Every NBA season, certain players deliver outsized returns that fuel fantasy basketball championships. Thanks to Yahoo’s data on the most rostered players on winning teams in head-to-head leagues, we can identify who made the biggest difference and what fantasy managers should learn from them heading into next season.
Let’s break down the top performers, the late-round steals and the statistical blueprints that these MVPs share.
🔥 Top 5 players on winningest fantasy teams
According to Yahoo’s end-of-season data, the following five players were rostered most often on the best-performing fantasy squads:
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – 32.0%
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Nikola Jokić – 31.8%
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Dyson Daniels – 29.2%
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Brook Lopez – 22.6%
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Nikola Vučević – 22.2%
SGA is the real-life MVP and fantasy basketball MVP. I lobbied for Josh Hart at the midway point because of his value relative to ADP (more on that later), but numbers don’t lie. SGA was phenomenal once again, scoring over 30 PPG with elite steals, blocks for a guard, strong efficiency and low turnovers — checking every box in 9-cat. Regardless of format, he remains a top-3 fantasy pick heading into next season.
Jokić, unsurprisingly, was a model of consistency, averaging the first triple-double of his career with elite efficiency at all three levels. His fantasy game has no weaknesses, and given his availability and production, he should be the consensus 1.01 next year.
More surprisingly, defense catapulted Daniels into the top 3, and when factoring in his 144 ADP in the preseason, he’s also in the conversation for fantasy MVP. Though not high-scorers, generating steals and blocks with a low turnover rate is invaluable for any successful fantasy squad.
💎 Late-round steals: The hidden MVPs
Multiple players taken well outside the top 100 in drafts ranked among the 20 most common players on winning teams. These late-round gems highlight the importance of monitoring breakout trends and low-cost contributors:
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Dyson Daniels (ADP 144.0)
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Josh Hart (ADP 116.7)
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Ivica Zubac (ADP 85.7)
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Christian Braun (ADP 143.5)
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Quentin Grimes (ADP: undrafted)
Takeaway: These players show that you don’t need stars to win — just well-rounded players who fit your build and fill scarce stat categories. Also, striking first on the waiver wire could have netted substantial value this season, specifically players like Grimes and Braun/Daniels in shallower leagues.
🧬 What the MVPs have in common
Across the top 25 MVPs, several trends emerged:
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Multi-category contributors are key. Most helped in 5+ categories, not just scoring.
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Low turnovers were a defining feature.
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Defensive stats (steals/blocks) were overrepresented, especially for non-bigs.
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Rebounds and assists from non-traditional positions (like guards) provided sneaky value.
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Efficient shooting (especially FG%) separated winners from volume scorers.
Takeaway: Winning in 9-cat is about balance and completeness, not flash.
📊 Roster strategy insights
To better understand MVP traits, players were grouped into five statistical clusters using their Z-scores from Basketball Monster — more info on Z-scores — across fantasy categories:
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Cluster 2 has the highest MVP density. Efficient bigs cover several categories and are widely available until the later rounds.
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Cluster 0 is my favorite. The playmaking guards who cover a breadth of statistics, but also allow you to execute punting, since most playmakers have high turnover rates and varying FG percentages. I tend to lean into this type of player in the early rounds to secure PTS, ASTS, 3PM and STL even though it may not be represented — with players like Tyrese Haliburton and James Harden — in the top tier of MVPs.
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Cluster 1 is an emerging class focusing more on defensively gifted wings with lower usage rates because of their roles. Examples are Derrick White, Dyson Daniels and Josh Hart.
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Clusters 3 and 4 are high-risk, low-return bucket-getters like Keyonte George. Love the upside, but it’s probably a trap.
🔑 Strategic drafting takeaways
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Prioritize players in Clusters 0, 1, and 2 — these archetypes consistently show up on winning teams.
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Cluster 2 (efficient bigs) represents the most MVPs in 2024-25; Cluster 1 (defensive wings/glue guys) is the sleeper MVP zone.
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Don’t chase empty volume scorers — efficiency, stocks and low TOs win 9-cat leagues.
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Finding late-round targets with high steals or blocks upside offers massive returns relative to ADP.
Chase production, not headlines. This framework builds rosters that actually win.
We’ll revisit candidates that fall into each of these archetypes for next season down the line to help you prep for your 2025-26 fantasy hoops drafts.
