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Surprisingly enough, we have a couple of notable NBA events happening this week. Not only will we get an NBA 2K20 Champion later today, on Sunday we’ve got a HORSE Challenge on ESPN featuring NBA players and alum. But before that, we’ve got another simulated basketball Showdown contest on DraftKings to go over. This afternoon it’s the Dallas Mavericks vs. the San Antonio Spurs — The classic Battle for Texas. Here’s a link to the contest and be sure to check out the rules before locking in a lineup.
Captain’s Picks
It’s tough to make a case against using Luka Doncic ($18,300) in this spot. You’re not going to find any other player with the type of ceiling as Doncic — honestly it’s hard to find this in any contest. The only other way to approach the Captain spot is paying way down and trying to fit in Doncic and a few other high-priced players. If you end up going that route, Jakob Poeltl ($2,700) has 58 games and 10 starts this season. His numbers are low of course, but we’re really only looking for someone cheap who can get to around 15-20 fantasy points at 1.5x. It allows us to get in Doncic and probably two of DeMar DeRozan ($10,800), LaMarcus Aldridge ($10,200) and Kristaps Porzingis ($9,600) in the UTIL spot.
FLEX Options
So we’ll go over the two lineup construction scenarios a bit. If you go with Doncic in the CPT, you’re left with $6,430 on average to fill out the rest of the lineup. I’d say two values are a good benchmark to aim for in these situations. I mentioned Poeltl ($1,800) who gets even cheaper at UTIL.
A few other appealing UTIL options under $4K include Bryn Forbes ($3,800), Maxi Kleber ($3,200), Trey Lyles ($2,800) and Dwight Powell ($2,400). These are mostly big men who come in at cheap price points. Forbes has some upside with his 3-point shooting. If you land a box score with 3-4 treys, you’re in good shape at this price. Powell started 37 of 40 games before going down with a torn Achilles for the season. You get some starters value at a discount price in this contest. This makes lineup construction pretty simple, good luck!