Punting points is for those who will not be satisfied with just winning their league. It is for those who want to demoralize their opponents to the point where they are left wondering why they even bothered to join the league in the first place. While this is not the easiest strategy to pull off, it is an absolute league-ender when everything clicks. Punt assists, punt threes, and friends are all great strategies that can lead to a team that dominates your league, but none of those builds have the upside that punt points has.
What gives the punt points build its incredibly high ceiling is its ability to shake up the rankings in a way that no other build can. When you ignore points, some All-Stars become forgettable assets and some role players suddenly become early-round players. While your opponents are grabbing players who may outplay their draft position by a round or two at most, you’ll be scooping up players who have the potential to outperform their draft slot by a handful of rounds. If you take a look at last year’s nine-category punt points rankings, you’ll find Derrick White and his 16.5 PPG inside the top 20 and Jalen Brunson outside the top 100. You’ll also see Neemias Queta and his 10.2 PPG ranked inside the top 40, about 90 spots ahead of Julius Randle. Switching to the eight-category rankings does boost the value of the low-ranked stars by a couple of rounds, but they still end up ranked significantly below many role players and a handful of rounds below their ADP. None of those rankings are a surprise. That’s just what happens when points don’t count. Because of how much the rankings change when points are ignored, it will be possible to finish your draft with five or six top-35 punt points assets on your team and not a single player projected to finish outside the top 100 when points don’t count. That’s not something that can be achieved in any other build. Punting points also makes it easier to play the wire. Not having to worry about points greatly increases the pool of useful players and ensures that there will be top-100 options available on the wire at all times.
Drastically changing the rankings is not the only thing that makes punt points so deadly. Not caring about points makes many of the first- and second-round players much less scary to go up against. Punting assists comes with a similar advantage, but the advantage is not as large as it is here. When points don’t matter, the impact that top-end assets like Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Anthony Edwards will have on your matchup will be much lower. When you punt points, you will be turning some of your opponents’ top options into mid-round players and some of their mid-round players into low-end assets.
For access to the full guides, follow these links:
2026-2027 Punt Points Guide (Yahoo)
2026-2027 Punt Points Guide (ESPN)
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