If you are short on time this draft season, this is the guide for you. Below are 30+ six-man combinations that will send you into the seventh round in good shape. I wouldn’t recommend taking this approach, but if you did no other draft preparation and simply copied one of the below combinations, you would likely finish your draft in a very good spot. The six-man combinations are broken down by first-round pick and punting build. This guide provides combinations for teams led by Trae Young, Karl-Anthony Towns, James Harden, and Steph Curry.
When putting together these teams, I wasn’t trying to make the team as strong as possible after round six. That wouldn’t make sense. Our drafts are not six rounds long. I put these teams together with the goal of helping you finish your draft in the strongest position possible. That means that in most cases, I focused heavily on category scarcity. You’ll notice that a bunch of these combinations are a little light on bigs. That’s intentional since the guard categories dry up much quicker than the big man categories. We can make a comeback late in blocks and FG%, but we can’t make a comeback late in assists and FT%. I tried to be as realistic as possible when coming up with these recommendations. I tried to avoid making too many reaches. That means you may be able to do better than a lot of these combinations, especially if you play on ESPN, or in a league with an auction draft. If you play on ESPN or in an auction draft league, use these combinations as starting points. Study them and then see if you can tweak them to make them even stronger.
This year, I have included some third-round reversal combinations. That is a setting that is increasing in popularity and one that I strongly recommend that all snake draft leagues switch to. For those who are unfamiliar with third-round reversals, 3RR drafts are drafts where the team picking last in the first round picks first in the third round instead of last in the third round, like they would in a normal snake draft. This is done to shrink the advantage that those fortunate enough to land a top-three pick have. Giving teams led by players like James Harden and Trae Young a top-25 player in round three instead of a top-35 player gives those teams a better shot at competing with the teams led by Jokic, SGA, and Wembanyama.
*All six-man combinations were created using Yahoo’s rankings and with 12-team H2H leagues in mind. Yahoo’s current ADP numbers were also considered. Many of these combinations work very well in Roto as well. Punting one category in Roto is a viable strategy.
Karl-Anthony Towns (Pick 6-12)
Punt Assists
Towns/Maxey/Jackson Jr./Bane/Miles Bridges/Ayton – This is a textbook punt assists start. This group is a little light in steals, but is just one Ausar Thompson or Toumani Camara away from being in a great spot in the category. Everything else is in average shape or better. This is a super elite start in FT%. This group puts you on pace to dominate FG%, FT%, and turnovers. If you manage that, you will have yourself a championship contender. Aim for this combination in auction leagues.
2025-2026 Fast Starts Guide – Part 3
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