NBA DFS has consistently grown every year since its inception. The NBA is an excellent option for any daily fantasy player, new or experienced. There are a variety of competitions and games available. NBA season-long fantasy can be brutal to keep up with; if you miss setting your lineup for a week or two, it can mess up your chances at winning the league. While NBA daily fantasy allows you to play as little or as often as you want. Whether you have never played or play all the time, we are here to help you set the best lineups and give you the keys to success.
How to Play
If you have never played, figuring out how to get started can be so daunting it makes you not want to play. Don’t let that be you; it is much easier than you think and can be loads of fun. Not only that, there is the opportunity to make a little or a lot when you win. If you play all the time or occasionally, maybe you need a little help tweaking your strategy or want to know how to optimize your lineups better? Well, that’s what we are here for, to help you start increasing your chances of winning every time you play.
Lineup Budget/Money/Cap Space
When you set a lineup in DFS NBA, you have a salary/budget/cap that you have to stay under while building your lineup regardless of the lineup type. Each player has a value salary-wise set by the site/app you are using. Those values are directly tied to a predicted number of points a player is predicted to get. You are trying to get the most value that you can get for each pick that you can. If a player has a high salary and a typical high point-getter, but you don’t like their matchup, it may be time.
Lineup Types
A standard nine-player NBA lineup consists of 2 points guards (PG), two shooting guards (SG), two small forwards (SF), two power forwards (PF), and one center (C). Like every other daily fantasy sport like MLB, NFL, soccer, and more, lineup types can vary between competitions. Another common lineup type is a five players lineup; sometimes, it can be 5 of any position, and other times is one from each position with a total of 5 players.
Advice
You will hear this repeatedly throughout daily fantasy sports; lineups are all about value, though. An inexpensive player who scores many points for you is a high value. Yet a higher salary player has to score significantly more to give the value of what you paid for them.
Another essential part of the equation is scoring systems differing between different sites/apps. Even in the same site/apps, different competitions may have different scoring systems or, more commonly, multipliers. Fanduel has a lineup system where you select five players, but the top three players in your lineup have multipliers. Meaning a player’s points are multiplied by a specific value.
There are limitless lineup types in the NBA, and each differs by the site/app from DraftKings to FanDuel to Yahoo Sports. It is essential to look at the different lineup options and see what is most comfortable for you as a user. One we would recommend is DraftKings NBA Tiers lineups. It splits players into tiers 1-6, and you choose one player from each tier. There is no lineup salary/cap space to have to work within. Just choose one player from each tier.
Tips:
In the NBA, an opportunity is everything, which can be seen from many different angles. Perhaps a team’s starting shooting guard is hurt or is resting on the second night of a back-to-back. The team’s backup shooting guard is a streaky shooter but will be a starter tonight. They will not cost as much as the starter, and with more shooting opportunities, they could get hot.
- Matchups for any sport are significant, whether it is the MLB, CFB, or any other sport. In regards to the NBA is that star player that costs a lot getting matched up with a 1st team all NBA defender. Then it may not be the best night to put that player in your lineup. Maybe you are thinking of putting a three-point specialist in your lineup; look at the team they are playing that night. Ok, they are in the bottom five in three-point defense; that would be a good value then.
- Look at the team’s opponents as well; on a night where Steph Curry is playing against the Pistons, is he a good choice for your lineup. The initial thought is yes because he is playing against a bad team. Yet if they blow the Pistons out, is Steph going to play much past the middle of the third quarter? Probably not, so then he may be too high of a cost for the value he will provide.
Why is Daily Fantasy Better Than Season Long Fantasy?
In the NBA, season-long fantasy can be hard to keep up with, and everyone is busy living. Trying to remember to set your lineup every time necessary can be troublesome. You forget one time, and it can set you back. Even if you keep up with it, maybe you are in a league where about halfway through the year, it seems half the league has given up.
None of this is a problem in DFS because you are only bound to the lineup you set that day. A player gets hurt in warmups before the game. No problem, go switch them out before the game starts. Don’t have time to play for several days; no problem play when it is just convenient and fun for you. Make the most of your DFS NBA experience and try to have some fun. We hope this breakdown has helped you feel good and ready when you enter your next contest.
Frequently Asked NBA DFS Questions
DFS is legal over most of America. Each app or site will ask you to use your location to determine if you can play.
Many platforms are available, but the two top providers in DFS are FanDuel and DraftKings.
On FanDuel, it is $6,667, and on DraftKings, it is $6,250.
Yes, it is, especially with the wide variety of competitions there are a lot of opportunities for players to win.
On FanDuel, it is $3,500, while on DraftKings, $3,000.