RADIO
So I messed around and got a triple-double last night when I took down the $1 20-max on DraftKings, which was pretty cool. I only played 15 lineups but was tempted to throw 20 in when the contest overlayed by nearly 1,000 entries. My winning lineup had a bunch of plays in it from this article, so I hope you cashed some lineups, too!
Preseason rotations are never easy to figure out and there's a lot of guessing that goes on for these slates. If you can't stomach the variance, then just sit back and let the rest of us sweat these slates out. I do my best to find some of the best plays, but even I have fairly limited information to work with here. If you're interested in following NBA beat writers on Twitter and trying to keep up with the latest info about which players are in or out and if coaches mention any plans for minutes, then you can follow this list (I am constantly updating it each season).
I highly encourage you to follow me on Twitter and check out the list of beat writers that I follow to keep informed on the latest up-to-date information about each team and their plans for minutes and rotations. In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for DraftKings on 10/4/22. You can always find me in the RotoBaller Discord or @ThunderDanDFS on Twitter.
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Preseason NBA Overview
The first thing you need to know is that building lineups on FanDuel and DraftKings in the preseason is going to be very different than during the regular season. FanDuel has decided to keep their prices low (everyone is priced at 6,000 or less) and therefore you can build a lineup with any nine players you want as long as you roster two PG, SG, SF, PF, and one C. We can leverage that on FanDuel by rostering some lesser-known players, since we should expect the well-known players to be more highly-targeted, especially amongst more casual players and fans.
All prices listed in the article are DraftKings prices since the FD prices simply don't matter and you can play anyone you want.
DraftKings has priced guys as they would on a normal slate for the most part, but we do get discounts on superstars if we want to cram some into lineups. I like to use a balance of younger players with some veterans that we can project for solid minutes and, honestly every slate is different to some degree. With only a few days of practice before the first preseason games, I would expect we don't see any big minutes for starters in the first few games with most teams easing their guys into action, and we should see plenty of well-known guys and veterans sit out altogether.
NBA DFS Games
Here are some game-by-game notes and what I've been able to gather about each team so far.
Detroit @ NY Knicks
The Knicks roster is pretty healthy right now with only a few role players set to miss tonight's game so far. Coach Tom Thibodeau is notorious for playing his starters big minutes both in the regular season and preseason, so this is definitely a team we have to consider tonight, especially against Detroit. Last year, in fact, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett played the most minutes per game in the preseason as they both averaged over 30 minutes per contest. There's no guarantee that happens again tonight, but the Knicks starters are more appealing than most teams who are making their preseason debuts.
Meanwhile, the Pistons have a really young team with a lot of different players that will likely get minutes tonight. Cade Cunningham returns to lead Detroit coming off a third-place finish for Rookie of the Year last season and is joined by rookies Jalen Duran and Jaden Ivey. This roster is a bit of a cluster **** (you know the term) at the moment and I wouldn't be too surprised if the minutes are spread out pretty smoothly among both first and second-unit guys. It's a team I may avoid other than a few cheap players or studs like Cunningham.
Minnesota @ Miami
The Timberwolves are going to be thin in the front court tonight as Karl-Anthony Towns is still recovering from a hospital stay from a bad infection and Rudy Gobert is being rested since he played a lot of minutes in the Eurobasket tournament. So we could possibly target some Minnesota big men, but this is a tough match-up for Anthony Edwards and D'Angelo Russell even with their additional usage. The Heat played an intrasquad scrimmage against themselves last night and appear to be healthy across the board. So far it sounds like they don't plan to rest anyone, but we will have to keep an eye on that and their beat reporter Ira Winderman does a really good job of updating everyone throughout the day. I'd probably avoid Miami guys for the most part only because they are so deep and they're bringing the same core of players back from last season so they really know what they have for the most part.
New Orleans @ Chicago
This is probably one of my favorite games to target tonight. Both teams played at a solid pace last season and were below-average defensively. The Bulls are still without their best defender, Lonzo Ball, and they were a much worse team on defense last year after he went down. Chicago should have the rest of their core guys available tonight and despite their coach saying he wasn't sure of their minutes, I think there is a good chance we see them for 20+ today based on how he deployed them last year. Vucevic, DeRozan, and LaVine all played around 28-29 minutes per game last preseason and if we get even 22-24 from them, they should be great plays tonight even at elevated prices. Patrick Williams should start at the four and is finally healthy again, while Ayo Dosunmu. Alex Caruso and Goran Dragic should split time at the PG position.
The Pelicans have both C.J. McCollum and Brandon Ingram listed as questionable and if one of them or both miss this game, then that opens up some nice value for New Orleans. Zion Williamson is slated to play his first minutes in over a year at PF alongside Jonas Valanciunas at center. This is a talented offensive team but DK priced them up quite a bit, too, so we are going to have to get creative if we want to fit in multiple pieces here.
