Wednesday is packed with 14 games for the last day of the NBA regular season, and we can help you get your DFS line-ups set up to win.
Wednesday is the last day of the NBA regular season, and it’s going out with a bang as 28 of the 30 teams are in action. However, because it’s the last day of the season, most of the playoff slots are settled which means that there is no guarantee that teams will play their best players in any normal allotment of minutes.
The general exceptions to the rule are those few teams still vying to either get into the playoffs (e.g. the Pacers, Bulls and Heat) or for a major seeding change (e.g. the Jazz and the Clippers). If their fates are still in the balance at tip-off, there’s a good chance the veteran stars play well for as long as it takes for the game to be decided. Thus, players like Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Hassan Whiteside, Rudy Gobert, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan may be the most likely veteran stars to actually play star minutes. However, if their fate gets sealed early (for example, the Jazz play earlier than the Clippers. If the result of their game determines the Clippers’ seeding destiny before the later Clippers game ends, the Clips could then decide to rest their guys). Also, if a team vying for position starts winning in a blowout, they’re more likely to let their guys rest more than even usual.
Thus, there’s clearly risk at that end. At the other end of the spectrum, there should be a ton of low-price opportunity as teams rest their vets and replace them with min-priced players that will be getting star-level minutes and opportunity. The problem, of course, is identifying which min-priced guy(s) to go after. On Sunday, for example, I was sure that the Cavaliers would rest/minimize Kyrie Irving after news that his surgically repaired knee was sore, so I bought heavily on Deron Williams…only to have Irving play absurd minutes with one of his best games of the season and Williams not play much at all. The next day, I left Williams alone…only to have Irving sit and Williams explode…a day too late for my team. On the other hand, that same night I guessed right on Shabazz Napier the other night, who had a huge game replacing Damian Lillard so all wasn’t lost. The point is, will Napier and/or Williams repeat their explosion on Wednesday? Or will it be someone else? Let’s see if we can uncover some possible diamonds.
My favorite plays of the day can be found on the following slides in FanSided’s DraftKings daily picks. Each day in order to offer a variety of price points at each position, you can find two slides for each position–one for high-salary options and one for high-value options. Each pick is ranked on a scale of 1-5 stars to indicate the confidence in the pick. The final slide of this post has more detail on what each level means, but in short, more stars means more confidence in the selection on a points-per-dollar basis.
Important note, every day the goal of this post is not to give you a copy-and-paste lineup. Instead, each selection is given while highlighting the factors you need to consider when building a customized lineup for yourself. If you want to see an example lineup, you can find it on the final slide of the post, but I suggest you adjust your lineup to fit your personal taste.
To keep up with all of FanSided’s DFS NBA coverage head over to the fantasy basketball hub where each day you can find a post like this tailored for DraftKings as well as one specifically designed for usage on FanDuel. In this post, all salary and “fantasy points” references are to DraftKings scoring system and salaries. If you have any additional questions or thoughts or are looking for updates as we approach tipoff, follow @FanSidedFantasy on Twitter or you can follow my account @ProfessorDrz or find me on my home turf of The Hoops Lab.
Let’s take a look at your best options for both studs and value players at each position.