NBA Comeback Candidates for 2026-27: Key Players to Watch
Every NBA season loses a few players in the noise. Not because they suddenly forgot how to play, but because the league moved around them — an injury here, a bad trade there, a cold month that turned into a cold narrative. By the time the next October rolls around, the perception is miles behind the reality.
Heading into 2026-27, this group has something most comeback candidates don’t: structure. Health. Money. Defined roles. The league hasn’t passed them by; it’s about to hand them the ball again.
Domantas Sabonis, Kings: The Engine Returns
Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, only one man in the NBA stacked more triple-doubles than Domantas Sabonis. Nikola Jokić. That’s the entire list.
Sabonis dropped 36 triple-doubles across those two seasons, a relentless stream of 20-12-8 nights that don’t just vanish because of one bad year on the medical report. A torn meniscus in his left knee wiped out most of 2025-26 and forced season-ending surgery, but the timing matters: he’s tracking toward full clearance for training camp, at 30, with a skill set that ages well.
Sacramento is retooling, not rebuilding. That nuance is important. In that shifting landscape, Sabonis is still the hub. The clear No. 1 playmaker. The offense will flow through him again — elbow touches, dribble handoffs, high-post reads — the same blueprint that made him one of the league’s most reliable nightly producers.
Fantasy outlook: In points leagues, you don’t overthink it. When he’s right, he’s a top-15 asset because rebounds and assists are the backbone of those formats, and he lives in those categories. Category leagues demand more planning. He’ll dominate rebounds, feed you assists and lift your field-goal percentage, but he won’t help you in blocks and he bleeds value with turnovers. He belongs on rosters that are punting defensive stats and leaning into volume.
High Score is where he turns into a cheat code. A “standard” Sabonis triple-double — 20 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists — hovers around 50 points with doubled assists and no penalty for turnovers. Very few frontcourt players can touch that weekly ceiling. Almost none can sustain it.
Coby White, Hornets: A Green Light and a Mandate
Teams don’t drop three years and $74 million on a guard to bring him off the bench. Not in this era, not in Charlotte.
With LaMelo Ball shipped to Minnesota, the Hornets have cleared out the backcourt and handed Coby White the keys. The front office hasn’t been coy about it, either: they’re building around him, and they’re chasing their first playoff berth since 2015-16.
We’ve already seen what he does when the ball finds him consistently. In Chicago in 2024-25, White averaged 20.4 points and 4.5 assists in 33.1 minutes over 74 games. That’s not a small sample. His 21-game stint with Charlotte after the deadline — off the bench, in an unsettled rotation — never offered a real window into what he can be there. This season does. Now he gets a clear runway, a long-term commitment and a franchise ready to live with his growing pains because it needs his ceiling.
Fantasy outlook: Points leagues are his natural habitat. Usage is the currency there, and he’s about to be rich. Volume scoring, plenty of touches, and the ball in his hands late. In category leagues, you have to be more selective. He’ll give you points, threes and assists, but his field-goal percentage has long been a drag and he doesn’t pile up steals. He fits best on teams that already have efficiency handled elsewhere.
High Score is kinder to him than traditional category formats. Doubled assists plus scoring volume means a 28-point, six-assist night jumps into the mid-40s, and none of his shooting-percentage issues come along for the ride. In that game, he’s a strong guard slot with room to spike whenever Charlotte turns him loose.
Derrick White, Celtics: The Quiet Pillar
Strip away the three-point percentage for a second and look at the season Derrick White just put together. Career-high 16.5 points. Career highs in steals (1.1), blocks (1.3) and assists (5.4). All while Boston leaned on him more with Jayson Tatum missing most of the year.
The problem — or rather, the perception problem — sits at 32.7 percent from deep. That’s a sharp fall from 38.4 percent the previous season, the sort of swing that usually screams variance, not decline. His playoff scoring dip followed the same cold streak, and in a league that judges quickly in May and June, his stock took a hit.
But the opportunity is still there, and it’s real. Boston swapped Jaylen Brown for Paul George, a move that raises the ceiling but also invites risk. George turns 37 and has topped 70 games just once since 2019-20. White, by contrast, has played at least 73 games every season since 2021-22. Reliability is a skill, and he has it.
Fantasy outlook: In category leagues, a guard who averages better than one steal and one block per game is rare. That combination buoys two of the scarcest categories on any roster and gives you flexibility everywhere else.
In High Score, he might be even more valuable. Steals and blocks are worth three points each, so his defensive baseline alone makes him draftable. When the offense pops, he explodes: a 20-point outing with five assists, two steals and two blocks sails past 45. His durability gives him extra weight in points and roto formats, but it’s the across-the-board profile that keeps him on target lists in every game.
Walker Kessler, Lakers: The Specialist With Star Impact
Before his season ended almost as soon as it began, Walker Kessler was in the middle of the best stretch of his career. Five games, but five loud ones: 14.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals per night. That small sample was enough for the Lakers to push their chips in — a four-year, $130 million deal in July after trading for him.
The caveat is obvious. Shoulder surgery. A track record of on-and-off availability dating back to his rookie year. But the traits that got him paid don’t depend on scheme. Elite rim protection. High-end finishing. Rebounding volume that most centers can’t match. He’s 25, stepping into the best spacing and playmaking environment he’s ever had.
Fantasy outlook: In category leagues, he isn’t a glue guy, he’s a foundation piece. You build around what he does. Blocks, rebounds and field-goal percentage can all tilt in your favor almost single-handedly. The risk comes at the free-throw line, where he can do real damage, so he’s ideal for punt-FT% builds rather than balanced approaches.
High Score is where he really fits the format. Blocks and steals at three points each turn a routine 16-point, 13-rebound, three-block performance into roughly 40 fantasy points, even if he never hands out a single assist. With three frontcourt slots to fill, that’s exactly the kind of profile that wins weeks.
Christian Braun, Nuggets: The Subtle Anchor
Denver didn’t commit five years and $125 million to Christian Braun in October 2025 on a whim. At 24, he had just averaged 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals as a starter on a contender. That’s not projection; that’s production.
Last season, almost everything that could disrupt a rhythm did. Braun played only 44 games and shot 30.1 percent from three, a number that sits well below what he’s shown he can do. Taken together, those marks look like a blip, not a new normal. Trade rumors have swirled around him, but the expectation is that he stays, in a role he has already proven he can handle. DeMar DeRozan will absorb possessions, but Braun has never needed heavy usage to matter.
Fantasy outlook: He’s the most format-neutral player in this group. Category leagues squeeze the most value out of him: points, threes, steals and a respectable field-goal percentage across four columns, with that three-point rate screaming bounce-back candidate. In points leagues, he settles in as a stable late-round starter who rarely sinks you.
High Score is the one place where his profile softens. His big nights usually land in the low 30s because he doesn’t rack up assists or blocks in bunches, and that game punishes players who are “good at everything” more than “great at two things.” There, he’s a bench piece. Everywhere else, he’s the kind of quiet, reliable contributor who keeps fantasy rosters from cracking over an 82-game grind.
The league didn’t forget these players. It just looked away for a season. Now comes the part where they remind everyone why that was a mistake.
