Coach Tom Thibodeau was famous for that in his years in Chicago, leaving Butler (and Luol Deng) in the game even when the contest was well in hand. It's also important to know which coaches have a tendency to keep their starters on the court, even when the score is lopsided. Keep that in mind any time you pay up for someone like Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry on a night when the Warriors are heavy favorites. This was a problem in Golden State the past two seasons, when the Warriors pulled out to big leads and often went to their bench for the entire fourth quarter. If a game gets out of hand, it increases the chances that the best players will spend more time than usual on the bench. A simple review of the day's point spreads ( ESPN PickCenter for Insider subscribers) can help with that. It's also important to consider whether a game has a good chance of being a blowout. Keep in mind, any starter without a suitable backup is often forced to carry a bigger workload, and more minutes mean more opportunity. That means players like John Wall, Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler, just to name a few. You want players who can be counted on to play more than 30 minutes per game, whenever possible. Here are the minutes-per-game leaders from last season.
More time on the court means added opportunity to accumulate stats, so this is a good starting point.
Whether you're playing in GPPs (big tournaments with thousands of entries) or cash games (a smaller group of people with a much better chance of you winning), here are 10 tips - plus one key bonus tip! - that will help you have success in NBA DFS and take your lineup-building to the next level:Īs I mentioned above, you can't expect this to be the be-all end-all factor when making your lineup decisions, but it matters. But that's the draw - coming up with strategies, concepts and approaches, based on the matchups and available options, that can lead to a successful night with money in your pocket. On other nights, when more games being played, Westbrook will be just one of a dozen or more quality options at the position. Some nights, when there are only a few games, there might be a point guard like Russell Westbrook who seems like a must-play due to the lack of other options at the position. It's up to you to learn as you go and adjust your strategy based on the slate of NBA games on a given night. If you have to pay a lot for someone and he scores 27 points but finishes with three assists and one steal, that player failed to reach his expected salary value. Or it might seem to make sense to load up on players who score a lot of points, until you realize that often times high scorers come at a premium price tag without contributing much in other areas like assists and steals.