.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists last season despite the interrupted campaign.
More importantly, he showed stretches where the scoring ceiling looked much larger than that average.
Johnson is a classic draft target because the room may remember the stop-start season more than the player Tasmania expects in year two.
Why he can beat his draft slot: continuity, scoring ceiling, defensive contribution and a coach who wants more aggression.
What could go wrong: Tasmania has more creators around him now, especially Taran Armstrong.
Johnson sits at No. 33 in our current rankings. The upside is higher than that if his minutes and health stabilise.
3. D'Shawn Schwartz, South East Melbourne Phoenix
Buckets draft range: middle-to-late rounds
The Phoenix backcourt will get the headlines. Skylar Mays and Nathan Sobey deserve them.
That is exactly why Schwartz can slide.
The starting wing role looks secure, and he does not need to dominate the ball to be useful. His fantasy value comes from the combination of scoring, rebounding and minutes rather than needing to run the offence every possession.
That profile is particularly useful late in drafts, when managers start taking volatile scorers with much less role security.
Why he can beat his draft slot: stable role beside high-level creators.
What could go wrong: Mays and Sobey absorb enough usage that Schwartz becomes too dependent on spot-up scoring.
We have Schwartz at No. 37 overall. He is one of the cleaner players in that tier.
4. Nick Marshall, Tasmania JackJumpers
Buckets draft range: middle-to-late rounds
Marshall is not the player who will create a rush in your draft room.
Good.
He is efficient, rebounds well for a wing and can produce fantasy value without needing to be the first or second offensive option.
Tasmania now has more offensive creation through Armstrong, Johnson and Josh Bannan. That could suit Marshall, who can live off cuts, transition opportunities and secondary possessions while still collecting rebounds and useful defensive stats.
This is exactly the sort of pick that looks boring on draft night and quietly stays in your lineup for months.
Why he can beat his draft slot: efficiency and scoring-independent production.
What could go wrong: a deeper Tasmania wing rotation lowers the minutes.
5. Andrew Carr, Sydney Kings
Buckets draft range: late rounds
Carr is one of our favourite roster-construction picks because he does not force your hand.
Forward/centre flexibility matters once injuries and trades start, and Carr brings enough rebounding, passing and shooting to avoid being a pure emergency big.
Sydney is stacked. That is the concern.
Kendric Davis, Xavier Cooks, Torrey Craig and the rest of the Kings' rotation will not leave Carr with huge usage every week.
But draft leagues do not require every player to be a star. Late in the room, a multi-position big with a real rotation role is extremely useful.
Why he can beat his draft slot: positional flexibility plus a broad enough stat profile.
What could go wrong: Sydney's depth compresses the ceiling.
6. Dash Daniels, South East Melbourne Phoenix
Buckets draft range: late rounds
Daniels is one of the easiest players to misunderstand in fantasy.
If you are drafting him because you expect 18 points a game, you are probably doing it wrong.
The reason we like him is steals.
Defensive events can create useful fantasy scores even on nights where the shooting and usage are modest. That gives Daniels a pathway to relevance while the offensive game develops.
He played 21 minutes in Phoenix's Blitz win over Brisbane and continues to look comfortable in a role built around pressure, transition and secondary creation.
The problem is obvious: Mays, Sobey, Angus Glover and Tanner Krebs all need backcourt minutes.
That keeps Daniels in the late-round bucket.
Why he can beat his draft slot: steals can make 20-24 minutes more valuable than they look.
What could go wrong: the guard rotation is simply too crowded.
7. Makuach Maluach, Sydney Kings
Buckets draft range: late rounds
Maluach's case is not based on one preseason game.
The growth started late last season.
He gave Sydney useful scoring and athleticism in NBL26, including a 15-point, six-rebound game against South East Melbourne, and the broader role has continued to trend in the right direction.
The Kings are too deep for us to project a huge workload. But that is also why he is available late.
At this stage of the draft, you want a player who can force you to keep him if the role expands.
Maluach can.
Why he can beat his draft slot: athletic wing production with a believable path to more minutes.
What could go wrong: Sydney's veteran depth keeps him permanently in a smaller bench role.
8. Ben Gold, Tasmania JackJumpers
Buckets draft range: final rounds
Gold is the point where this list shifts from “undervalued” to “proper flyer”.
At the Blitz he put up 11 points and 11 rebounds in 28:50, a line worth 30 projected SuperCoach points under the published scoring system.
Draft is different from SuperCoach, but the underlying lesson still matters: Gold can rebound.
Rebounding is one of the cleaner ways for a bench big to become fantasy-relevant because it survives low shot volume.
Will Magnay is back and Josh Bannan owns a major frontcourt role, so there is no reason to overstate this.
Gold is not a player we would reach for.
He is exactly the kind of player we would rather use a final pick on than a veteran with no path to growth.
Why he can beat his draft slot: rebounding production if the minutes reach the low 20s.
What could go wrong: the frontcourt rotation leaves him closer to 12-15 minutes.
9. Jayden Stone, Sydney Kings
Buckets draft range: final rounds
Stone is not in our current Top 50.
That is the point.
The 25-year-old arrives as a much more mature rookie than the label suggests after completing his college career and joining the reigning champions.
