Hello! DraftKings is doing its split-slate shenanigans again. So, instead of 11 games, we’re looking at a 7-game main slate and a 4-game late-night docket. I suppose this makes things less complicated – those double-digit slates tend to be incredibly wild – but it also limits our options. The builds on DK obviously look quite different than they will on FanDuel, where we’ve got the full 11 games at our disposal.
If you’re looking for the best plays around which to build, check out Kevin’s NBA core plays. Here, I’ll offer a few pivots that will (hopefully) help you differentiate enough from the field to reach the top of GPP leaderboards. Here are a few names on my radar this evening:
Derrick White ($7,900)
The Celtics look a little different this season. Jayson Tatum is out with an Achilles injury, while guys like Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet are now elsewhere. Jaylen Brown is a good bet to lead the new-look Celts in scoring, but we’ll also see an elevated role for Derrick White. $7,900 looks a bit rich for what we’re used to paying, but we can’t let bias get in the way. There’s a real chance White is an $8,000 player in this role.
On opening night against the Sixers, White led Boston with 25 points to go along with 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 stocks in 35 minutes. We know the Celtics want to run at a faster pace with this new roster, and they’re going to bomb threes like crazy. White saw a healthy 4% usage boost with Tatum, KP, and Holiday off the floor last season alongside a 1.14 FP/minute average.
The Celtics are only 3.5-point underdogs tonight at MSG in what should be a competitive game against the Knicks. New York has capable wing defenders, but I want to chase White’s ceiling at what should be low ownership. He’s projected for just under 10% ownership on DK as of this writing, and he may be even lower than that in single-entry. I love him as a midrange differentiator in either a balanced or a stars/scrub tournament lineup.
Franz Wagner ($7,600)
The Magic look like a real threat to come out of the watered-down East this season if they can stay healthy. Orlando draws one of the better matchups on the slate tonight against an Atlanta defense that was absolutely ravaged by the Raptors (??) in their season opener. The Magic have been a defense-first team over the past few seasons under Jamahl Mosley, but it looks like they’re trying a different offensive approach this year.
Orlando ran at an incredibly fast pace in their first game against Miami, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise considering they promised to make that a point of emphasis coming into the season. We know the Hawks are happy to run, as well, and Orlando is better equipped to keep up in track meets with Desmond Bane now in the fold.
Atlanta allowed 86 points in the paint to Toronto on opening night. For reference, no other team yielded more than 68 such points. That’s a pretty fucking massive difference. Not to overreact to a one-game sample, but we might just be able to pick on the Hawks’ frontcourt. The matchup bodes well for both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, but the latter is currently projected for a bit less ownership around the industry.
If the Hawks are going to get gouged in the paint, Wagner is in an awesome spot. He and SGA were the only non-bigs to rank in the top-9 in points in the paint a season ago, and he regularly ranks among the league leaders in drives. He wants to get to the basket, and the Hawks don’t look like a team that can prevent him from doing just that.
Dereck Lively ($4,800)
The Mavs got absolutely pounded on opening night by the Spurs. Playing against young teams could be an issue for a Dallas roster with some greybeards on it, but they’re in a much more advantageous spot tonight at home against the Wizards. I suppose Washington has an advantage in the athleticism department with so many children on the roster, but I still expect a nice bounce-back from the Mavs here.
Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, and PJ Washington are all drawing some ownership on DK, but we can’t say the same of Dereck Lively despite an attractive sub-$5,000 salary against a porous Washington frontcourt. Lively played all of 10 minutes against San Antonio thanks to foul trouble. He managed to rack up 5 fouls in those 10 minutes, which is remarkable efficiency. We can chalk that up to the matchup against Victor Wembanyama, who had the entire Dallas frontcourt in a blender all night.
I like Alex Sarr, but Wemby he is not. The Wizards allowed 6 blocked shots in their opening-night loss to Milwaukee, which was in line with their average of 5.2 last season. They’ve been one of the most-blocked teams in basketball over the last couple of years, and I’d expect Lively to rack up a few in this one. It’s also worth remembering that Daniel Gafford is still out with an injury, which should improve Lively’s minutes floor…assuming he can avoid falling into horrific foul trouble again. Even 24 minutes for Lively should be enough for him to have a path to 30+ DK points against a Wizards team that’s ranked in the bottom-10 in points in the paint allowed per game over the last several seasons.
Amen Thompson ($7,700)
The Rockets dropped a 2-OT thriller in Oklahoma City on opening night, and tonight they’ll take on the Pistons in their home opener. Detroit was a much-improved defensive team a season ago, but Amen Thompson is also playing a different role for a Rockets team that now has Kevin Durant and does not have Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, or Jalen Green.
Offensive efficiency still isn’t Amen’s game – he missed all 7 of his 3-point attempts against OKC – but a willingness to even take those shots shows a potential new wrinkle in his arsenal. He knocked them down at a higher clip in the preseason, so perhaps he’ll be more of a threat from deep moving forward. We’re well aware of Thompson’s ability to get to the basket, while he showed last season he’s fully capable of grabbing 10+ rebounds thanks to his insane athleticism.
Thompson won’t necessarily come cheap at $7,700, but there’s triple-double upside here every night. even if Amen isn’t a traditional point guard, he is playing more of a facilitating role than he did last year when he was essentially Houston’s starting power forward for much of the campaign. While Detroit is decent defensively, this is still a much more favorable draw than he got against the Thunder’s elite point-of-attack defense.
With the Pistons likely to commit so many resources to trying to slow down Alperen Sengun and Kevin Durant, I think this is a potential nuke spot for Thompson at what should be reasonably low ownership in tournaments.
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