What’s up everyone! Karma Nation had a fantastic first big slate of the season and we are looking to build that momentum moving forward! We have just a short three game slate tonight, so I’m going to give you some of my thoughts on the slate as a whole rather than the typical format of my article for bigger slates. Let’s get to it!
FanDuel
With FanDuel implementing their new scoring system this season where your lowest score gets dropped each night, the value of punting 1-2 positions is ever present. Although LeBron James is on the slate, that position looks viable to me as a place to punt tonight with Otto Porter Jr and then someone like Derrick Jones Jr. If Dwight Howard is ruled out however, you can look to punt center with Ian Mahinmi at min-price. I think Porter is too cheap relative to his value, and he would be one of the first players I put in my lineup. We also have value at Point Guard with Kris Dunn ruled out, opening up Cam Payne for cheap. By using Payne, Porter and either of the punts mentioned above, you can pretty much fit any type of roster you want to.
Point Guard (in order of preference, excluding the players named above)
Damian Lillard
Ben Simmons
John Wall
Rajon Rondo
Goran Dragic
Shooting Guard
Bradley Beal
CJ McCollum
Zach LaVine
Markelle Fultz
Antonio Blakeny (possible SG Punt)
Small Forward
LeBron James
Josh Richardson
Robert Covington
*I think you can see why I was fine with Porter + Punt here LOL*
Power Forward
Bobby Portis (Love this play)
Brandon Ingram
Dario Saric
Al-Farouq Aminu
Center
Joel Embiid
Hassan Whiteside
Jusuf Nurkic
DraftKings
DraftKings is much different given that they do not drop your lowest score, and to top it off they often have much tighter pricing than FanDuel. That being said, something went severely wrong today as John Wall and Bradley Beal are both criminally under-priced. I would start by build on DraftKings by jamming in both of them, along with Cam Payne and Robert Covington, who is much cheaper than he is on Fanduel. That build leaves you with $6,675 to fill up four positions. At this point, you can pretty get who you want. I typically like to play DK more balanced, so I don’t think LeBron is a must, though that’s not saying he’s not a strong play. Implementing my rankings above, you could take that build and fill in with an Embiid/Portis combo at F/C or look to get a Lillard/Simmons in with Wall and Beal. There are plenty of ways to go, hopefully no more injury news pops up and turns it into more of a value fest than it already is. Be sure to monitor injury news up until lock!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
