Fansided

DraftKings NBA picks November 24: Niiiiii-kola!

By Mike Marteny

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 31: Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets drives with the ball during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center on October 31, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - OCTOBER 31: Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets drives with the ball during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center on October 31, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 8
Next
DraftKings NBA
HOUSTON, TX – FEBRUARY 11: Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks defends James Harden #13 of the Houston Rockets on February 11, 2019 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Darren Carroll/NBAE via Getty Images) /

DraftKings NBA early slate:

In the DraftKings NBA showdown, picking the right captain is huge. Today we can’t get both Luka Doncic and James Harden if we use either one at captain. There are a couple of decent value picks, but not enough to use Luka at captain and Harden at flex and still have a decent team.

If you try to run that, it’s only $4,675 for each of the four remaining flex slots. That means you have to pass on most other starters. You can put P.J. Tucker in there, but he’s mostly empty minutes as far as fantasy is concerned.

The Dallas guards play enough minutes on the wings to make this work, and I will likely run one with this just in case. However, I think a little more of a balanced build is the way to go here. First, we need to identify which players on this slate that we can’t live without. After that, we need to see who we can fit at captain while still playing our core.

Luka and Harden are musts. Russell Westbrook usually plays well against Dallas, but even if we use Luka, Harden, and Westbrook at flex, we only have $4,800 per slot with one being a captain that we have to pay 1.5x for. That takes Clint Capela completely off of this, which I am not comfortable with Capela is the first player with six straight games of 20 or more rebounds since Dennis Rodman in 1995. I definitely want that in my lineup. If we sub Westbrook for Capela we have a more manageable $5,133 per slot

Doing this means we are forced to go cheap at captain. Tucker is a solid pick because we know the minutes are going to be there. For me, the status of Curry is going to mean a lot here. If Curry plays, I’m totally off of Tim Hardaway Jr. If Curry sits again, I’m comfortable rolling THJ at captain. Since Curry is probable though, I’ll go ahead and put in the hot Ben McLemore as the captain.

That leaves $8,800 to fill the last two slots. Tucker and Hardaway fit into that, but we may be better off going with Dwight Powell and Austin Rivers.