If you are short on time this draft season, this is the guide for you. Below are almost 50 six-man combinations that will send you into the seventh round in a strong position. I wouldn’t recommend taking this approach, but if you did no other draft preparation and simply copied one of the combinations below, 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 Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Luka Doncic. Part 2 and Part 3 of this set of guides will focus on building teams around the rest of the first-round options.
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.
I have also included some third-round reversal combinations. 3RR is a setting that is increasing in popularity and one that I strongly recommend 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, as they would in a normal snake draft. This is done to minimize the advantage those fortunate enough to land a top-three pick have. Giving teams led by players like Jalen Johnson and Cooper Flagg 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, Wembanyama, SGA, and Doncic.
*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.
Nikola Jokic (Pick 1-2)
Punt Threes
Jokic/Reaves/Williams/Clingan/Wagner/Rollins – This is close to a perfect start in punt threes. This group is about average in blocks and turnovers, and above average or better everywhere else. This is an especially strong start in assists, steals, FG%, and FT%. Reaves won’t always be there at the end of the second. Harden, Brunson, and Booker are reasonable backup plans, although if you take Harden, you will need to keep an eye on your points. Rollins can be swapped out for other mid-round point guards like Quickley, Jerome, and Fox. Jokic and Reaves are an excellent pairing to target in auction leagues.
Luka Doncic (Pick 3-4)
Punt FT%
(3RR) Doncic/Jamal Murray/Murphy/Kessler/Dejounte Murray/Allen – This is a monster start to a punt FT% squad. This group is average or better in all eight categories the punt FT% strategy will be trying to win. It is an especially strong start in rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and FG%. This is another group that is a strong target for those who play in auction leagues.
2026-2027 Fast Starts Guide – Part 1
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