Below are our Core Picks for 2025 NBA Best Ball drafts on Underdog Fantasy. This is not an exhaustive list of players we are higher on than ADP, and you can find and download our full list of rankings in our rankings hub with your premium Spike Week subscription.
There are a variety of factors that play into who we select as Core Picks, including, but not limited to:
- Overall ranking vs ADP
- Playoff Schedule
- Positional Strengths & Weakness in the market
- Pure upside / breakout potential
- Injury situation(s)
- & more
You can always bring any questions or feedback to our Premium Discord (free w/ your subscription or just $5/month). But let’s get to the picks!
Underdog Fantasy NBA Best Ball Core Picks (2025)
Guards
Immanuel Quickley- Toronto Raptors – ADP 71, Our Rank 56
2024-25 was a disaster for both Quickley and the Raptors, but I think this is a great buy low spot. From a team level perspective, the Raptors will be playing to win this year unlike the latter half of last season. The East has been significantly weakend due to all the major injuries, and this team was built to win now in 2025-26 with Quickley, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl. At the absolute worst, this should be a play-in team, and they likely fancy themselves better than that in this current Eastern Conference. That should lead to more games and minutes played for their core guys, like IQ.
All the reports out of camp are glowing for Quickley. He’s fully healthy and reportedly “everyone notices that IQ is in the best shape here”. From an on court perspective, the Raptors really need his skillset this year. That’s a talented starting 5, but it is lacking in some spacing, and he is their best option for that. It’s also lacking a bit in playmaking, and he can help take that burden off Scottie Barnes. He was particularly great at those in his limited games last year, as well.
Per 36 minutes, he averaged 22 points, 7.5 assists and even 4.6 rebounds last year, while shooting 38% from 3 on 8.8 attempts (per 36). His assist rate jumped to a career high 31.5% after jumping to 29.5% in 38 games with the Raptors the year prior after the trade from the Knicks. If he just continues what he’s done with the Raptors, he’s a quality pick here at this price. But if we assume he was held back by his health and the team situation last year, and we get better outcomes for both of those, he is an absolute steal at this ADP, especially when we consider the Raptors do have 8 games in the Best Ball Finals.
Terrence Shannon Jr. – Minnesota Timberwolves – ADP 190, Our Rank 121
Shannon burst onto the scene when called upon for stretches last season, and the 2nd year man should be in for a much larger role this season in Minnesota. The T’Wolves are very much in need of another perimeter/wing option after the loss of Nickeil Alexander-Walker to Atlanta and Mike Conley’s continued declining play as he ages. Rob Dillingham will get some cracks at it this season, but his defensive warts and inconsistent offense push me heavily towards Shannon being the guy to pounce on the opportunity.
At 6’6 215 pounds, Shannon is a ferocious downhill driver and transition player who can also shoot the 3 (35.5% last year). He can guard multiple positions, and he completely dominated Vegas Summer League, which is not the end all be all, but it’s what you want to see from a player looking to take a step in the NBA. Chris Finch has already mentioned he will be in the rotation, and elaborated on the team’s need for all the different elements he can bring to the game.
Shannon reminds me quite a bit of Austin Reaves in terms of his breakout profile. Granted, Shannon was a late first round pick (27th overall) after a dominant final year at Illinois, but Reaves was a similarly older college prospect who was hyper productive but slipped through the cracks. He was productive in a bit role as a rookie and then really started to emerge in his sophomore season as a secondary perimeter offensive creator alongside Lebron James. Anthony Edwards needs a similar level of help (more than Julius Randle can give him), and I’m placing my chip on Shannon being that guy that emerges.
Wings
Cam Whitmore – Washington Wizards – ADP 120, Our Rank 75
After being drafted in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft, the 21 year old Whitmore has mostly been stuck at the back end of a super deep Rockets rotation for 2 years. He has been hyper productive in his limited minutes, with these averages per 36 minutes – 20.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.6 blocks. Those numbers were slightly bigger in his rookie season, as well.
But despite his top 1% athleticism, he needed to grow as a defender, as well as passer on offense, so he couldn’t carve out a consistent role for the Rockets. That led to an offseason trade from Houston to Washington, where he should get all the opportunity in the world to show he’s part of the Wizards future core. The Wizards have a good amount of young bodies, but Whitmore is arguably the most developed and ready to lead an NBA offense. Despite limited minutes last year in Houston, he had a 24% usage rate with a 113.4 offensive rating, while averaging more than 1 fantasy point per minute.
The Wizards are going to lose games regardless of who they play, so this year is about seeing if players like Whitmore should be part of their future in this rebuild. With his usage rate and ability to rack up fantasy points in a minor secondary role with the Rockets, Whitmore has the ability to become an absolute home run in a larger role with the Wizards. There’s also more development to come at just the age of 21.
