Daily fantasy basketball contests will kick off early this year, just like the 2017-18 NBA season. Commissioner Adam Silver has moved opening night to its earliest date ever —Tuesday, Oct. 17 — in an effort to limit back-to-back games on team schedules.
There will be sizable slates of NBA action almost every night for six months, and you can hit the reset button each and every night by picking new lineups on DRAFT.
This innovative DFS site allows users to select the players they feel will do best on a given night without adhering to a salary cap. Users simply select the best player available in a snake draft and, if desired, enter their final lineup into multiple contests so those same players are auto-drafted where available.
Not familiar with the strategies in DFS NBA? No problem. We’ll walk you through the basics in this article. And while you’re at it, be sure and follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
DRAFT.com Fantasy App Strategy
With only five starting slots available in NBA DFS drafts (G, G, F, F, C), the difference between winning and losing can often come down to those first few picks.
Obviously, you want to choose star players right away, but there are important questions to ask about those stars:
- Are they fully healthy and playing without any minutes restrictions?
- What is their Usage Rate? How often do they shoot?
- Does the opposing team have a defender capable of slowing them down?
- Are they at home or away? Are they hot coming into this matchup?
The answers to these questions are determined on a night-by-night basis and often change based on the landscape of the league. (Injuries play an especially important role here.) When a key player on one NBA team sits out, there’s often a ripple effect that increases the output from players throughout the rest of the roster.
This is also applicable to the opposition. For example, if Kawhi Leonard is inactive, you’re going to feel far more comfortable about drafting LeBron James first overall ahead of a Cavs-Spurs matchup.
The most important question as far as deciding on a star will be the overall prospects of the team. Be sure to check the Las Vegas point spreads and over/unders on a given slate to get a feel for how close or high-scoring a contest might be.
You clearly don’t want to draft stars who are expected to win in blowout fashion. You can also be contrarian by taking those players in the middle or later rounds in the hopes the underdogs fight down to the end. That’s why they play the games after all.
Contests and Scoring
DRAFT mostly offers smaller contests in either H2H or Three-Team leagues. This allows users to really target the players they want, and it ensures they get similar players if they use the Auto-Enter feature mentioned above.
There are also 10-team contests that more closely resemble season-long fantasy drafts, which may comfort users more accustomed to seasonal play.
As with any DFS site, there are contests more conducive to safe plays and larger pools that justify taking more risks. A 10-team league on DRAFT requires more contrarian thinking and planning to potentially outmaneuver other competitive users.
The DREAM TEAM contests go one step further by allowing users to select any player regardless of salary or draft order. Essentially, this is a collective attempt at a perfect lineup with entrant pools of up to 56 users. Taking some risks in this format can really pay off, since groupthink is going to result in a lot of very similar lineups.
The scoring in this mode is similar to that found on DraftKings and FanDuel, except that turnovers result in a full negative point. That, therefore, lowers the value of point guards slightly, who traditionally handle the ball more than any other position.
With no bonuses for double-double or triple-double achievements, finding the best players on DRAFT.com is simply about selecting the best options in terms of bulk production, as well as a nice base of scoring.
Gamesmanship
If you’re in a H2H or Three-Team league, it’s important to remember you’re playing against an opponent rather than shooting for the highest score possible.
While the highest point total wins, there are some strategies that can help you hedge bets or go all-in against a given opponent.
For example, if you’re in a H2H draft and the other player takes Kevin Durant, you could take Steph Curry (and/or Klay Thompson later on) in the hopes that Durant winds up deferring to his all-star teammates.
The same line of thinking applies to hedging bets. If your opponent drafts Karl-Anthony Towns, perhaps you’ll then grab new Timberwolves point guard Jeff Teague so that several of Towns’ buckets may also net you points by awarding Teague 1.5 points per assist.
Ramping Up Volume
While the majority of contests cost under $10 on DRAFT, there are plenty of high-stakes options as well.
For most, this DFS site is meant to be fun above all else. That means a great opportunity to build “Friends Mode” lineups or start out in Beginner Contests to avoid some of the most competitive and experienced users.
You can still build bankroll on this site by putting lineups in multiple contests with lower stakes. To gain more exposure with your lineups, you may want to use the Auto-Enter feature to use a similar lineup in different contests, provided the same players are available within the order of each respective draft.
By clicking the Set Your Rankings tab on DRAFT, you can prioritize the players you’d like in each contest, preventing a true auto-draft if you sign up for a contest and then miss out on the rapid-fire draft format.
With a user-friendly format and easy process for both deposits and withdrawals, it’s easy to make money playing NBA DFS on DRAFT and have fun while doing it.
Stay abreast of injury news on Twitter leading up to tip-off, and as always, check DFSreport.com every morning for a breakdown of DFS NBA action and contests.
