FantasyDraft Launches NBA Beta Product

This week, our friends over at FantasyDraft launched the beta version of their NBA product. This Friday night should be a fantastic night to give the new FantasyDraft NBA product a try as we are treated to a great slate of 11 games, some of which are very appealing from a daily fantasy sports (DFS) perspective. I’m going to dig into some of the games I’ll be targeting and what my initial impressions of Friday night’s slate are.

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Many times the top value plays of the night are in games you wouldn’t necessarily be targeting. Nonetheless, it’s probably wise to go ahead and use those players so you can afford some of the star players in high profile matchups. Generally, I’m looking to target these high profile matchups because one of the best recipes for success in NBA DFS is a high scoring and close game. The benefits of having the starters play their full allotment of minutes and possibly luck into an overtime are huge and that is why you target these games. Here are some I’m looking at for Friday night.

Oklahoma City Thunder @ Atlanta Hawks

This game pits the hottest team in the league in Atlanta against what many would call the scariest team in the league in Oklahoma City now that Durant and Westbrook are healthy and humming. To me, this looks like one of the best games of the night to target because both of these teams are solid as a rock and it seems unlikely either will get blown out. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap and Al Horford are the first names that come to mind when thinking about possible DFS plays from this one.

Chicago Bulls @ Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks will be favored in this one and I could see them blowing the Bulls out a reasonable percentage of the time. However, Chicago is a very good team and one thing I absolutely love about them for DFS purposes is that coach Tom Thibodeau leans on his starters as much as any coach in the league. So even if the Bulls struggle in this one, you can bet that Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler and Pau Gasol will get a good amount of minutes to produce. One other thing to note in this game is that if Joakim Noah remains out due to injury, it’s pretty much become a rule for me that Taj Gibson makes his way into my lineup for that night. He hasn’t failed me yet. On the Dallas side, their starting lineup is so good that I feel like I never know which player(s) to use. Literally all five guys are fine DFS options on most nights and Friday night is no different.

Boston Celtics @ Denver Nuggets

I’m making an exception here, as these are two of the more frustrating teams for me to use players from because both just have a little randomness factor that I struggle to predict. The reason for the exception is I expect this one to have a very high total and their will likely be some strong performances from various players. The Celtics, being a young team, like to get many of their guys involved and that leads to headaches trying to predict how many minutes each player will get on a given night. Jared Sullinger and Evan Turner certainly have a lot of upside in this matchup though. For the Nuggets, all five of their starters could see nice games here, but they don’t really have an alpha dog scorer you can really lean on. Ty Lawson has his hands in most of what Denver does though, so he’s typically a very reliable option.

Houston Rockets @ Phoenix Suns

This one should be a doozy. Both the Rockets and Suns like to push the pace and fire from deep. The Rockets are 6th in pace and 1st by a mile in 3-point attempts, and the Suns are 2nd in pace and 3rd in 3-point attempts. I’m no odds maker, but I’d guess this would be one of the highest totals you will see all year. For that reason, this is definitely a good game to target on Friday. James Harden is just out of this world and has been all year. He’ll likely be the top projected fantasy scorer of all the games on Friday night. The Suns are another team that I struggle to put my finger on. They have a trio of really talented players in Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Markieff Morris who can all get hot on a given night and render the others a little less useful than normal. In addition, Isaiah Thomas and Gerald Green are a pair of fireballs off the bench and can really put their stamp on a game. That said, I’d definitely be looking to have a few players from this game in some form.

That’s all for today. Check out FantasyDraft’s new NBA Beta. I’m sure you’ll see me in a few games if you do.

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