We are less than a week away from the NBA season tipping off, which means we are heading into the biggest draft weekend for fantasy.

For those who follow my baseball work, you know that each year, I post an official cheat sheet before the season.

I’m going to do the same thing here, as this is my final guide to help you for your drafts before the season starts.

With Opening Day less than two weeks away, we are in crunch time as far as fantasy drafts are concerned. With the biggest weekend of the draft season coming up, I have you covered as far as my ultimate draft cheat sheet to help you crush your competition.

Bookmark this. Put it in another window. Have it handy for Draft Day. It’ll help you know which players I like at each position, my favorite picks in each round, the players I’m fading, and my overall strategy.

Let’s get to it.

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Targets by Position

• Point Guard: Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard, Cade Cunningham, Fred VanVleet, Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brunson, Monte Morris, Tre Jones, Ayo Dosunmu, Ben Simmons, Jamal Murray
• Shooting Guard: Terry Rozier, Jalen Green, Jordan Poole, Bennedict Mathurin, Kevin Huerter, Josh Christopher, Joshua Primo
• Small Forward: Khris Middleton, Jaylen Brown, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Franz Wagner, Cameron Johnson, Keegan Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Jaden McDaniels, Gordon Hayward, Ziaire Williams, Nassir Little, Jalen Williams
• Power Forward: Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson, Jabari Smith, Tari Eason, Tobias Harris, Saddiq Bey, Al Horford, Jalen Smith, Patrick Williams, Aleksej Pokusevski, Trey Murphy
• Center: Rudy Gobert, Alperen Sengun, Jakob Poeltl, Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu, Wendell Carter Jr., Nic Claxton, Drew Eubanks, Isaiah Jackson

Targets By Round (12-team League)

• 1st: Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, Luka Doncic, James Harden, Jayson Tatum
• 2nd: Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, Rudy Gobert, Cade Cunningham, Fred VanVleet
• 3rd: Anthony Davis, Ja Morant, Scottie Barnes, Khris Middleton, Jarrett Allen
• 4th: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Terry Rozier, Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown, Alperen Sengun
• 5th: Zach LaVine, Devin Vassell, Josh Green, Keldon Johnson, Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brunson
• 6th: Zion Williamson, Jamal Murray, Brandon Ingram, Jabari Smith
• 7th: John Collins, OG Anunoby, Franz Wagner, Tobias Harris, De’Anthony Melton, Cameron Johnson, Jakob Poeltl
• 8th: Monte Morris, Collin Sexton, Keegan Murray, Saddiq Bey
• 9th: Clint Capela, Tre Jones, Bennedict Mathurin, Jaren Jackson Jr.
• 10th: Michael Porter Jr., Wendell Carter Jr., Al Horford, R.J. Barrett
• 11th: Kevin Huerter, Onyeka Okongwu, Josh Christopher, Jaden McDaniels, Tari Eason
• 12th: Malik Monk, Isaiah Jackson, Anfernee Simons
• 13th: Bones Hyland, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Obi Toppin, Christian Wood, Nic Claxton

Players To Avoid Near Yahoo ADP

• Trae Young (10)
• Paul George (11)
• Dejounte Murray (18)
• Nikola Vucevic (25)
• Mikal Bridges (38)
• Marcus Smart (64)
• Dorian Finney-Smith (70)
• JaVale McGee (101)
• Chuma Okeke (112)
• Derrick White (114)
• Tim Hardaway Jr. (138)

Strategy/Advice:

• Centers go fast. I like to prioritize them when I can because I often find myself hating my second center if I wait too long.
• Pay attention to the weaknesses of your team. If you’re taking Jakob Poeltl, you’re punting FT%. It’s not worth trying to make that up, so just lean into the build that you have with your first few picks.
• Be cautious with rookies. We all like shiny toys, but outside of 2-3 of them, we’re unlikely to see many top-100 finishes.
• Know the difference in values for players depending on the format of your league. Players like Alperen Sengun and Ja Morant are more or less valuable depending on the format.
• Consider doing a 7-category league. Turnovers suck as a category, but people don’t want a tie in a head-to-head matchup, so they want the ninth category. Instead, consider combining blocks and steals to create a STOCKs category.
• End your season on March 19 (S/O Josh Lloyd for hammering this home). Avoid the headache that is April basketball and teams shutting down their players.

Rankings

Check out the latest fantasy basketball expert consensus rankings

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Michael Waterloo is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @MichaelWaterloo.