DraftKings daily picks: Fantasy basketball lineup – May 1
The NBA Playoffs continue with three games on the schedule on Thursday. Get your DFS fantasy basketball team in the game with FanSided’s DraftKings daily picks.
Two second round series begin on Monday. The playoffs are all about matchups, on both an individual and a team level. We’ve seen how these teams matched up with their first round opponents, but things could be entirely different now that they are facing a new opponent.
One player that we don’t expect to be matchup reliant is LeBron James. He’s been the best player in the NBA for a really long time, and in recent years has shown that he has stored up energy over the season to explode in the playoffs. He absolutely detonated against the Pacers in the first round, and if he plays at that level the Raptors probably can’t stop him either. However, if Kevin Love or Kyrie Irving step up it could push James’ numbers into the less alien/more human category. And what about the Raptors? Their star backcourt was very inconsistent in the first round against the Bucks, are they ready to step up against the favored Cavs? We start to find out on Monday at 7:00 PM ET.
The other new series tips at 9:30, with the Rockets at the Spurs. This is a heavyweight match-up between two strong teams that play very different ways, both led by an MVP candidate. Can James Harden put his will and imprint on this series, even though the Spurs as a team don’t allow many threes or free throws? Can Kawhi Leonard lead the Spurs to enough offense to overcome the free-shooting Rockets? This game, and this series, projects as one of the closest and most competitive of the second round.
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.