Friday, June 25, brings Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals with the home team facing a one-game deficit. Let’s look at the Milwaukee Bucks vs. Atlanta Hawks player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. Don’t forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS home page for more great written daily fantasy basketball content, including the FREE NBA Deep Dive — the most in-depth article in the industry.
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NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Friday, June 25
Yahoo Play of the Day — Giannis Antetokounmpo: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Atlanta Hawks
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 61.6 | DraftKings: 63.94
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 98.5% | FanDuel 98.3% | DraftKings 97.7%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $54 | FanDuel $16,500 | DraftKings $12,400
For this series Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to be the player with the highest fantasy point projection. However, remember that is not a guarantee, though it is likely to come true more often than not. Antetokounmpo has taken at least 20 field-goal attempts in each of his last six games. On average, he has made 14 of 24.7 attempts for a 56.9% success rate. Add in his 13.5 rebounds per game across 12 playoff games, and he becomes the core option for Friday. This is also buoyed in large part to the salary increase for Trae Young after his phenomenal Game 1 performance.
Trae Young: Atlanta Hawks at Milwaukee Bucks
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 48.52 | DraftKings: 52.31
- Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 85.5% | FanDuel 29.1% | DraftKings 54.3%
- DFS Salary: Yahoo $43 | FanDuel $16,000 | DraftKings $11,800
Perspectives and strategies regarding Young approaches are going to vary by each DFS site. His median projection is nearly 20% below that of Giannis. However, he could end up outscoring Giannis on any slate, just not with great frequency. Scoring systems also come in to play, as even though Giannis outscored Young by a single fantasy point — 70.9 to 69.9 — on Yahoo and FanDuel in Game 1, on DraftKings it was Young who led the slate 75.8 to 70.5. The cursory analysis for each specific site is as follows:
Yahoo: Locking in Young and Giannis on Yahoo will still leave just over $19 for the other three roster slots.
DraftKings: Things are interesting here with the 50% multiplier on both the salary and the fantasy points for their Captain. With Giannis as the Captain and Young in a Utility slot, there is still $4,900 for each of the remaining four slots, which gives enough flexibility to still make reasonably good lineups.
FanDuel is a perfect game theory situation. Because of the way median projections work, and with Young getting a 10% salary bump after his amazing Game 1 performance, locking in both here will leave $9,166 for the remaining three roster slots. When hand building, starting roster is straightforward. However, for those using optimizers, because Young is only $500 less than Giannis but projected for 13 fewer points, he first appears in the 40th lineup without changes to any default settings. It will be interesting to see how the field adjusts to this conundrum.
Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies
Atlanta Hawks
- Danilo Gallinari, $12: On a positive note, Gallinari played 25 minutes and took nine shots while sinking four, including one from beyond the arc. Sadly, his only other contribution was a single rebound. Better days are ahead.
- Lou Williams, $10: Game 1 had a 20th-percentile outcome, as Williams missed four of his five attempts from the field. The 12 minutes are in line with his expected workload, but he is going to need to not only sink his shots but also luck into a couple rebounds or a steal to be much of a difference maker.
- Onyeka Okongwu: Okongwu was limited to just three minutes, with Clint Capela and John Collins owning the boards and staying out of foul trouble. There are better discount dandies on Yahoo, though Okongwu is in play on DraftKings at the $1,000 minimum, which provides plenty of salary cap relief to work in the luxury options.
Milwaukee Bucks
- P.J. Tucker, $11: Once more, Tucker saw 35 minutes and accounted for mid-teens fantasy points depending on the DFS site of choice. His upside is predicated on steals and blocks, and with those each being worth 3 fantasy points on Yahoo, those can add up quickly for a near-minimum salary.
- Pat Connaughton, $10: It was interesting to see Connaughton with 29 minutes off the bench, which was nearly as many as Bobby Portis (15), Bryn Forbes (12) and Jeff Teague (six) combined in the series opener. Unfortunately, he was again dreadful from the field, making only one of six shots, though he did have a pair of free throws and five rebounds, which kept him from being a complete bust. He will record 20 or 25 fantasy points before this series concludes, so do not lose faith.
- Bobby Portis, $11: Portis can rack up the fantasy production quickly, as seen when he gets the opportunity with 21 Yahoo fantasy points in just shy of 15 minutes of action. Definitely keep him in mind when rounding out Yahoo tournament rosters.
Final Thoughts on the Friday, June 25 NBA DFS Slate
Have realistic expectations on the single-game slates, and while the giant tournaments are fun, the smaller-field contests can be lucrative with fewer lineup duplications. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a slam-dunk play on Yahoo may be a below-average NBA DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.