Utah @ Portland
Here is the other game I really like tonight. Utah already played once (on Sunday) and the Blazers played just last night. In Utah's first game, we saw their starters all play 20+ minutes with Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson playing 18 minutes each off the bench. Mike Conley played 20 minutes in that game and at his age, he's always a potential rest candidate, so if he were to sit then Sexton, Clarkson, and Malik Beasley (who fired up 12 shots in that first game) would all get a bump. Lauri Markkanen led the way with 20 points and was tied with Beasley for the most shot attempts (12). And rookie Walker Kessler was ultra-productive (11 points, 4 rebounds) in only 13 minutes.
The question here is what will Portland do with their guys on a back-to-back? All their starters played 21-27 minutes last night and only Anfernee Simons failed to do much as the other four were very productive. We need an update here in a big way so we know if we can target the first unit again or if guys like Brandon Williams and Shaedon Sharpe are more viable.
DraftKings DFS Top Plays
I am keeping these little blurbs short and sweet and I will try to update later today if I have the time once we get some more information.
Jalen Brunson - PG ($6,400)
Brunson is Thibodeau's newest toy and the starting point guard now in New York. He parlayed his impressive playoff run with Dallas into a fat new contract and the Knicks likely want to see how well he's going to mesh with Barrett, Randle, and company. He's cheaper than Barrett and Randle and I'd expect him to play a good deal of minutes.
Jaden Ivey - SG ($4,800)
I'm very leery of using too many Pistons as beat writer Rod Beard said they're going to treat this game "as if it were practice" as that sounds a lot like everyone plays equal minutes. But Ivey is cheap and this slate today has less value than yesterday's, especially at the SG position.
Lauri Markannen - SF/PF ($6,200)
This is a very affordable price tag for Lauri, who started the opener for Utah, played 23 minutes, and scored 20 points on 12 shot attempts. He's easily the best offensive player in this starting unit besides Malik Beasley and it's pretty clear they want to feature him this year.
Patrick Williams - SF/PF ($5,300)
I mentioned earlier that I really like this spot for the Bulls. Their top guys are great plays, but Williams really interests me at this price point. He's not a high-usage player, but he's a scrappy, energetic player who can rack up boards, steals, and blocks while also making shots from the perimeter.
Zion Williamson - PF ($7,700)
Yes, the big man is playing his first game in a year and a half but reports out of camp are that he looks fantastic, has trimmed down a bit, and is hungry to get back out there and dominate. This is a great spot for him as the Bulls can be very weak on the glass and Zion should be able to eat inside. We have to roster some studs in these contests, we can't play all backups and Ja Morant reminded us last night how stars can go off in these games even in only 20-24 minutes.
Zach LaVine - SG ($7,300)
LaVine is $900 cheaper than DeMar DeRozan and is also the younger player of the two. He's the one guy of the big three (LaVine, DeRozan, Vucevic) who's probably the most likely to play the minutes and Zach has never met a shot he didn't like. He should be chucking (and hopefully, making) shots tonight.
Collin Sexton - PG/SG ($6,000)
I mentioned that Beasley started ahead of Sexton in the first game, and I'll be interested to see if that happens again here tonight. But even if Sexton comes off the bench, he should be a solid play. He was more effective than Beasley and got up 9 shots in his 18 minutes, going 3-4 from behind the arc. He is a solid scorer and is going to get buckets. If Conley sits, then we really lock him in and consider Clarkson, too.
DraftKings DFS Value Plays
My favorite plays on DraftKings for 5k or less.
Luke Garza - C ($4,700) and Nathan Knight - C ($4,500) - With KAT and Gobert out, many might click on Naz Reid, but he will have a tough match-up against Bam Adebayo, so I'd rather play some of the cheaper backup big men.
Trey Murphy III - SF ($4,500) - Last year, Trey played a ton in the preseason and I'd expect New Orleans to keep getting him run as he should have a major role with the bench unit this season. He's an excellent three-point shooter, finishing at 39% from beyond the arc last year and he'll likely be firing away against the subs tonight.
Nikola Jovic - C ($4,400) - This young talented Euro could be a really solid play with some decent minutes. He's a classic Euro stretch five, similar to someone like Nikola Mirotic if you want a comp and he shot 40% from deep in Europe last year.
Walker Kessler - C ($4,300) - I was disappointed he only played 13 minutes last game as I think this game has massive upside. He blocked nearly four shots per game last year in college and can score with ease at the rim. He's a solid play here, assuming he maybe gets an extra 2-3 minutes than he did on Sunday. He still posted 11 points and four boards in that game.
Jalen Duran - C ($4,900) - He's not starting, but should get some decent run off the bench once Isiah Stewart and Marvin Bagley are done for the night. He's ultra-talented and could post some nice numbers against the Knicks' backups.
