FanDuel and Factoids + Bonus Lineup

Note: kicktosscatch does not sell lineups. We want to teach you how to fish, and you can get just as much value from our articles without spending your money.

Yesterday I learned another lesson. When paying down for a player, you should be spending sub 4k. A bunch of 5k players didn’t show up for me yesterday. I think the extra 1k is worth the increased chances of busts. I don’t have all the answers. I’m not a weather boi.

Lineup 1:

Lonzo Ball: When you think of the Pelicans, your mind probably drifts to Zion and Brandon Ingram. They are a young, small-market team that spends most of their energy on the offensive end. People who don’t follow the Pelicans closely would be surprised to see the improvements that Lonzo has made in his game this year. He continues to be a great enabler for Zion. The Heat have a great defense however, Bam and Jimmy are both questionable tonight, opening the door for Lonzo’s playmaking.

Payton Pritchard: This rookie can shoot! This rookie class has shown itself to be incredibly deep, and Pritchard is no different. Payton has continued to see an increased workload because he has produced while absorbing minutes for hurt teammates. He carries just as much risk as any other shooter, which makes him egregiously underpriced.

Paul George: I don’t get it. George has a fantastic night against a much tougher defense and they don’t raise his price at all? A player is more likely to have a meandering performance after they ball out, sure. None of that accounts for just how much worse the Wizards are at defense than the Boston Celtics.

Isiah Quickly: Another rookie who doesn't get enough recognition because of all of the talents that surrounded him. I feel comfortable paying down for Quickly in this spot because the Pistons struggle on the offensive end. The Knick’s hard-nosed defense and slow pace of play will allow them to grind this game away from Detroit.

Kent Bazemore: With both Steph and Draymond out tonight, there are two approaches to maximizing value. The first is to identify Wiggins, or more likely Oubre, as the most talented player left on the roster and the player to add. The second is to find the best roleplayer from the Warriors as an efficient pay-down option. The only thing that makes one approach better than the other is the final score. Josh Jacobs finished with more Fantasy points last year than Christian McCaffery, did that make him a better pick?

Nicholas Batum: I still like the pricing of Robinson, Winslow, and Batum. Batum is relatively consistent. Batum has a floor of about 20 FanDuel points to repay his price tag. The Wizards will lose by a large margin, while Beal scores 30+ points and Russ gets a triple-double.

Giannis Antetokounmpo: Giannis is playing even better, and we aren’t really mentioning his name in the MVP race. It is a little boring to give it to the same person every year, but do you know what’s not boring? Watching people three times athletic as me, huddling together like a wall, in an attempt to try to stop somebody that is six times as athletic as I am. Let’s all just take some time to collectively thank Giannis for resisting the allure of the Golden State Warriors.

Daniel Theis: I didn’t follow my own advice from yesterday. I haven’t spent enough time researching the Celtics rotation. Do that before you submit Theis. Look at the price points of the various players, and maximize your Celtics 5 exposure.

Nikola Jokic: If there was an MVP for fantasy basketball, it would be Nikola Jokic. Jokic is the most expensive option for a reason. This lineup proves that you can play whatever combination of players that you want as long as you get creative enough.

Lineup 2:

DeAaron Fox: There are soo many options at the PG position today that I would recommend working your way from the bottom up. Otherwise, you’re locking your lineup into price points without a good justification. This is another lineup with Jokic and Giannis so I wanted to go for a mid-priced option that had the chance to put up 50 FanDuel points. The rest of the lineup is quite extreme, as I wanted to see just how low you can pay down without it destroying your roster.

Cory Joseph + DaQuan Jeffries: You can say that these are bad players, and I wouldn’t fight you over that fact. They have the same price as Klay Thompson, and he literally can’t step on the field. It’s also important to remember how much money that playing them saves the rest of our roster. Joseph and Jeffries together are still cheaper than DeAaron Fox. If they can collectively score 30-40 points, then this lineup will 100% money.

Bradley Beal: It’s fun to talk about how bad the Wizards record is, but it’s not fun to talk about the Wizards. I feel bad for Beal. Fantasy wise though, he’s the primary scorer on the 2nd worst defense in the league. Much like Karl Anthony Towns, Beal can play as well as he wants to but his teammates will never be able to elevate to his level of play.

These next two plays are just risky options that can only be justified via their average production to minutes ratio. Instead of saying that twice, I will try my hands at a joke for each player.

Terrence Mann: I wanted to diversify my share of the Clippers. He’s also T Mann.

Luka Sammanic: More over Luka! There’s a new Croatian player in town and his name…Luka.

Bonus Lineup:

Normally the bonus lineups will be DraftKings, but tonight I felt so confident in FanDuel that I wanted to include another lineup. Let me know in the comments if you want another series dedicated to DraftKings. I’m more than willing to talk about it, I just wanted to stay in the Arena where I felt I could be the most helpful to you.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read this article and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.