NBA DFS Picks DraftKings + FanDuel Expert Lineup Building Strategy 4/15

Wednesday was yet another slate chock-full of chalk point guard explosions. It’s likely that if you didn’t smash at that position, you were dead upon arrival. So if that was you, fear not; unlike the Clippers, the Slate Starter article is back in action today trying to make your life easier. So let’s get to work finding a few NBA DFS picks for this fun four-game slate over on DraftKings and FanDuel.

[UFC261]

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 | April 15

Three Potential Game Stacks?

It has been a minute since the main slate has been under six games on DraftKings and FanDuel, so Thursday’s four-gamer is a welcome change of pace. If you have been playing NBA DFS for some time, you most likely understand the basic differences between large slate and short slate strategy. And if not, Awesemo’s own Adam Scherer has an incredible article from earlier this season that covers it to perfection.

One of the elements he discusses is why game stacking is a more acceptable way to go as the number of games shrink on an NBA DFS slate. Which comes in handy today, as there is a matchup that checks almost every box for a game stack. Huge pace-up spot for one team? Check. Extreme value plays for the other? Check. Studs on both sides with massive ceilings? Check.

And today that game is actually every game on this slate besides Celtics – Lakers, which opened with a gruesome 212 total. That means there’s a serious case to be made for stacking up the likes of Bucks – Hawks, Warriors – Cavaliers and Kings – Suns. Depending on how the Giannis Antetokounmpo and Trae Young news breaks in the first game, there could be a crazy amount of value. The Warriors and Cavs are each on back-to-backs, so there’s serious rest potential on both sides. And with Richaun Holmes out for the Kings and the Suns in a huge pace-up spot, this is perhaps the most intriguing game stack of the night.

If you’re making multiple lineups on Fantasy Cruncher and don’t limit players to two per team, game stacking should tend to happen organically based on how all the injury news breaks. But if you’d like to force the issue for a particular spot, set a minimum of players to two from each side of a game while putting a maximum on every other team to one or two. It is certainly a more time-consuming process crunching a portion of lineups little by little, changing the parameters to set up for different game stacks each time. However, with no tight spreads (closest is -5.5 Bucks on the road) and fewer spots to pivot on just a four-game slate, it could be a worthwhile endeavor to maximize upside in NBA DFS lineups.

Latest NBA DFS Content

Woke Up on the Whiteside of the Bed

As stated before, Holmes will be absent from tonight’s festivities against the Suns. No one was positive how the frontcourt minutes were going to shake out for Luke Walton’s ball club on Wednesday, but here’s what went down (courtesy of PopcornMachine.net):

Sacramento Kings usage rates for NBA DFS and daily fantasy basketball on DraftKings and FanDuel with picks and projections

Damian Jones got the start but was suppressed to just 16 minutes and 13.5 DraftKings points. Chimezie Metu, who was thought to perhaps get some backup center minutes, really did not. But of course it was Hassan Whiteside who stole the show (and the minutes) for the Kings. Despite not entering the game until the 10:46 mark of the second quarter, Whiteside saw 23 minutes of run and put up a gaudy 40.8 FanDuel points at only $3,600. That means gamers could be staring chalk Whiteside day right in the face.

Rayen “Rynpak” Patnaik went into depth on this situation on today’s edition of the Slate Starter podcast above. He explained that whoever becomes the low-owned piece of the frontcourt will become the priority play for him. That stands to reason since Walton has no consistency with his center rotation, so why not fire the lowest-owned among them in hopes they’re the chosen one that night?

Well, considering Metu didn’t even exist tonight, he can somewhat safely be removed from consideration. That means a number of lineups could come down to correctly swallowing Whiteside chalk or pivoting on to Jones this evening. Hopefully Whiteside starts so gamers can simply jam him in, but that would be far too inconvenient for Walton to do. That means be sure to check out Alex Baker’s projections to account for his take on minutes and opportunity for each, as the top NBA DFS player in the world’s help will surely be needed to choose the right approach for this situation.

[JOINMLB+]

Final Thoughts for Your NBA DFS Lineups

There is a surprising number of injuries for just four games to account for in the hours leading up to lock. As always, keep the Twitter notifications on so you can stay informed whenever the NewzGod tweets from the @AwesemoNBA account.
Stephen Curry hit 11 3s in 29 minutes on Wednesday. It is exciting to see what he has in mind for an encore against an atrocious Cavaliers team.
Just play Deandre Ayton.

Follow us on all of our social channels! Check out our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more great Awesemo content.

Looking for more NBA DFS picks content? We have loads of articles, data, cheat sheets and more on the Awesemo NBA home page. Just click HERE.

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.