This article is part of our DraftKings NBA series.
The Showdown madness continues over at DraftKings, and we'll tackle Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals with a Saturday start at 8:30 p.m. ET. My favorite builds are here for your perusal below.
SLATE OVERVIEW
Although we've been covering the single-game contests over on FanDuel for about a week, Saturday allows me to take a crack at the DraftKings Showdown format. In past seasons, I've given a rundown on the previous winning lineup to offer some perspective on future results. Since I usually only play on a site I cover for that specific day, I don't have the numbers for the best lineup, but FanDuel's winner can still provide some information. Here was a winning lineup from one of the site's most popular contests:
MVP Anthony Edwards
UTIL Cason Wallace
UTIL Luguentz Dort
UTIL Jalen Williams
Chances are you didn't cash if you faded Dort, who added a brilliant offensive showing to complement his excellent defensive play. You're forced to make some tough budget calls when you're considering guys like Edwards or SGA for the Captain slot. In this case, reaching down for Alexander-Walker, Wallace and Dort gave room for Edwards' 1.5x salary increase.
The DraftKings format is slightly different. The salaries tend to run a bit lower, but you are only given $50,000 to work with. The result is a per-slot average of $8,333.
WE WANT THE BIG THREE
I believe the best path to victory for this slate has to include this combination:
Anthony Edwards (CPTN $17,100, UTIL $11,400)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (CPTN $18,300, UTIL $12,200)
Jalen Williams (CPTN $14,100, UTIL $9,400)
From a point-per-dollar perspective, Williams seems like a good Captain fit since he has the lowest cost by a pretty wide margin. Edwards and SGA have UTIL salaries that are relatively easy to fit into our build, provided we make some smart budget calls.
Although Julius Randle (CPTN $14,700, UTIL $9,800) will be immensely popular, his terrible Game 2 compels me to fade him relative to this price point. Even if he bounces back, I think both prices are too high.
BUDGET PLAYS
Luguentz Dort ($3,800)
Nickeil Alexander-Walker ($2,200)
Donte DiVincenzo ($5,200)
Jaden McDaniels ($7,600)
Cason Wallace OR Mike Conley OR Alex Caruso ($4,600-$5,000)
I'll explain my inclusion of McDaniels here in a moment. If we are intent on some combination of SGA, Edwards and Williams at the top, we have to go low with at least two of these options. My money is on Dort as the best option, but where I go with the final two UTIL spots is a bit muddier. I grouped the trio of Wallace, Conley and Caruso together because they're all punts that will provide similar totals. I separated Alexander-Walker from the group because his usage has gone up against Minnesota, and if any budget guy has a shot for an above-average result, it's him. His $2,200 salary is also very tough to fade, and it allows us to get DiVincenzo or even Rudy Gobert ($5,800) in the final slot.
ALTERNATE BUILDS
If we want to get Chet Holmgren (CPTN $12,900, UTIL $8,600) involved, we'd have to get creative. To include him, we'd probably have to ditch one of the elites mentioned above, and Williams would likely be the casualty. There's cause for taking this route, as Holmgren has posted the higher total several times during the playoffs, most notably during the previous series against Denver. The early numbers against Minnesota clearly favor Williams, but the $1,000 difference in UTIL salary makes them very switchable. We'd have to make a move to SGA or Edwards at CPTN to do that, but there may be another method that we're all missing.
ALEXANDER-WALKER OR DORT AS CAPTAIN?
These methods could allow for a lot of excellent possibilities. Let's first look at Dort. If we slide in our initial three elites behind Dort, we have $5,650 for the remaining slots. Combos for the final two positions could be Alexander-Walker with Holmgren or McDaniels. If we used Alexander-Walker's $3,300 multiplier, the field opens further, and we can put together an excellent combo of SGA/Edwards/Williams/Randle/Dort behind him.
Dort//SGA/Edwards/Williams/Randle or Holmgren/Alexander-Walker
Alexander-Walker/SGA/Edwards/Williams/Randle/Dort
I will run with two builds tonight. I'll go big with a Williams or Edwards CPTN slot alongside SGA and some scrubs, and the Alexander-Walker CPTN build listed above will be my second play.
Agree with these recommendations? Give them a spin with various combinations of other players in RotoWire's NBA DFS Lineup Optimizer.
