What’s up all, Lindy here! This article series will walk you through the key parts of the main NBA DFS slate every evening. Unexpected news could always come from nowhere to rattle a slate, so don’t take this as gospel. But here are a handful of key decision points for tonight’s slate that I’ll be factoring in so you are better prepared for what’s to come and can optimize your lineups accordingly. Let’s get right into today’s NBA DFS lineup advice! Need more NBA DFS lineup advice? Check out our NBA DFS lineup generator or our industry-leading NBA DFS simulation tools.
NBA DFS Lineup Questions: Key Decisions for Today
NBA DFS Lineup Advice: Welcome to Jurassic Park
Two pieces of news dropped early this afternoon to shake up tonight’s main slate. First, Warriors-Jazz was officially postponed due to a horrific situation surrounding Golden State assistant coach Dejan Milojevic, who passed away from a heart attack this morning. That game was scheduled to be the last of the main slate (Nets-Trail Blazers is not on the main slate), so tonight’s going to be another 90-minute sprint to the finish.
And the second piece of news, while inconsequential compared to the Warriors situation, has major DFS implications: Pascal Siakam was traded from the Raptors to the Pacers. That makes tonight an all-out frenzy to roster all of the Raptors in all of the land, and when projections update across the industry later tonight, that will be reflected.
But who should we be rostering the most? We’ll obviously need to see the starting lineup to parse up minutes for this new-look team, but let’s compare the Raptors players’ DraftKings points per minute with Siakam both on and off the floor this season with the help of AddMoreFunds.com:
Two things you might notice right off the bat: 1) I didn’t take injured Jakob Poeltl or former Raptors O.G. Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa off the floor on purpose in order to get the largest sample size for each player possible, and 2) Immanuel Quickley and R.J. Barrett are brand-new Raptors themselves and have miniscule sample sizes compared to the other rotational pieces.
However, I find it somewhat surprising that Scottie Barnes is the only player above who sees a noticeable bump in his rate, ticking up from 1.23 DraftKings points per minute sharing a floor with Siakam to 1.27 without him. He’s definitely someone I see being nearly $10,000 on DraftKings in the not-so-distant future, and tonight, so long as his ownership stays remotely in check, there’s no way I don’t roster him a ton. Still, more so than rates, Siakam’s absence opens up 36 minutes that could be filled by a number of dudes (except Chris Boucher because apparently they hate him). So tune into NBA Live Before Lock for my updated thoughts, as this news just dropped and nailing down minutes for this team will be quite the task, especially if Gary Trent Jr. (currently questionable) gets ruled out as well.
NBA DFS Lineup Advice: Nuke of the Night
I will say that, if Barnes has anything south of 30% ownership on DraftKings, I reserve the right to replace him as Nuke of the Night. But I see him getting steamed, so I’ll go with another fantastic spend-up on tonight’s slate: Donovan Mitchell.
The Cavaliers star averages 36 minutes a night, carries a 31.2% usage on the season, gets a massive boost with the Bucks playing at a breakneck speed this season, and I feel like nobody cares. So at just 15.4% ownership with a 20.2% chance to be optimal according to the Stokastic Boom/Bust tool, care a little more and thank me later.
