FanDuel NBA DFS Lineup Picks (6/15/21): Daily Fantasy Basketball Advice

June 15, 2021

Mike Marteny highlights the top FanDuel NBA DFS lineup picks for 6/15/21, and a couple of sleepers to consider while building daily rosters.

Tonight all we have is Game 5 between the Bucks and Nets since Denver had to go and get themselves swept. The series is all tied up at 2 games each, with this being a pivotal game. The Bucks took the two games in Milwaukee, but now it's back to the house of horrors at Barclays Center. This time around is different though. The Big Three for Brooklyn is now the One-Man Gang since both Kyrie Irving and James Harden are out.

For those of you that aren't familiar with how the single-game contests work on FanDuel, it's fairly simple. You get a MVP slot which scores at 2x actual points and Star slot that scores at 1.5x. You then get a Pro slot that scores at 1.2x and two utility slots that score at actual points. You have a $60,000 salary cap for the five slots.

Here are my favorite plays from tonight's game for the FanDuel single-game slate that locks at 7:30 PM EST.

Brooklyn Nets at Milwaukee Bucks (-4) (217.5 total)

The home team has won every game in this series so far! So bank a Nets win, right? If it were only that easy.

Ideally, you want to have the guy with the highest ceiling scoring double the points. With both Kyrie and His Beardness out, there are only two players that have the kind of ceiling we're looking for: Giannis and K.D.

In Game 4, the Bucks went after Durant with P.J. Tucker. Tucker "limited" Durant to 52.1 FanDuel points. I kind of doubt that he does that here. Durant has carried the Nets all the way through the playoffs. This wont be any different, especially with his superstar teammates out. His Robin is Blake Griffin. At least Giannis has Khris Middleton!

Giannis still hasn't had a ceiling game yet in this series. He has only broken 50 FanDuel points twice and hasn't gone higher than 55. So the choice for MVP becomes very clear: It has to be Kevin Durant. However, since Middleton has only topped 50 once and was under 35 FanDuel points twice, I think we have to run Giannis as the Star.

The pro slot is where it starts to get interesting. Most will have Giannis and K.D. in the MVP and Star slots, and with good reason. However, Middleton is $2,000 less than Giannis if you want to tempt fate and fade the Freak. Running both Durant and Giannis only leaves you $9,833 per slot for the last three slots. If you drop to Middleton, you have $10,500 per slot.

However, if you do decide to play both K.D. and Giannis, you almost have to fade Middleton and Jrue Holiday. Mike James and Bruce Brown are locks for the Nets with their ravaged guard corps. Even running both of them at a bit of a value, you would only have $9,000 left for the final slot. That would leave you with Jeff Green or Tucker to round out your lineup.

An alternative to that is running Brook Lopez over Bruce Brown and just taking Tucker. Doing this would grab you the major guard minutes with James, all of the upside with K.D. and Giannis, and two Milwaukee guys that have been unsung this series in BroLo and Tucker.

If you do roll the Giannis fade, it allows you to run Lopez with Brown, but you still have to drop down to Tucker or Green. May I suggest something that may really set you apart: Fade both Giannis and Middleton. Why would you do such a thing? Because Lopez and Holiday have been consistently solid and that would allow you to roll with both Mike James and Bruce Brown with the two Bucks secondary pieces.

You can also differentiate by taking a complete shot in the dark with Tyler Johnson, hoping he gets some bench minutes behind Brown and Mike James. That option allows you to run both K.D. and Giannis and your choice of Middleton, Holiday, or BroLo with them and still get James. It's at least worth considering in a large field GPP.

Good luck to all of you out there!