NBA Rookie - Lesson 03 - Scoring Tips and Tricks

DraftKings’ NBA Scoring system isn’t all too different from the traditional season-long style, but as is the case with most of the DraftKings fantasy scoring systems – there are a few unique twists. Understanding some of these intricacies and learning how to exploit them can be the difference in daily fantasy basketball, a sport that is almost always closely scored. The margins on the leaderboards are razor thin in daily fantasy hoops, so let’s take a look at some of the variables you can use to improve your lineups on DK.

First, let’s take a look at the entire scoring system for NBA contests on DraftKings:

For up-to-the-minute news, analysis and lineups, download the DK Live app, as news, injury reports and betting lines can change throughout the day. Value also unexpectedly can open up due to late lineup changes and late injury news, making it important to stay up to the minute with the DK Live app or DK Live desktop until lineups lock.

3-Point Bonus

DK awards a 0.5 bonus for any 3-pointer made by one of your players. This seems insignificant, but over the course of various games with your eight-man roster, the 3-point bonus can account for 5+ fantasy points total on a given night. The differences in point totals aren’t overwhelming, but over the course of an individual day, the 3-point bonus can play a huge role in your decision-making. If you have a toss-up between two players, one variable to consider is “what is the 3-point upside of both options?” Going with the guy who makes more threes can be a nice tiebreaker.

Turnovers

Turnovers aren’t nearly as important as you might think since DraftKings only takes away 0.5 fantasy points per turnovers instead of a full point. Again, this is a statistic that benefits the people with the ball in their hands most often — point guards. There are games where point guards may rack up 10 turnovers in a single game, and while that could knock you down by 10 full fantasy points, on DraftKings it only hurts you with a -5 (which ideally you still don’t want guys with 10 turnovers but the effect is muted a bit).

The biggest takeaway here though isn’t necessarily the stats themselves, but more who they benefit. Point guards benefit greatly from both the 3-point bonus referenced above as well as with the minimal turnover penalties. This makes the PG position extremely valuable on DraftKings, and you might want to consider trying to use a PG in both your UTIL and G positions whenever possible to maximize exposure to that position.

Triple/Double-Double Bonuses

Milestone bonuses are a cog of the DraftKings scoring systems for every sport. Pitchers receive bonuses for complete games and no-hitters in MLB games. Offensive weapons receive 300-yard passing, 100-yard receiving and 100-yard rushing bonuses in NFL games. And in basketball, players can reach double-double and triple-double bonuses. A double-double is when a player records 10 or more of two positive stat categories. Positive stats include:

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists
• Steals
• Blocks

If your player gets 10+ points and rebounds (or any combo of two of those five stats) you receive a 1.5 fantasy point bonus. Unlike the 3PM and TO scoring factors, this bonus benefits the big men the most. Since big men (PF and C) typically don’t handle the ball as much as other positions, achieving the double-double bonus becomes a nice way for those players to add value to your lineups.

Then there are triple-doubles, which occur when a player has at least 10 of three of the stat categories listed above. These are much rarer in basketball, but they occur in guards much more often than in forwards.

Clearly, these occur much less often though, and the triple-double bonus serves as more of a fun addition to your total fantasy score each night rather than a goal you should try to target. They are extremely difficult to predict, although certain players (such as the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook) are much more likely to pick up a triple-double in a given game.