Chet Holmgren is a second-round 9-cat player, and ESPN ranks him 71st

Chet Holmgren is the clearest disagreement between ESPN and the people who rank players for a living. ESPN's own categories rankings had him 71st in early October, a sixth-round player in a twelve-team league, while all ten analysts' 9-cat boards on our panel put him between 12th and 24th, and eight of the ten between 18th and 22nd. The analysts' 9-cat consensus has him 21st and our own 9-cat board has him 23rd, so the analysts and our projections agree with each other and both disagree with ESPN by about four rounds.

This piece is about categories leagues only. His price in points leagues is a different story, and on Yahoo it runs the other way, which we covered in Yahoo's overpriced points players. Here the question is what his blocks, rebounds and shooting are worth in a 9-cat league, and how much of that survives on ESPN, where the standard categories league leaves turnovers out and drafters in early October were taking him around 64th.

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.