Okay so fantasy basketball draft season is creeping up on us and Rotoballer's Brian Dailisan just dropped his sleeper forwards list for the 2026-2027 season and I'm already side-eyeing my league mates who sleep on these guys every single year.

Sleepers are my favorite part of any draft. Not the first round. Not the buzz names everybody argues about for three days in the group chat. The late picks where you find a guy who outperforms his slot by miles and you get to just sit there quietly while it happens. That's the good stuff, the whole reason I draft.

Forwards are sneaky-important too because they fill so many lines at once. Boards, some threes, the occasional block, sometimes assists if you get the right playmaking wing. When you find a forward late who chips in across the board it's like finding money in a jacket pocket, except the jacket is your roster and the money is a category league win.

Dailisan's list is worth your time because he actually walks through the why for each guy instead of throwing darts at upside names. Role, opportunity, minutes projection, all the boring stuff that actually decides whether a sleeper wakes up or sleeps straight through March. I've said this a hundred times but I'll say it again, I'd rather bet on a player's situation and story than some safe floor that gives you nothing. Late-round picks are lottery tickets, so buy the ticket with an actual story behind it.

One thing I'll push back on gently: don't treat any sleeper list, his or mine or anyone's, as gospel. It's a starting point. Cross-check it with what you watched last season with your own eyeballs. Dave Morgan would tell me to run the numbers and he's not wrong, but the numbers don't know a guy is about to get 12 more minutes a night because somebody ahead of him got traded. You know what you saw. Trust that a little.

If you're drafting soon, go read the full piece before you do. There's a name or two on there I guarantee shows up on waivers by week three in your league because nobody paid attention, and then somebody smart grabs him and rides it all season. Don't be the somebody who didn't.

And if you draft one of these guys and he pops, come find me. I will absolutely take credit for it.