Sydney has elite guards ahead of him, so there is no obvious path to high usage.
But final picks are about asymmetry.
If Stone earns a stable rotation role, you have a useful guard for almost nothing. If he does not, you move on quickly.
That is a better final-round bet than drafting a player whose best-case scenario is already replacement level.
Why he can beat his draft slot: mature rookie profile and a path to rotation minutes on a good offence.
What could go wrong: there are simply not enough guard minutes behind Davis and the established Kings rotation.
10. Reyne Smith, Cairns Taipans
Buckets draft range: final rounds
Smith is the kind of late pick where the volatility is the point.
He is a high-volume shooter with the ability to change a fantasy night quickly when the threes fall. Cairns has enough perimeter creation around him that we do not need to project a huge on-ball role for the upside to work.
That also makes the risk easy to understand. If the shot is not falling, Smith has fewer secondary stats to rescue the score than several players higher on this list.
In the final rounds, though, we are happy to buy a specialist skill that can turn into a real weekly ceiling.
Why he can beat his draft slot: genuine shooting volume and scoring upside at almost no draft cost.
What could go wrong: a cold shooting stretch exposes the lighter peripheral production.
Three players we are not calling sleepers anymore
Brandon Knight
Knight is too obvious now.
Perth signed him specifically to run the point, and our current view is provisional Tier 3 with top-25 upside. That is not a sleeper. It is a player the whole room should now be discussing.
Read: Brandon Knight to Perth: NBL27 SuperCoach & Fantasy Draft Impact.
Anthony Dell'Orso
We still like the player.
We like the fantasy setup less than we did a week ago.
Knight takes away a chunk of the creation opportunity Dell'Orso carried while Perth was without a recognised point guard, and Jaron Rillie's eventual return adds another guard to the picture.
He can still be drafted late in deeper leagues. He is no longer one of our priority late-round targets.
Elijah Pepper
Pepper is already No. 30 in our Top 50.
He is a breakout candidate, not a sleeper.
Knight's arrival lowers the on-ball ceiling slightly, but Pepper's scoring role remains too meaningful to pretend he is some hidden final-round discovery.
How to use sleepers properly
The worst thing you can do with a sleeper list is turn it into a reach list.
If we say Max Mackinnon is undervalued, that does not mean take him in Round 2.
If Ben Gold is your favourite final-round flyer, that does not mean take him five rounds before anybody else would.
The entire point is profit relative to draft cost.
A simple rule:
Take the player late enough that the upside is meaningful and the downside is cheap.
Your early picks should stabilise the roster.
Your middle picks should attack role growth.
Your final picks should give you a reason not to drop them.
That is where these names fit.
For the full roster-building framework, read our NBL27 Fantasy Draft Strategy guide.
Buckets verdict
If we had to narrow this list to five players we particularly want at cost:
- Max Mackinnon
- David Johnson
- D'Shawn Schwartz
- Dash Daniels
- Ben Gold
Mackinnon and Johnson can become regular starters for a fantasy roster.
Schwartz is the safer middle-to-late value.
Daniels and Gold are different bets entirely. You are buying one fantasy skill that can force the rest of the profile into relevance: steals for Daniels, rebounds for Gold.
That is what late-round drafting should look like.
Not ten “safe” players.
Ten chances to be right in a way that matters.
NBL27 fantasy draft sleepers FAQ
Who is the best NBL27 fantasy draft sleeper?
Max Mackinnon is our favourite overall value target. He is not a final-round unknown, but his combination of scoring, rebounding and secondary playmaking gives him a realistic chance to outperform a middle-round draft slot.
Who is the best late-round NBL27 draft target?
Dash Daniels is one of our favourite late targets because steals give him a pathway to fantasy production even if his offensive usage remains modest.
Is Ben Gold worth drafting?
In deeper leagues, yes. Gold's rebounding makes him a worthwhile final-round flyer. We would not reach, because Tasmania's frontcourt still includes Josh Bannan and Will Magnay.
Is Anthony Dell'Orso still a sleeper after Brandon Knight signed with Perth?
Not for us. Dell'Orso remains draftable, but Knight directly reduces the extra ball-handling and creation opportunity that made Dell'Orso particularly interesting during preseason.
Should I draft Brandon Knight late?
Do not assume he will be there. We currently view Knight as a provisional Tier 3 player with top-25 upside, pending league approval and confirmation of his opening role.
Are these rankings the same as SuperCoach sleepers?
No. SuperCoach value is heavily influenced by salary and cash generation. Draft value is about the production you can get relative to the pick you spend.
What to read next
- NBL27 Fantasy Draft Rankings: Top 50 Players
- NBL27 Fantasy Draft Strategy: How to Win Your Draft
- Brandon Knight to Perth: Fantasy Impact
- NBL27 Projected Starting Fives
- NBL27 Round 1 Injury Report
Sources and methodology
This article uses current NBL27 roster and injury information, official NBL reporting, preseason and Blitz performances, recent NCAA production and Buckets' current NBL27 draft rankings. Draft ranges are Buckets editorial analysis rather than measured ADP, because there is not yet a reliable public NBL27 draft ADP dataset.
Buckets is an independent fantasy basketball platform. Draft advice is editorial analysis and should be adjusted for your league's scoring, roster and lineup settings.
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