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The featured simulated basketball contest on DraftKings for Wednesday afternoon is between the Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic. Here, we’ll go over how to approach lineup construction for the fantasy basketball contest.
Captain’s Picks
There’s something up with the pricing for this contest. For starters, Devin Booker ($16,200) seems way too cheap. Booker’s ceiling is going to look like 70-80 points in the Captain’s spot, perhaps even higher. He’s pretty consistent too, so you’re not looking at a high bust potential. It’s just weird that Booker is only $300 more than a play like Evan Fournier ($15,900).
Fournier isn’t even averaging 20 points per game. Booker is averaging 26.1 points per game. That discrepancy alone tells us how underpriced Booker is right now. Even Nikola Vucevic ($15,600) looks like a better play and he’s not much cheaper. Vuce at least has triple-double upside and a safer floor than Fournier. If we go down a bit lower, Deandre Ayton ($11,100) is really underpriced also. Ayton’s been hurt most of this season but when he was on the court for 30 games, he was very good. He’s almost a 20-10 type of guy — 19 points, 12 rebounds per game, shooting 54.8% from the field. The small sample size is key, less variance in the box score.
FLEX Options
There are a ton of great options in this contest on the Suns side. Ricky Rubio ($6,600) has triple-double upside like Vucevic, except he’s a point guard and gets assists more consistently. Rubio is a guy we’d normally see priced around the $7-8K range in Classic contests. Even in Showdown, this is really low. Aron Baynes ($4,400) isn’t a bad value on Phoenix given his ability to board and a few high-upside box scores.
As for any extreme value, well Frank Kaminsky is only $3,000 and has had plenty of games in double figures. Even Dario Saric ($3,000) at the same price has value. Elie Okobo ($1,400) would be my punt play to try and stack some studs. Chieck Diallo ($1,200) even looks good, it’s insanity I tell you!