Last night in a Yahoo draft room, 20 experienced, competitive fantasy “experts” selected our teams in the Peach Baskets keeper league. Jeff Nichols ended up with many of the sleepers and breakouts he’s been touting here the last few weeks. I like my team anyway.
If you take “traditional” leagues as seriously as we do, your draft preparation is a big advantage in daily contests at DraftKings, even more at the beginning of the NBA season. Until everyone else knows how good your sleepers are, those late-round picks and auction bargains will be profitable in DFS too.
Sure, there are differences in the formats. The biggest is predicting how a superstar like LeBron James $9800 will perform only in the season opener, rather than over 82 games. In daily play, you can consider health reports, opposition, recent form and other factors, then decide, “I’ll own him another night.”
In Thursday’s Spin, we explained the basics of DK basketball: pick an 8-man roster for a 1-day points league, within a $50K salary cap. On Friday we discussed Tristan Thompson $4600 returning and how that affected other players’ immediate values. In Saturday’s Spin we “stacked” the maximum number of players from the Pelicans-Warriors game.
Today I’m using the same 15 players in the Short List, in a fourth different combination. In the big-money tournaments tomorrow, I may enter all four variations and hope to win multiple prizes. In 50-50 contests, this one is pretty safe.
Plays of the Day
The $300K Tip-Off Special is a $3 buy-in (FREE to new depositors at DK) that pays the top 24,000 finishers from up to 115,000 teams. First place wins $50,000. Enter now and you can make unlimited lineup changes until 8:00 Eastern on Tuesday.
Odds are even better in the $200K Crossover, a $27 buy-in where the top 1,850 of a maximum 8,450 teams share the guaranteed prize pool. Highest score wins $20,000.
LBJ costs more than twice as much as the next-best SF on Tuesday night’s 3-game NBA tipoff. With a sore back, limited practice time and a cautious coach, it seems like an overpay. Solving that positional problem is one way to begin lineup construction.
Rookie Stanley Johnson $4700 will come off the Pistons’ bench behind Marcus Morris $4500 — for now — and both had excellent preseasons. Johnson averaged 13.5 PTS, 7.8 REB, 2.1 AST and 1.8 STL, Morris 12.4 PTS, 8.9 REB, 1.4 AST and 1 STL. However, the 19-year-old may not get 27.4 minutes (yet) in games that count, while the veteran should see more than 23.6.
Harrison Barnes $4600 is the starter for the world champs and had a better preseason than Andre Iguodala $4300 in every stat category. Dirt-cheap alternatives are Richard Jefferson $3000, who will back up LeBron, “McBuckets” Doug McDermott $3000 coming off the Bulls bench, and Dante Cunningham $3000.
Because of injuries to Tyreke Evans, Alexis Ajinca, Omer Asik, Quincy Pondexter and Luke Babbitt, the Pelicans will start Dante at SF and he’s in line for more minutes than usual. That’s also why Anthony Davis $10400 and Ryan Anderson $5000 are in all my lineups. There simply aren’t enough healthy bodies to have a full rotation.
The other important choice is at C, where Andre Drummond $8200 vs. Al Horford $7300 is a great matchup in fantasy and on the hardwood. It’s uncertain how many minutes Tiago Splitter $4500 will get in his Hawks debut; Drummond will be in the high 30’s. Horford could also be used at PF with Paul Millsap $7700 at SF in a big lineup. Sometimes you have to compromise — using a second choice to save a few hundred dollars in salary — to beef up another position (or two.)
Joakim Noah $6000 is no longer starting, Andrew Bogut $5000 is playing with a broken nose and Timofey Mozgov $5000 (knee) is out, so Anderson Varejao $3400 is the value pick.
One approach we haven’t mentioned is the balanced lineup, using no expensive stars or risky scrubs. With the player pool much larger on Wednesday, the $6-7000 price range will be deep enough to make that a more viable strategy. There’s also a $1,000,000 guaranteed contest ($20 entry fee, $100K to first) on the first full night of NBA action.
| Pos | Premium | Midrange | Bargain |
| PG | Stephen Curry $9500 | Jeff Teague $7000 | Nate Robinson $3000 |
| SG | Jimmy Butler $7600 | Klay Thompson $7200 | Kent Bazemore $3000 |
| SF | LeBron James $9800 | Harrison Barnes $4600 | D. Cunningham $3000 |
| PF | Anthony Davis $10400 | Draymond Green $6900 | Ryan Anderson $5000 |
| C | Andre Drummond $8200 | Al Horford $7300 | Anderson Varejao $3400 |
The Fantasy Spin features DFS advice every day of the NBA season. Follow Kent Williams @SheridanFantasy for updates.