Guide
What do three-star, four-star, and five-star ratings mean for a basketball recruit?
247Sports assigns stars based on where a scout believes a player will end up: five-stars are projected first-round NBA draft picks, four-stars project as high-impact college players or potential draft picks, and three-stars are expected to be solid mid-major players or role players at the high-major level.
Updated Sep 28, 2026
How 247Sports builds its ratings
247Sports uses two systems side by side. One is a numerical ranking of up to 150 players in a class. The other is the star system. The star system exists because classes differ in overall strength — a number alone does not tell you how a player compares across different years. By the time a class is finalized, 247Sports aims to have the star ratings properly set. For underclass rankings, they are more conservative with five-stars because evaluation is still early.
What five stars means
A five-star prospect is someone 247Sports believes will be a first-round NBA draft pick. A player rated as a likely one-and-done will rank higher within the five-star range. A player who may not be a one-and-done but has real upside to outperform his draft position may also receive five stars — and may rank above a more polished prospect.
What four stars means
The top of the four-star range covers two types of players. First, prospects projected as high-impact players over a four-year college career who could then be drafted. Second, prospects with a low floor but an exceptionally high ceiling — high risk, high reward. The lower part of the four-star range covers players projected as eventual starters at the high-major level, or high-impact players in the upper tier of the mid-major level.
What three stars means
Three-star prospects are expected to be solid mid-major players or role players at the high-major level. The sources do not break the three-star range into sub-grades the way the football FAQ does for football recruits. If you are reading about the football grading scale and applying it to basketball, be careful — the sources address basketball stars separately and do not map them to specific numerical grades.
What the Composite rating is — and what the sources do not say
247Sports also publishes a Composite rating. The sources provided for this page do not explain how the Composite is calculated or how it differs from the 247Sports internal rating. We cannot fill that gap here. If the Composite number matters for your child's evaluation, check 247Sports directly for an explanation of that specific figure.
Where players at each star level actually land
The sources describe where players are projected to land, not where they actually end up. Projections and outcomes differ. Depth Chart holds records on 39,620 high-school players joined to the college program they actually reached, which means we can show real outcomes by star level — but those figures are not included on this page yet. The sources themselves do not publish outcome data by star rating for basketball recruits.
What this page is based on
Every rule stated above was read from one of these documents, not from memory. Open them and check us.
- How does 247Sports define the star ratings?
247Sports · the body that sets the rule · read Sep 28, 2026
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