NBA DFS Picks DraftKings + FanDuel Expert Lineup Building Strategy 3/29

Welcome back from the weekend, ladies and gentlemen. Saturday I skipped out on one of the more interesting slates of this season, as some rather extreme Bucks value came to fruition in a meaningful way. Sunday I rejoined the fleet only to have the Michael Carter-Williams injury sink my battleship, so on to Monday it goes. Regardless of how anyone might have fared, let’s start the week off right with some NBA DFS picks and strategies to utilize over on DraftKings and FanDuel.

Be sure to check out the Slate Starter podcast, featuring yours truly and Rynpak, to get the first look at the slate and make NBA DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel!

NBA DFS Slate Starter: Picks & Strategy | March 29

Don’t Overreact to One-Game Sample Sizes

The trade deadline brought some revamped looks to a few of the teams used most in NBA DFS. One of the most notable organizations to do a complete overhaul of their roster was the Bulls, who were perhaps the only squad to acquire a true All-Star caliber player on Thursday in center Nikola Vucevic. This is by no means a franchise-altering move for them, but it’s certainly an upgrade over underachieving Wendell Carter Jr. and gives Zach LaVine a viable No. 2 to play off of on the offensive end.

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Those who took some shots on the new Bulls Big Two over the weekend, are you really that enthusiastic to jump back into the fire on a massive 11-game slate where there are plenty of other options to turn to? The answer is hopefully a resounding yes, as a date with the Warriors — ranking second in pace this season — creates a completely different game environment from Saturday’s slower-paced Spurs debacle. And now opponents who rely too heavily on box-score watching will not want any part of Vucevic or LaVine in this spot despite an obvious path to all of the usage, which should lower their ownership.

The lesson here is don’t overreact to one-game sample sizes for some of these players in brand-new situations. There is a long track record of who Vucevic is, and considering the 21.1% usage he put up on Saturday was his lowest mark of 2021, that number should climb as he becomes more familiar with his new teammates and surroundings. The same could be said about other newly acquired players around the league, although Vucevic’s former teammates Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier don’t have nearly the guaranteed workload he does going forward. But even still, it would be shocking if all three don’t hit upside sooner rather than later.

A Quick Talk Centered Around Centers

One of the most obvious differences between NBA DFS contests on DraftKings and FanDuel is the ability to play multiple centers in the same lineup on DraftKings, while FanDuel requires you to ride or die with only one big man per lineup. That means on these slates with double-digit games, it can be a difficult task to narrow down the player pool at that position, especially since it’s so pivotal to get right in order to take down a tournament. And with stand-out center options at every price range every single day, it’s hard to pick just one.

If it’s been a while since you checked out the “Learn DFS” tab over at Awesemo.com, you should check it out (especially with MLB fast approaching). Alex Baker covers his fundamental belief in building multiple lineups for tournaments with his first rule in the DFS Diversification Primer section, and it would behoove you to take that approach into consideration if you’re not already. With so many centers that have so much upside at different price ranges, it is impossible to build only a handful of lineups and feel like my research was put to good use.

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So even if you have to go down in buy-in level, you should strongly consider building a bunch of lineups on these massive slates with so many elite plays at every position. Center specifically is too hard to pin down on FanDuel, as there is an argument for how about a dozen of them could be optimal tomorrow (and that’s before any news breaks). Give yourself every opportunity to succeed at NBA DFS, and obviously that starts by building better lineups. But to take that one step further, it also starts by building more lineups.

Final Thoughts For Your NBA DFS Lineups

It is hard to believe there will not be a ton of value with 22 teams in action on Monday. It bears repeating: Follow the Newzgod‘s updates on the @AwesemoNBA Twitter handle or be left in the dust.
De’Aaron Fox‘s $9,500 tag on DraftKings and eye-popping $9,800 on FanDuel might seem exorbitant, but they are still worth paying up for on Monday. With four consecutive outings of 49.5-plus DraftKings points, Fox has elevated his game to another level, so keep riding the wave.
Just play Giannis Antetokounmpo.

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Author

Eric Lindquist

Eric Lindquist hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota (yes, that’s the one with Mount Rushmore). A steady diet of three SportsCenters a day at an early age led to his obsession with sports, one that 30 years later is paying dividends for him as a successful DFS player and sports bettor. Despite over half a million dollars in net career earnings, he’s most passionate about helping others achieve their financial goals, an energy you can witness on the daily in his current role as a host and analyst at Stokastic. He’s a former Division I golfer at Iowa State, wishes he was a former Minnesota sports fan, and is a proud father to a 100-pound Bernese Mountain dog named Duke that wishes he could just eat people food instead of the crap he and his wife feed him on the daily.