On a busy night in the NBA, there are a wide variety of leagues and formats at FanDuel. One that deserves special consideration is for high-rollers, at least from my perspective. It costs $25 to enter, there will be only 46 teams, and the winner will get the entire $1,000 prize pool! Just clock the logo to join.
There’s also another qualifying tournament this evening for the Daily Fantasy Basketball Championship. That one has a $10 entry fee, $5,000 cash in consolation prizes and the winner earns a trip to Las Vegas for the $150,000 DFBBC final in March. I won $75 for finishing ninth out of 1,769 teams in last week’s qualifier and will be taking my best shot again.
Daily leagues are very challenging; you’re trying to choose the best 9-man team for tonight’s games only, within a $60,000 salary cap. Most of my leagues are at the $1 and $2 level, as my weekly bankroll is $100 and we’re down $21.70 heading into the weekend. Follow my (mis)adventures here every day.
| FanDuel 15 | Nov. 30 |
| Stars | Over $7,000 |
| Kevin Durant | $9,700 |
| Russell Westbrook | $9,600 |
| Kevin Love | $9,100 |
| Carmelo Anthony | $8,600 |
| Jrue Holiday | $7,600 |
| Scrubs | Under $5,000 |
| Aaron Brooks | $4,100 |
| Trevor Ariza | $4,700 |
| Ben Gordon | $4,500 |
| Andray Blatche | $4,100 |
| Kyle Singler | $4,200 |
| Starters | $5,000 to $7,000 |
| Tyson Chandler | $6,100 |
| Damian Lillard | $6,900 |
| Evan Turner | $6,400 |
| Nikola Pekovic | $6,800 |
| Mike Conley | $6,500 |
With 11 games and 22 teams in action, there are a wide variety of options in each price range. The chart offers a few suggestions, but there are thousands of possible combinations. It takes handicapping skill to win, but as in any fantasy league, a little good luck never hurts.
You can make unlimited changes to your lineup until 7:00 EST. Here’s mine for now:
PG George Hill IND@SAC $5,600
PG Aaron Brooks IND@SAC $4,100
SG Kobe Bryant DEN@LAL $8,800
SG Evan Turner PHI@CHA $6,400
SF Kevin Durant UTA@OKC $9,700
SF Gerald Wallace BKN@ORL $5,400
PF Kevin Love MIL@MIN $9,100
PF Andray Blatche BKN@ORL $4,100
C Nikola Pekovic MIL@MIN $6,800
This gets Kobe, KD and Love into the same lineup but counts on Blatche and Brooks to outproduce their low salaries. Replacing one of my three high-priced all-stars with someone in the $7,000 range would let me upgrade at two other spots. It’s the old question of stars-and-scrubs vs. balance; there is no ‘right answer’ because anything can happen on the floor, and it often does.
Today’s Fantasy Spin looks at all 11 NBA games in more detail and reviews what happened last night, including the Spurs’ junior varsity vs. the Heat.