Cade Cunningham is a sixth pick in points and an eighth in 9-cat, and turnovers explain the gap

Cade Cunningham is the rare first-round player whose value barely depends on the platform you play on, and whose rank still moves by two or three places depending on the format. Our projections give him 24.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 10.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.0 threes in 34 minutes over 67 games, almost exactly last season's line of 23.9 points and 9.9 assists over 64 games. That line is worth 50.9 fantasy points a game under ESPN's default scoring and 48.8 under Yahoo's, and it ranks 6th on our ESPN points board, 7th under Yahoo's scoring and 8th on our 9-cat board.

The question for a drafter is not whether Cunningham is a first-round pick, since every one of our analysts ranks him inside the top six in points and inside the top 16 in 9-cat. It is which players he should go ahead of in each format, and that comes down to two numbers in his line, the ten assists that every scoring system rewards and the 3.9 turnovers that every scoring system charges for in a different way. We broke his value down by scoring system and by category to show where each part comes from.

Every player in this story is on the fantasy basketball rankings and the 2026-27 projections, and the NBA depth charts show where each one stands in his team’s rotation tonight.