Welcome to the DFS Army Draftkings Tiers breakdown! The Tiers breakdown will consist of a breakdown of all six tiers on Draftkings and why you should or shouldn’t play some of these guys! My name is Steve aka @Mutt_18 on Twitter, make sure to give me a follow as I’ll occasionally make updates to the article and just because I like to think I’m a great Twitter follow (high hopes). But, you’ll mostly find me in our VIP coaching forums where I provide detailed lineup maneuvers and answer all lineup questions. With that said, let’s get it started!
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Tier One:
Honestly, everyone in this Tier is in play. I like Westbrook a lot less if Conley plays as he is a solid defender. Joel is coming off a bad game where he should bounce back against this Orlando interior and Dame will get all of the usage with McCollum still out. I also really like Paul George tonight as Memphis is middle of the road against SFs. Even though Westbrook is projected to score the most by the DS, I think its a bit inflated and my play of choice would be Embiid or Lillard. Update: Ben Simmons is out tonight, this is a boost to Joel as he sees a 3.6% usage rate bump. He is now my favorite play in this Tier.
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Tier Two:
My favorite plays in this Tier are going to be Nikola Vucevic and D’Angelo Russell. Dame is not a good defender and if you are playing Dame in Tier 1, it’s not a terrible idea to run with back ping pong style with Russell and he should score at will in this game and he’s been hot. The Magic are also going to need Vuc to come up big in tonight’s game, as he gets the matchup against Embiid and he’s averaging 51 FPPG over his last 3 against Philly. I’m not high on Simmons as he has struggled against the Magic, and there is serious blowout risk with Devin Booker and the Suns, same reason I am off Donovan Mitchell. Update: Ben Simmons has been ruled out tonight.
Tier Three:
Jonas Valanciunas is my favorite out of this Tier, along with Rudy Gobert as Gobert is averaging over 47 FPPG over his last 3 games against the Suns. JoVal is my favorite in this Tier for a few reasons. First, he is white hot in the RS and has a very high ceiling in this game. Second, Joakim Noah is doubtful tonight which will open up a bunch of usage and rebounds for JoVal to gobble up. The matchup isn’t ideal as Steven Adams is a solid defender, but if Conley is out again the offense will flow through Valanciunas. I’m on Mike Conley as well if he plays, as he is averaging over 50 FPPG over his last 3. Keep an eye on our Breaking News though as he is questionable right now. I’m not too high on Harris or Butler, especially if I’m already playing Embiid in my first tier. There’s simply too many mouths to feed in Philly after Embiid gets his, which really limits everyone else’s ceiling. Update: Simmons is out tonight, however Embiid sees the biggest usage bump so I still prefer him over those two. However if you want one of the two, Jimmy Butler would be the play as he should handle the ball a lot more in this one.
Tier Four:
Nurkic is the top play for me here and it’s not really all that close. Brooklyn is dead last against Centers and we’ve been successful attacking them all year long. He also should see some additional minutes with McCollum out as he is now their #2 scorer behind Damian Lillard. Cake matchup + opportunity = $$$. The only issue is he’ll likely be highly owned, and my pivot would be Aaron Gordon or Spencer Dinwiddie. Gordon has averaged 42 FPPG over his last 3 and gets a decent matchup against Philly and will dominate the second unit usage. Dinwiddie can also do the same against Portland as they are not strong against guards, but I wouldn’t play both him and Russell in the same lineup.
Tier Five:
My favorite play here is J.J. Redick with the news that Simmons is out. He sees the second highest usage rate bump with Simmons out at +2.2% and the Magic have been really bad at defending SGs. He also has the revenge game factor as he used to play for this Orlando team. We also saw a few nights ago what can happen when he gets hot from the field, and he should see plenty of open shots in this one. If you’re looking elsewhere my next play would be Delon Wright IF Mike Conley is ruled out tonight as Avery Bradley has already been ruled out. He should see close to 30 minutes and even more if Conley is indeed ruled out. My next play would be Ricky Rubio as PHX is god awful at defending the PG and TyJo is out again tonight. Derrick Favors is also in a favorable spot, as the DS projects him at the highest FP projection in this Tier. However, given the Sixers news and blowout risk in that game, I’m preferable to Redick.
Tier Six:
Tier 6 is always tough, but DraftKings actually gave us a break today as it appears that Steven Adams appears to be head and shoulders above the rest of the field. I usually defer to the Domination Station for cases such as this one, and it gives us a clear projection as Adams is projected to score almost 6 FPs more than the next highest projection, which bodes well for him being the top scorer in this Tier. Memphis is also ranked 26th aDvP against Centers with Marc Gasol gone which gives him a very favorable matchup. Adams also scored 46 FPs last time against the Grizzlies and is averaging 35.4 FPPG over his last 3 against them. My next pick would be Caris LeVert as he is starting to round back into form and gets a favorable matchup against Portland. However, he is very risky and I’d prefer to play it safe with Adams as he is the clear top option in this Tier. Other than that, Terrence Ross has the highest ceiling behind those two, but he is also very risky.
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