It’s a busy basketball Saturday night. Get the screens out, and get your DraftKings NBA DFS lineups in early. Let’s dig into the NBA DFS research, make some fantasy basketball picks, and plop on the couch and enjoy the six-game main slate that starts at 7 p.m. ET.
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Guard
Studs
Cameron Thomas, Brooklyn Nets at Indiana Pacers, $6,900 — Not much has changed this DFS season. Indiana is still a team to target with opposing players. Thomas will face a weak defense that plays at the second-fastest pace. He has scored over 36 DKFP in each of the last three games. Those games weren’t scoring dependent. He’s doing a little bit of everything. A little bit of everything gets a serious boost in this game environment.
Value
Josh Giddey, Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies, $5,800 — His shots are up. His minutes are up. Giddey has been good for a while. Usage and playing time were the issue. Over the last two weeks, he has two games where he produced 1.5 fantasy points per minute and one game where he exceeded 2 FPPM. The big game was against Memphis. He scored 40 DKFP in 19 minutes.
Bilal Coulibaly, Washington Wizards at Chicago Bulls, $4,600 — This might be the game of the night. It’s an ugly one but a beauty for DFS. Coulibaly is averaging 34 minutes per game over the last three games, His usage rate never budges. It’s always stuck in the teens. There’s not much upside for this NBA DFS value pick, but his floor is very safe. In GPP tournaments, PG Jared Butler ($3,000) could be an option. The Wizards are 10-point road dogs, and the bench could get extra run on night two of the back-to-back.
Forward
Studs
DeMar DeRozan, Chicago Bulls vs. Washington Wizards, $8,200 — Always target the Pacers. Always target the Wizards. This slate lacks stars. That doesn’t mean the studs won’t perform. DeRozan has scored over 40 DKFP in seven of the last 10 games and has gone over 49 DKFP in half of the games. On Mar. 13, DeRozan scored 67.25 DKFP. He’s played mega minutes with a large usage rate all season. This matchup will boost those numbers. Even if the NBA DFS elite were in the player pool, DeRozan would still be a stud pick in fantasy basketball on this Saturday slate.
Value
Torrey Craig, Chicago Bulls vs. Washington Wizards, $4,000 — Pick on Washington. The Wizards are terrible. Their frontcourt is a mess. Washington’s 2023 second-round pick, C Tristan Vukcevic ($3,000), was supposed to spend the season in Serbia. They brought him in this week. Craig got the start for the Bulls on Mar. 14. He scored 23 DKFP in 27 minutes. He should easily replicate those numbers against a weak Wizards frontcourt.
Alex Caruso, Chicago Bulls vs. Washington Wizards, $5,800 — We’re not done picking on the 11-55 Wizards. They’re banged up and on the second night of a back-to-back. Last night, they surrendered 135 points to the 24th-ranked offense. Caruso has cleared 30 DKFP in four of the last six games. The misses are explainable. The Bulls got blown out on Mar. 11 and Caruso only played 21 minutes. The other miss was another low-minute game due to foul trouble. Neither should be concerns for Saturday’s matchup.
Center
Studs
Deandre Ayton, Portland Trail Blazers at New Orleans Pelicans, $8,000 — There haven’t been many positives in Portland this season. Ayton is one of the exceptions. He has exceeded a return of value of 5x or more in 13 of the last 17 games. In the last six games, he’s scored 50 DKFP or more four times and over 60 DKFP twice.
Nikola Vucevic, Chicago Bulls vs. Washington Wizards, $8,400 — How many Bulls are too many Bulls? Is this a case of “Toro Loco?” The Bulls are modestly priced and the matchup is better than what the seasonal stats suggest. The Wizards do not have a frontcourt. Vuc will score at will. Every rebound is his. His last three games have been poor performances, but the matchups were tough. This is the opposite.
Value
Aleksej Pokusevski, Charlotte Hornets at Philadelphia 76ers, $3,800 — Who’s excited to have Poku back in our NBA DFS lives? The Thunder gave up on the Poku Project. There were promising moments during his rookie season. He worked because the Thunder didn’t work. When the Thunder improved, there was no longer a place for this project. The Hornets have nothing to lose. Pokusevski scored 24.75 DKFP across 27 minutes on Mar. 13. He followed with 18.75 DKFP in 16 minutes last night. It’s possible that the Hornets were saving his legs for Saturday. It’s a small sample, but he’s been over a point-per-minute player. We don’t need 30 minutes and heavy usage at $3,800. A little bit of playing time will be fine.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $200K Fadeaway [$50K to 1st]
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is greenflagradio2) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
