Welcome to the Core 4! My name is Michael aka @MadnessDFS on Twitter, make sure to give me a follow as I’ll occasionally make updates to the article throughout the day as news breaks. 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!
Purpose of the Core 4: These four players are guys that I want to lock into my cash game lineups and if doing multi-entry, using the Domination Station lock them in or set high exposure percentages to them. These are players that I see as underpriced, in great matchups, in play because of injuries, increased usage, etc. I also need to mention that these plays are normally geared toward Draftkings pricing and scoring, I’m not a huge fan of NBA for Fanduel, so if you see my list has three small forwards or two centers, etc. it’s because of the multi-position eligibility on Draftkings. With that said, let’s jump right into it!
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Process:
I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I get to my core guys or what do I use to get to these guys to set a foundation for my lineups, so I’m introducing a new section to this article that I’m hoping can lead this to be a little more process-based and help all of you either find a core that you like or simply see how I got to these guys so you know I’m not just pulling them out of my ass! With that said, let’s get this puppy started!
Recognizing Value:
When it comes to NBA DFS value is truly king and being able to pinpoint underpriced guys will go along way in your success in this sport. With that said, the first thing I do is head right to the Research Station (or Domination Station if you’re closer to lock) and go ahead and sort by “Value” or “PP/$”. This will then sort the player pool from the highest projected value to lowest. Many of you will see that I post my Core 4 results on Twitter and it will say something along the lines of Joel Embiid – 6.2x, that “x” number is the particular value that the player was able to reach at their price tag. That’s why questions in slack like “James Harden or Donte DiVincenzo” are incredibly difficult to answer because Harden is the obvious better play from a raw points perspective, but DiVincenzo may have a higher value. You can also scroll to the right in the Research Station and find the two columns that will tell you how the player has performed relative to a 6x (cash) or 7x (GPP) marker this season, as seen below.
And1 Rating:
Once we have determined the top value options on the slate we can begin to dig a little deeper into what makes them a good play. The And1 rating is an all-encompassing metric that will lead you to the best plays on each slate each day. As you’re looking through your “sorted” Research Station or Domination Station, you will want to look for a green shade in the And1 column, green is good, red is bad!
Opportunity:
In the NBA, opportunity is everything which is very different from other sports. In baseball, a guy could get a spot start and get five at-bats and do absolutely nothing with them. That is typically not the case in NBA, if a guy is injured or out for some reason, usually a guy at a cheaper price tag will jump right into a decent role and be able to produce from a fantasy perspective no matter the actual NBA talent of the player. This is where I keep an eye on the Breaking News Feed for injuries or updates on potential value guys that we could look at starting.
Matchup/Pace:
Lastly, you don’t want a guy in a bad matchup, that much seems pretty obvious. That said, there are scenarios where I’m able to live with a poor DvP%. I’m a big believer in pace being a better representation of DFS production that simply defense vs. position especially in today’s NBA where some teams are running up and down the court forcing the other team to play up to there speed. This is where I got to the Research Station and scroll over and find the “Vegas” and “Pace” section. Simply put, the more points scored in a game, the better for DFS production. You want to target guys with a + pace boost, also noted by having a green shade in this column.
Reverse Engineering:
Here is how my core from yesterday performed –
- Trae Young – 53.5 DraftKings points; 5.2x
- CJ McCollum – 53.25 DraftKings points; 5.8x
- Jakob Poeltl – 1.00 DraftKings points (got hurt two minutes into the game)
- Andre Drummond – 60.25 DraftKings points; 8.4x
Overall, it was a very nice night for the core other than Poeltl. The process was there on him and he got the start like we were looking for, he just happened to get hurt two minutes into the game. We will chalk that up to the unpredictability of the NBA, not much we can do when a guy gets hurt. The other three members of the core bailed him out nicely, however, as they all went for over 50 fantasy points. Let’s move onto tonight!
Today’s Core 4:
Damion Lee (SG) – $5,600
We will kick off the Core 4 with the Warriors hosting the Washington Wizards. It originally sounded like Steph Curry was going to return today, but that has been pushed back meaning we will get this starting lineup at their “normal” usage rates. Ever since the departure of Russell, Burks, and Robinson, Damion Lee has been seeing consistently high minutes. He has at least 30 minutes in four straight games and as we know, opportunity is huge in NBA DFS. Not only is he getting the minutes but he’s performing as well. He has at least 29 DraftKings points in each of those four games and gets a wonderful matchup today against the Wizards. This is a pace up spot for the Warriors as they will see an increase of +2.7 to go along with Lee’s 14.7 And1 rating which is one of the highest on the slate. His price isn’t a very good representation of his current form and his matchup here, I will get a lot of Lee today.
Anthony Davis (PF/C) – $9,900
The second piece of the core traveling to New Orleans to take on his old squad. This game has an implied total of 234.0 and the Lakers see a nice pace bump at +3.0. These two teams just met up this past week and Davis went for 57.5 DraftKings points which we would more than be okay with here. Normally it’s pretty hard to decide between playing Davis and LeBron but I do think we have a bit of insight on playing Davis here. This is the back end of a back-to-back for this Lakers team and LeBron played 34 minutes last night while Davis played just 25, so he should be well-rested. He has one of the highest And1 ratings on the slate at 19.8 and any time Davis is below $10k, my eyes light up. He is my favorite spend up option on this four-game slate.
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Nikola Jokic (C) – $9,300
The beauty of DraftKings is we can jam all these big men into our lineup with ease. I’ll add another center to the list in Nikola Jokic. The thing with a four-game slate like this one is some times value isn’t all that high so getting raw points really matters and I think that’s what Jokic brings to the table here at a price that feels too cheap. The Raptors frontcourt is banged up right now with Marc Gasol officially out and Serge Ibaka (who is too small for Jokic in the first place) being questionable. If they both end up missing either Siakam would be forced to try and cover Jokic or it would be up to a combination of Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Chris Boucher. Really, without Gasol, they don’t have size for Jokic. He’s not in the greatest of form over his last two games, but that is because his minutes were down due to blowouts and this one should stay close as these are two solid playoff teams. This is also a pretty hefty pace up spot at +3.4 for the Nuggets, I love me some Jokic here.
Marquese Chriss (C) – $5,500
How about another big man!? You can play Anthony Davis at power forward while having two centers on DraftKings, so I’m going to roll with Chriss here. He’s another piece of that Warriors team that gets a great pace up matchup against a Wizards team that plays very little defense. The Wizards frontcourt is getting healthier but they’re also not very good. The Research Station loves Chriss here, as do I with a projected value of 6x his price tag. He has scored at least 33 DraftKings points in two of his last three games and I’m expecting him to see a few more minutes here now that he has firmly returned from his brief injury set back. He’s got a 106% DvP ranking in the Domination Station as well, this is just a perfect matchup and one that I’m looking to exploit here.
As always I appreciate everyone who gave the article a read! Feel free to mix it up with me in our coaching forums as news breaks and lock approaches. If you don’t know about them, our two newest pages contain Breaking News and our exclusive Coaches’ Picks……both invaluable for late-breaking news and pivots in NBA.