The NBA regular season is coming to an end, which means it’s time to start planning our postseason DFS strategy. While traditional slates will still be available — at least early in the postseason — many of the major games on DraftKings and FanDuel will employ the popular one-game formats. For NFL fans, visit the NFL Fanduel Optimizer now and learn more.
Captain will accept payment.
At the captain position, the winning lineup in 17 of the 19 slates paid at least $11,400. Only one winning lineup paid less than $8,100, while the winning captain earned just about $14,800 on average.
When you think about it, this makes sense. In the old format, star-and-scrubs was the most effective method for winning GPP lineups, and this is the Showdown version. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a captain, but you do want someone who can take advantage of the 1.5x multiplier and offer a lot of raw points.
Use the Budget Limits
Don’t just pay up to the captain. The winning technique appears to be to combine a costly skipper with a few additional superstars. The first utility player in winning lineups made an average of over $11,100, and the second made an average of over $9,500.
When paired with your captain, that means three players are responsible for more than $35,600 on average, or nearly 71.2 percent of the cap space. On a night-to-night basis, high-paid players provide the safest floor and greatest ceiling.
Keep an eye out for “Black Swans.”
The term “black swan” was coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb for investing, and our own Jonathan Bales and Matt Freedman have done an excellent job of applying it to daily fantasy sports. In DFS terms, a “black swan” is a player that is only occasionally a positive producer, but when he is, he has the potential to be a GPP winner.
Don’t stack too many games on top of one another.
In NBA DFS, stacking isn’t something that gets a lot of attention. Yes, you can stack a game if you believe it will go to overtime or a shootout, but we don’t think about it the same way we do in other sports. A receiver in football can only catch a pass if it is thrown to him. You can’t receive an RBI in baseball until someone else scores a run. Because the score in those sports is all closely connected, stacking makes a lot of sense.
Compare and Contrast Your Lineups
Even if you try to balance the Showdown slates, at least three players from the same team will appear. As a result, looking for players that can complement each other’s abilities is a good idea. You can check out NBA Draftkings Optimizer now and learn more.
