Fantasy Breakout Candidates: Tyler Herro, Julius Randle, and More
The NBA’s headliners have already sucked up most of the summer oxygen. Giannis Antetokounmpo in Miami. Jaylen Brown and LeBron James in Philadelphia. The league’s power map has shifted at the top.
But fantasy titles are rarely won at the top.
They’re won in the margins, in August and September, when managers spot the next wave of volume monsters before everyone else does. This summer’s second tier of movers is packed with exactly that kind of upside.
Tyler Herro – A hometown alpha in Milwaukee
Tyler Herro comes home with the keys to the franchise in his hand.
No more sharing touches with established stars. No more fitting around a hierarchy. On a rebuilding Bucks team, he walks in as the unquestioned No. 1 option, the face of a reset in Milwaukee and the centerpiece of a fantasy breakout that could dwarf anything he’s done before.
Herro has already checked the All-Star box. He’s already lived in the 20-plus points-per-game neighborhood for five straight seasons. Now the street opens up. With shots there for the taking, flirting with 25 points a night is very much in play.
The motivation is obvious. He hits free agency at the end of the 2026-27 season and will be playing for the kind of contract that can define the rest of his career. Add the emotional charge of a true homecoming, and you get a scorer with every reason to empty the clip.
A spike in assists and 3-pointers sits right alongside the scoring bump on the projection board. In category leagues, that scoring–threes–assists blend makes him a premium target. In High Score and standard points formats, pure volume could turn him into a weekly cheat code.
Julius Randle – Brooklyn’s workhorse-in-waiting
Julius Randle has lived this life before.
In Minnesota, he shared the offensive load with Anthony Edwards and settled into 14.5 shot attempts per game. Productive, sure, but restrained. Brooklyn offers something very different: a runway that looks a lot like his prime years in New York.
Over his final four seasons with the Knicks, Randle was a usage machine. He averaged 23.3 points on 18.2 attempts per game and made three All-Star teams in four years, powering an offense through sheer force of will and stamina.
That version of Randle can absolutely reappear in Brooklyn.
With a near-clear path to top-dog status alongside Michael Porter Jr., he’s poised to reclaim a central role. The ball will find him. The shots will follow. And when Randle gets that kind of volume, the stat sheet fills up in a hurry: points, rebounds, assists, all stacked high.
Turnovers will come with the territory, but that’s exactly what makes him so appealing in High Score formats. The same aggression that leads to mistakes also fuels those big, multi-category nights that swing matchups.
Kel’el Ware – A young Buck on the rise
Kel’el Ware’s numbers in Miami hinted at something more.
As a starter for the Heat last season, he put up 12.8 points and 10.7 rebounds across 34 games. Solid, reliable production from a young big still figuring out the league. Now he steps into a Milwaukee situation where development, not short-term contention, drives every decision.
The Bucks need to see what they have. That alone puts Ware in a strong position.
Winning the starting power forward job over Kyle Kuzma is well within reach. Even if he doesn’t open the season in the first five, the minutes are coming. After averaging just 22.2 minutes over his first two years in Miami, a career high in playing time this season feels almost inevitable.
There’s another layer: contract stakes. Ware becomes extension-eligible after the 2026-27 campaign, his third in the NBA. Like Herro, he’ll be operating with a clear financial horizon in view, and big men with opportunity and incentive tend to push their ceilings higher than expected.
Walker Kessler – The Lakers’ next All-Star project?
Walker Kessler’s breakout in Utah barely had time to breathe.
Five games into what looked like a launchpad season, a shoulder injury shut everything down. The momentum vanished. The promise didn’t.
Los Angeles has moved quickly to make that clear. A new long-term contract extension, a wide-open frontcourt, and a belief that Kessler is ready to anchor the paint for a franchise that measures itself in banners, not box scores.
The competition for minutes? Essentially nonexistent. The role? Made to measure.
Then there’s Luka Dončić. Few players in the league elevate a rim-running center quite like him. Kessler fits that mold perfectly: a vertical threat, a lob target, a finisher who doesn’t need the ball in his hands to tilt a game.
Put those pieces together and you get a 25-year-old big man with a straight path to an All-Star caliber season in purple and gold, and a fantasy profile built on blocks, boards, and ruthless efficiency.
Norman Powell – Veteran gunner on a young Bulls team
Norman Powell has quietly built a late-career fantasy résumé that demands respect.
His two best fantasy seasons have come back-to-back, first with the Clippers, then with the Heat. Now, at 33, he lands in Chicago, where a rebuilding Bulls team offers something veterans crave: shots, and lots of them.
This offense will be young. It will make mistakes. It will also need someone to finish possessions.
With Josh Giddey running the point, Powell should feast on open looks from beyond the arc. The fit is clean. Giddey’s size and vision create angles; Powell’s shooting punishes the space. On a roster still searching for an identity, he walks in as the most polished scorer and a likely No. 1 option.
Efficiency is his quiet weapon. Over the last few seasons, he’s been one of the more reliable guards in the league in that department, a trait that shines in category formats where percentages can separate contenders from pretenders.
The stars have already moved. The headlines have already been written about them. But in fantasy, it’s this group — Herro, Randle, Ware, Kessler, Powell — that might decide who’s still playing for something in April, and who’s left wondering how they missed the signs.