Ausar Thompson – Detroit Pistons – ADP 64, Our Rank 48
Every year, there are young players who level up their game in a significant way that wasn’t totally priced into their cost in our drafts. Ausar is arguably my favorite bet for that in 2025. His twin brother Amen took a huge step last year, and he’s priced to take another step in Houston this year, especially without Fred Vanvleet. Ausar’s year was instantly derailed when he was diagnosed with a blood clot in March of 2024. This obviously hurt his summer development, and he was unable to play in the first 18 games of the season. After that, he was brought along pretty slowly for a surprising upstart Pistons team pushing for the playoffs.
But as the season went on, his game and role for the Pistons grew, and I expect a major step forward in 2025-26. He’s just 22 years old, and he’s already one of the very best defenders in the entire NBA. With steals and blocks being worth 3 points on Underdog, these are a huge part of both a floor and ceiling for these kind of players. Ausar had one of the very best steal rates in the league last year at 3.5% (Dyson Daniels led the league at 4.2%), and his 2.9% block rate matches the likes of Jarrett Allen, Derrick White, Scottie Barnes and other high level block artists. He’s a good rebounder (8.2 per 36 minutes last year) and a willing passer (3.6 assists per 36), creating this elite, box score stuffing profile that doesn’t even need to score *too* much to be awesome for fantasy. Heck, he averaged 1.22 fantasy points per minute last year with just a 19% usage rate. Now imagine we get the leap that was delayed last season due to the blood clot, and he becomes a more capable scorer (16 points per 36 last year), his role grows and his minutes increase (just 22.5 minutes per game last year).
That would be a huge fantasy breakout. Oh, and the Pistons are tied with the Rockets for most games in the 3 Best Ball Playoff rounds (8/7/8).
Bigs
Jalen Duren – Detroit Pistons – ADP 52, Our Rank 39
As mentioned with Ausar above, the Pistons are a major priority for me with their playoff schedule. They are this perfect combination of young core of players who can continue to grow their games, while also being a bit of a fantasy playoff cheat code due to games played. Duren is hilariously still just 21 years old, despite entering his 4th year in the NBA. He’s never going to be some stretch 5 or wizard passer, but his game continues to grow each year around his absolutely dominant rebounding and elite efficiency scoring around the rim. He was 6th in the NBA in true shooting percentage at just north of 70% last year, and he was tied with Domantas Sabonis for 4th in total rebounding percentage.
That rebounding and rim dominance helped him to a 1.22 fantasy points per minute mark in Year 3. For reference, that’s better than the likes of Bam Adebayo (1.16) and Ivica Zubac (1.21) at the center position. At just 21 years old, there’s still plenty of untapped upside here as well. His assist rate jumped by 2% from his 2nd to 3rd year up to 14.7%, and his block rate jumped to an elite 4.2% (13th in the league) with a solid 1.3% steal rate. The combination of strong projectable production, upside in growth from a young player (and from a young team) plus an elite playoff schedule is perfect here for Duren.
Adem Bona – Philadelphia 76ers – ADP 191, Our Rank 125
I took a huge anti-Joel Embiid stance last year, which worked out quite well. Unfortunately, I put too many eggs in the Andre Drummond basket, who could never earn a major role in the absence of Embiid. But we are running it back with a much more exciting Sixers big than a losing player like Drummond. Bona is the epitome of a high energy, all effort defensive big that can fit well alongside a bunch of higher usage, offensive first players in Philly. That’s important because I am exceptionally confident Joel Embiid is simply never going to play a huge number of games in the regular season again, they need defense, rebounding and hustle from this position in the absence of Embiid. He’s already impressing in camp and on track to be Embiid’s backup in 2025-26.
Clearly, the biggest part of this bet on Bona has to do with Embiid. If Embiid magically returns to full health and plays most of the games, we are a bit too high on Bona here. But given the track record here, Embiid’s age and the fact he’s still not 100% at Sixers camp this year, that is a bet I am very comfortable making. Even if Embiid is healthy to start the year, we are very likely to get limited minutes, no back to backs and overall injury risk anyway. Which opens the door for Bona to have real value no matter how the season plays out, and he’s no slouch despite being a lower usage player.
He averaged 15.6 minutes per game over 58 games play in his rookie season last year, and he was quite productive. He posted a 15.5% total rebounding rate, which matches Bam Adebayo and Nic Claxton. in the top 25 range of the league. He had a 71% true shooting percentage with a truly elite 7.5% block rate and 1.4% steal rate. He averaged 1 fantasy point per minute last year, and that was in his rookie season with the Sixers where much of his playing time came down the stretch on a horrendous Sixers squad without all their best players. If he can continue to improve in year 2, that and the Embiid situation give him serious upside that far outweighs his dirt cheap price.
