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It’s Thursday and we’ve almost made it to the “weekend” when there’s still no basketball and we can’t leave the house to go watch basketball at a bar. If you couldn’t tell, the quarantine is getting to me. Anyway, DraftKings is offering simulated basketball contests for the NBA and Thursday afternoon we’ve got the Toronto Raptors vs. the Miami Heat for fake basketball. Here’s a link to the contest and be sure to check out the rules before locking in your lineup.
Captain’s Picks
This feels like one of the more balanced pricing lists I’ve seen for these types of contests. The price difference between Jimmy Butler ($16,200) and Kyle Lowry (14,100) is $2,100, which isn’t a wide gap in this contest. I think the two players sandwiched between those two guards — Pascal Siakam ($15,300) and Bam Adebayo ($15,900) — are both better options.
We know that forwards and centers generally have safer floors due to rebounding stats. Lowry has missed time due to injury this season, and him and Butler are similar in my eyes. Siakam makes the most sense. He’s a bit on the cheaper side and was consistently scoring around 30 points on most nights earlier in the season. I don’t think this is a contest we can pay down at Captain, but you could also manage to fit in those four studs if we find two really cheap plays.
FLEX Options
Ahhhh, it’s cheap plays you want, well okay. There are plenty of really affordable Raptors plays out there. Toronto has missed a ton of man games due to injury this season, so we’ve seen a ton of their role players thrust into the spotlight. Terence Davis ($2,800), Marc Gasol ($2,400) and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson ($2,200) are all under $3K and have spent their fair share of time in the starting lineup.
There isn’t much value on the Miami side, but Kelly Olynyk ($2,400) seems underpriced given what he did back in November. All it takes is a double-digit scoring box for Olynyk and we’re looking at easy value hit. Duncan Robinson ($4,600) would be my other FLEX play for the Heat. The rookie has started 60 of 65 games this season, shooting 44.8% from 3-point range. You’d think a player starting all season and one of the best 3-point shooters in the League would get some respect in this contest.