NBA DFS Picks DraftKings + FanDuel Expert Lineup Building Strategy 4/2

The best part about Friday’s upcoming 10-game slate is there are no Los Angeles Clippers to throw us into a tailspin with their incompetent injury reporting. Seriously, how does one get ruled out, then miraculously get upgraded to questionable and play? Hopefully the league puts an end to their foolishness, but it is unlikely considered it only helped the profile of their primetime TNT matchup. Fortunately, that’s none of our concern for today, so let’s turn our attention towards finding some NBA DFS picks on DraftKings and FanDuel for Friday.

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 2

A Few Low-Owned Spots I Like

Friday’s NBA DFS slate looks eerily similar to every other slate from these past few days. With Kyle Lowry ruled out already, just play Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam. If Donovan Mitchell doesn’t return from his personal matter, we’ll have the usual Jordan Clarkson and Mike Conley conversation to fire up as well. And so long as the New Orleans trio continues to sit, play any Pelican with a pulse.

That is a ton of high-end value we should be able to rely on already, and that’s before factoring in any of the other 17 teams in action tonight. In other words, there is virtually guaranteed to be a bunch of incredible plays on this slate already. Plus, pricing didn’t adjust for any of the spots enough, so it will be the same cast of characters as there has been all week sitting atop Awesemo’s ownership projections.

So let’s not bore you with the obvious (see: Raptors, Jazz, Pelicans) and instead focus on three potentially less-obvious avenues to value on this slate:

Domantas Sabonis enters Friday questionable. While some might say Myles Turner becomes the priority in this instance, his price is pretty appropriate on both sites already. That is not to say there shouldn’t be any interest in going there, but priorities should be Malcolm Brogdon and Caris LeVert in this instance due to the increased usage that would become available. Getting Jeremy Lamb out would also provide a slight uptick in minutes for both.
Derrick Rose and R.J. Barrett are questionable for Friday, opening up a potential surplus of minutes at the two and three. Reggie Bullock is the least sexy name of all-time, but he got up to 39 minutes of run in Rose’s previous absence, making him the priority play. And while it’s hard to envision Julius Randle seeing even more usage than he already does, Rose and Barrett off the floor this season shoots his usage up to 30.3% from his 28.2% season average. Randle is already in play for FanDuel, but he becomes one of the best contrarian spend-ups on DraftKings at $9,600 if he’s the only offensive player whatsoever in that rotation.
Maybe neither of those were off the board, but this one sure is. Jordan Poole injured his ankle on Thursday, and Stephen Curry is two weeks removed from a tailbone injury. This is the first back-to-back opportunity for him, and there’s a greater-than-zero chance he will sit. That makes Damion Lee a play to circle as a super-low-owned contrarian play should all the news break in his favor. Don’t play him at a stacked shooting guard position on FanDuel, but his $3,700 salary on DraftKings is advantageous enough to have interest in large-field tournaments.

Latest NBA DFS Content

Friday’s Fast Fireside Chat: More Sports Means More Opportunities

One of the most impressive parts to Alex Baker’s DFS game is how much stamina he has to play virtually every slate of every sport and put up the incredible results he does. It is now that transition period of the year where MLB DFS enters the fold, adding even more massive contests to the DraftKings and FanDuel lobbies on a daily basis. That means NBA, NHL, UFC and especially PGA with the Masters coming up next week are all in season and garner an enormous amount of interest. And Alex Baker finds the time to crush each and every single one of them day in and day out.

That’s the biggest benefit to being an Awesemo+ subscriber: The No. 1 player in the world has already put in an immense amount of work getting himself up to speed on the “next sport up” so you don’t have to. Through his research, homing in on projections and altering of the top tools in the industry, being a part of the Awesemo community ensures an edge you can’t find anywhere else. Plus, it would be a shame to sharpen your NBA DFS strategies skillsets the way you have over the past three-plus months only to let it go to waste until the next basketball season arrives.

So as the regular season starts its descent into the playoffs, don’t panic. There are plenty more money-making opportunities right around the corner by signing up for a subscription today or following us over at the Awesemo YouTube channel. Give our baseball product a chance with the promo code “STARTING9,” or if the Masters is more your speed, tune in next week for a major promotion to commemorate golf’s first major of the year. So stop guessing, start winning, and we hope to see you in the MLB and PGA streets soon.

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Final Thoughts for Your NBA DFS Lineups

I failed to mention Zach LaVine and Coby White earlier in the injury news segment, which was an oversight. Similar to two nights ago, Tomas Satoransky, Patrick Williams and newly acquired Nikola Vucevic continue to be the easy go-to’s. Denzel Valentine put together a solid performance last time out, but let others chase that box score and the unsustainable spike in usage.
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.