Preseason NBA DFS Primer for 12/12 - Daily Fantasy Basketball Advice for FanDuel, DraftKings

Welcome back to another preseason NBA DFS article as we have a seven-game slate on tap for Saturday night. I hope you are as pumped as I am to have the NBA back in our lives and I appreciate you checking out my preseason NBA content here at RotoBaller! I also hope my article yesterday helped you find the green with some of those lineups! In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy basketball lineup picks for FanDuel and DraftKings on 12/12/20. You can find me in the RotoBaller Premium NBA Chat Room or @ThunderDanDFS on Twitter.

We have a lot of injury info to monitor and a lot of coaching sound bytes to dissect as the day goes along. 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.

I really hope you consider our NBA DFS Premium membership this season. We will be covering every regular season and postseason slate with our all-inclusive NBA Cheat Sheet and you'll have access to tools such as our NBA Research Station, Matchup Ratings, and Optimizer! Our NBA team brings years of DFS experience and knowledge to the table every day and all premium members have access to our slack chat where we have live Q + A sessions every slate an hour before lineups lock!

Preseason NBA Overview

The first thing you need to know is that building lineups on FanDuel and DraftKings this preseason is going to be very different. FanDuel has decided to keep their prices low (no one priced over 6,000) 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-rostered, especially amongst more casual players and fans.

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.

Preseason NBA DFS Injuries/Rest

Knowing who is playing on any NBA slate is half the battle. Getting injury info on preseason slates is a tad harder than in the regular season but here's what we know right (as of Thursday night).

ALREADY RULED OUT: 

Kristaps Porzingis, Jeremy Lamb, T.J. Warren, Al Horford, Keldon Johnson, Derrick White, Darius Bazley, Trevor Ariza, Lugentz Dort, Justin Jackson, Quindarry Weatherspoon, Darius Miller, Ty Jerome, Isaiah Roby, Killian Tillie, Justise Winslow, Naz Reid, Jaren Jackson Jr., Draymond Green, James Wiseman, Mike Conley, Chris Paul, Dario Saric, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr.

DOUBTFUL:

Malik Monk, JaVale McGee, Courtney Lee, James Johnson, Malik Beasley, Brandon Clarke, Will Barton, Jae Crowder,

QUESTIONABLE:

Patrick McCaw, LaMarcus Aldridge, Lonnie Walker IV, Torrey Craig, De'Anthony Melton, Kyle Anderson, Bojan Bogdanovic,

TEAMS (or rather COACHES) THAT I DON'T TRUST BECAUSE THEY WILL PLAY EVERYONE AND NO ONE WILL GET ENOUGH MINUTES:

Golden State, San Antonio, Denver

Preseason NBA DFS Core Plays

Giannis Antetokounmpo - PF/C on DK, SF on FD ($9,000 DK)

There's been no indication of how many minutes the Bucks will play their star, but anything over 15 minutes is probably enough for him to still potentially score enough fantasy points to be one of the higher scoring players on the slate. I'll take the raw points from Giannis here, and he's a dangerous fade if we get word that he plays anything over 20 minutes with his elite fantasy output.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - PG/SG ($5,800)

This price is laughable for SGA, who should be a usage monster this year in Oklahoma City. He will be an 8-9k player a few weeks after the season starts, mark my words. To exacerbate things, OKC is going to be without like 6-7 players in their opener, including the only other established player they have in the lineup, Al Horford. He'll be chalky, but I want a lot of exposure to SGA.

Ja Morant - PG ($8,500)

Not used to paying over 8k for Ja, well get used to it! He was dynamite in the bubble last summer and should be ready to take the next step this year in his sophomore season. I really like the Memphis-Minnesota game for fantasy points on this slate as both teams played an up-tempo style last season and both also were bottom-10 defenses. I think we can definitely fit 3-4 stars into our lineups at their discounted prices and with all the 4-5k value that we will have.

UPDATE: Malcolm Brogdon a strong consideration here, too. 

Preseason NBA DFS Top Plays

D'Angelo Russell - PG/SG ($8,000 DK)

I have to go back to this Minnesota-Memphis game again because I think it could be the highest-scoring game of the night and break the slate. D-Lo gets a chance to play more off the ball this year with Rubio now in town and should thrive in this offense along with Karl Anthony-Towns (who also deserves some consideration here with how shorthanded Memphis is on the interior).

Luka Doncic - PG ($8,700)

If I am playing Giannis, then you better believe I am playing some Luka in that game, too. Without Porzingis in the lineup, Luka has put up some monster games and is a triple-double machine with full minutes. Like Giannis, he is such a stat stuffer that I will want some exposure in case he fills up the stat sheet even in limited minutes.

UPDATE: I am moving Luka to a core play. 

Deandre Ayton - C ($6,600 DK)

I think the addition of CP3 to this Phoenix team is going to do wonders for Ayton. He should thrive on the pick and roll with CP3 and is developing into one of the more skilled young scorers in the game. The matchup with Gobert shouldn't scare us off. While Rudy is a solid interior defender, he can struggle to defend his opponent outside the paint and Ayton has a nice touch from the mid-range. Gobert also draws his defender close to the basket while on offense creating more rebounding opportunities.

UPDATE: Ayton becomes a risky play with the Suns' starters being limited to possibly only 15-18 minutes.

Jamal Murray - PG ($5,900)

I know I said I don't trust Denver because Mike Malone has been notorious for going deep into his bench and resting his starters when he can during his tenure there, but look at this price on Murray! Denver is getting paced up here by Golden State and Murray is coming off his breakout season and incredible playoff performance. I simply have to have some exposure to a scorer of his magnitude at this price.

Preseason NBA DFS Value Plays

• Mike Muscala - C ($4,000 DK)
• Gorgui Dieng - C ($4,200 DK)
• Chris Boucher - PF/C ($4,700 DK)
• Aron Baynes - C ($4,600 DK)
• PJ Washington - PF/C ($4,400 DK)
• Bobby Portis - PF/C ($4,200 DK)
• Hamidou Diallo - SG/SF ($4,500 DK)
• Terence Davis - PG/SG ($4,500 DK)

UPDATE: Some more guys to consider here. Cam Payne ($4,400 DK - CHALK), Kenrich Williams, T.J. Leaf, Jalen Smith

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