NBA DFS Picks DraftKings + FanDuel Expert Lineup Building Strategy 4/26

Welcome back to another week of the Slate Starter article and podcast (linked below). This weekend was an eventful one, with Awesemo subscribers hitting it big in MMA, MLB and, of course, NBA. If you were one of those to hit a big score, make sure to send a screenshot to the @AwesemoHOF Twitter handle to get your proper due. Plus, if you sport the Awesemo avatar and finish top three in any GPP with over 5,000 entries in that post, you’ll receive a free month of Awesemo+. And if you are yet to hit that accomplishment this month, let’s get to work making that a reality by identifying some NBA DFS picks and strategies for building DraftKings and FanDuel on today’s massive 11-game daily fantasy basketball slate.

Be sure to check out the Slate Starter podcast, featuring yours truly and Rynpak, to get the first look at the slate and make NBA DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel!

NBA DFS Slate Starter: Picks & Strategy | April 26

What the Slate Could Hinge Upon

Without fail on these slates with double-digit games, there seems to be a team or two that emerge as “super value” of sorts. Through some sort of combination of injuries, health and safety protocols and increased rest regiments, we’ve had multiple instances where a team was debilitated down to (or close to) the required eight active players, making for some crazy concentrated ownership even with massive games. And while it doesn’t seem as though we have that exact scenario developing at the moment, there is one team that could end up being an outrageous source of value depending on how two pieces of injury news shake out.

That would be the Mavericks and their superstar combo of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, who are both questionable entering Monday. If both were ruled out in any matchup it would be slate-altering news, as there’s no remaining Mavs player remaining price above $5,500 on either DraftKings or FanDuel. But this is no ordinary matchup, as they head to Sacramento to face the Kings, who rank dead last in defensive efficiency this season (and will be playing on the second half of a back-to-back to boot).

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But perhaps the most important aspect of this game is that it’s the lone late-night hammer at 10 p.m. ET. That means if Doncic and Porzingis end up being true game-time decisions and that news doesn’t break before 9 p.m. ET, you could be left holding the bag if you don’t guess this situation correctly. It also means if you decide to inherit the risk of rostering either of them and they are ruled in, you could be holding super low-owned studs in perhaps the best possible matchup in the Association.

So let’s lay out a bit of the framework for possible scenarios:

We get news way before lock that they’re both out and the Mavericks become super chalk. For whatever reason, that doesn’t feel all that likely, but at least the guesswork would be taken out of the situation.
We get news before lock that one or both of them are active, meaning they’ll be priority spend-ups on this slate and the rest of the Mavericks aren’t ultimate priorities.
There’s no word whatsoever on their injuries before lock. There’s inevitably going to be other cheap plays the public will feel more secure with, and they’ll garner far more ownership in the early window of games than the Mavericks.

If you’ve been reading this article through the season, you most likely know my preferred option is number three. This could totally end up being a “be careful what you wish for”-type disaster, but it’s too good of a spot with potentially too few of bodies to ignore. Add in that Josh Richardson and Maxi Kleber are also questionable for this team, and the importance of following this news throughout the day is paramount to success on Monday. So do yourself a favor and tune in to the Awesemo YouTube channel throughout the day to get updated information and analysis as this situation unfolds throughout the afternoon. And if at the end of the day we’re forced to make some pure guesses on these injuries post-lock, Godspeed to us all.

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Putting the “Stars” in “Stars-and-Scrubs”

Regardless of whether Doncic and Porzingis play tonight, there are a number of other $9,000-plus studs we’ll be looking to pay up for on DraftKings. Inherently on large slates, news opens up more than enough value to viably jam in two or more of the studs below in every lineup, creating stars-and-scrubs lineup builds as the preferred way to go in tournaments. And while there’s no way of knowing where exactly the primary value might be coming as of writing this the night before, it’s much easier to know which players will soak up the majority of the ownership on the top end:

NBA DFS Picks DraftKings & FanDuel daily fantasy basketball lineups today Monday April 26

Right below Doncic is Nikola Jokic at $11,000, who has continued his MVP-caliber play in the aftermath of the Jamal Murray injury. Amongst these elite center plays, it would be surprising if he didn’t project out as both the highest-projected and highest-owned play at the position on the slate. Check-in with Awesemo’s NBA DFS projections as news updates throughout the day to test that theory, but there’s no denying the Joker will garner some attention compared to the likes of the other center plays in this range.

That could perhaps make Joel Embiid the favorite spend-up should he play through the shoulder injury he sustained in the first matchup of the Sixers’ two-game set versus the Bucks over the weekend. Hopefully there’s no Doc Rivers funny business like we saw Sunday (don’t hold your breath), but considering Embiid sports a 43.5% usage rate and a video game-esque 1.88 DraftKings points per minute with Ben Simmons off the floor this season, he’s a smash if he plays. Add in that Tobias Harris is questionable and could join Simmons on the bench, there’s no denying the type of ceiling that could exist for Embiid in this spot versus the lowly Thunder tonight.

While there’s some interesting cases to be made for prioritizing just about everyone at this top end depending on how ownership shakes out, Paul George at $9,600 is basically a discounted $10,000 play with how he performs sans Kawhi Leonard. In 669 minutes with Leonard off the floor this year, George is putting up a 35.2% usage rate and averaging 1.38 DraftKings points per minute. In a paced-up Pelicans matchup, expect him to be one of the higher-owned plays from this range (and rightfully so). That being said, pay careful attention to the Awesemo NBA DFS ownership projections tonight, as pivoting onto the lower-owned pieces in this range in tournaments feels optimal considering how close their median projections could be.

Final Thoughts for Your NBA DFS Lineups

Just play Tyrese Haliburton.

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Author

Eric Lindquist

Eric Lindquist hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota (yes, that’s the one with Mount Rushmore). A steady diet of three SportsCenters a day at an early age led to his obsession with sports, one that 30 years later is paying dividends for him as a successful DFS player and sports bettor. Despite over half a million dollars in net career earnings, he’s most passionate about helping others achieve their financial goals, an energy you can witness on the daily in his current role as a host and analyst at Stokastic. He’s a former Division I golfer at Iowa State, wishes he was a former Minnesota sports fan, and is a proud father to a 100-pound Bernese Mountain dog named Duke that wishes he could just eat people food instead of the crap he and his wife feed him on the daily.