The NBA Slate Starter: DFS Picks for DraftKings + FanDuel

Welcome to another edition of the NBA Slate Starter, where I’ll try to back up takes like “P.J. Dozier will play zero minutes” and avoid ones such as “don’t play more than three Nuggets in a lineup.” You can’t win them all, I suppose.

Today is a new day, so let’s get to work breaking down the Showdown slate for this monster Game 4 between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat.

Onward and Upward with Hayward

Game 3 looked nothing like the first two iterations of this series, but injecting 30 minutes of Gordon Hayward into a team’s lineup changes a lot. When healthy (which is a rarity), Hayward is the kind of player who makes a difference on both ends of the court, and we saw that in spades on Saturday. While his shot wasn’t falling (2-for-7 from the field), he affected change on the other end of the floor with three steals and a block. He rounded out the box score with five boards and four assists, proving how effective he can be for this Celtics team and for our DFS purposes.

I would assume his ownership will jump exponentially now that we know he has minutes upside into the 30s, but I don’t care; I will be over the field. There is little-to-no value going below $4,000 on DraftKings or $8,000 on FanDuel on this slate, so we need to find some sort of savings. I also feel as though he has untapped upside if the shot starts to fall, as evidenced by his 17.5 points per game average during the regular season. Add in the extra days of rest he’s gotten between Saturday’s Game 3 and today, and I am ready to fire hard on Hayward in this spot.

Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin

In yesterday’s Lakers – Nuggets game, I felt uncomfortable Captaining anyone that wasn’t one of the four studs. Boy, does that sentiment not apply to this series. For today’s game, I have 11 players projected between 25 and 45 fantasy points on DraftKings. Yesterday I didn’t have a single player in that range. Everyone was either above or below, which signaled me to pay up at Captain and punt in the Utility spots. It proved true, as the optimal was one of the four studs (Jamal Murray) for the third consecutive game.

Here’s my advice for today: Commit to a core of Captains and live with the result. I’m just as guilty of this as anyone, but it is way too easy to spread yourself too thin at Captain on this slate. Even if you want to push a blowout narrative for one team and rotate a bunch of Captains in 4-2 and 5-1 builds, you’re still likely to be in trouble to those who take a stand and hit on the optimal play.

I’m not sure what the exact number is, but I can tell you I have my sights set on four right now: Jayson Tatum, Bam Adebayo, Gordon Hayward and Kemba Walker. The first two carry the largest ceilings on the slate, Hayward I’ve discussed and Walker I have a full-fledged sickness for. There are cases that can be made for a multitude of others, but trust me: 150 lineups is not enough to cover all the combos with all the Captains. Pick your favorites and move on.

Final Thoughts for Your NBA Showdown Lineups

Vegas has this set at a close -3.5 Celtics line, so while 5-1 combos on DraftKings are always viable since there’s exponentially fewer lineups of them, I’m focusing on mainly 4-2 and 3-3 builds today. Contrary to the Nuggets – Lakers series, there’s no obvious cheap value, so be ready to take on some risk if you want to get different with Tatum and Adebayo in the Captain slots.

On FanDuel, don’t be afraid to spread some of the cheaper pieces around the MVP/All-Star/Pro slots. I had a great day over there on Saturday by simply putting Jaylen Brown ahead of Tatum everywhere. It didn’t matter that he only beat him out by 0.1. A win’s a win when it comes to raw points, plus a pivot like that is not as risky as you think.

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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.