This article is part of our FanDuel NBA series.
With the series now stuck at 2-2, the Warriors will look to continue their comeback in San Francisco in a crucial Game 5 match. We will try to find the best combo for the FanDuel single match Monday offer.
In FanDuel single-game competitions, participants will be given five positions to fill. While two of these are normal (UTIL) spots, the remaining three allow a multiplier to be awarded to the selected player. There are three levels:
MVP – 2x
STAR – 1.5x
PER – 1.2x
The most common mistake made with this format is the lack of emphasis on 2x player value and overemphasis on the 1.2x multiplier. In reality, adding 20 percent to a player’s score isn’t that important, while picking the wrong 2x player is likely to ruin your chances of winning. You can survive most mistakes at 1.2x and even 1.5x, but getting the 2x point right is important.
Unlike other sites, salaries are not weighted by the selected slot. All FanDuel salaries are static, which means their value stays the same no matter where you place a player. This eliminates the challenges of CPTN format games where you have to consider the total value of the multiplied salary when filling a series of utility spots. Instead, FanDuel’s single-match competitions are all about picking the top three scorers and rounding out the list with two value utility players.
Although I created a winning combo for game 4, I took a macro approach and created some lineups for the contests in the second half of FanDuel. I have compiled lineups based on two verifiable principles:
- The Warriors are a +EV team in the second half.
- In this series, Jayson Tatum started slow and finished strong in the second half.
By pairing Tatum with Curry in the top multipliers and littering the rest of the lineup with the Warriors supporting cast, we ended the second-half contests we participated in on a positive note. A nearly identical lineup also performed well in the full game options. I recommend experimenting with the contests in the second half as the potential overlays lead to more profitability.
Table of Contents
MULTIPLIERS CANDIDATES
Stephen Curry ($15,500) MVP
Jayson Tatum ($16,000) STAR
Jaylen Brown ($14,500) MVP, STAR
Andrew Wiggins ($12,500) PRO
Markus Smart ($12,000) PER
Clay Thompson ($11,500) PRO
Smart and Thompson can also play in the utility category, as long as you pair one of them with an inexpensive option. Of the Warriors trio, Wiggins’ defensive contributions in the suit seem to make him the safest Golden State player outside of Curry to deserve a multiplier. Brown gets a nod for MVP or STAR, but Tatum would then be the underdog in that scenario. Curry’s potential in the Chase Center is just too powerful to ignore, and fading him for Game 5 is likely a losing proposition. While it’s unreasonable to expect another 43-point performance, excellent stat lines have been a constant for Curry in the playoffs, and there’s no reason to expect any deviation. While I also like Smart, his salary is in the middle of nowhere, making him a difficult candidate.
Utility Candidates
Robert Williams ($10,000)
Jordan Poole ($9,000)
Derrick White ($8,500)
Gary Payton ($7,500)
Williams advanced in Game 4 with an impressive 36.4 FDFP. Much like Thompson and Wiggins, Williams is a viable option in both the Pro and Utility slots. Curry-Tatum or Brown-Wiggins stacks need to come down on White or Payton for one of their utility players, and that’s as high as you can go up. Using Curry, Tatum and Brown leaves you with only $7,000 per player and that leaves too many points on the table. If we choose Curry-Brown or Tatum-Williams we can use a more solid utility combo of Poole and White and this will be a very popular Monday build. For a more warrior-focused build, integrate Wiggins or Thompson with Poole and Payton.
CONCLUSION
As usual, your options depend heavily on how you think the Celtics will fare in the rematch in the Bay Area. A balanced build that includes Williams will likely perform well in cash games, but balancing the Warriors might be the best way to go against the grain in tournaments. Mixing and combining Tatum and Brown is a wise approach when competing in mass-entry GPP competitions.
The author(s) of this article may enter Daily Fantasy competitions including, but not limited to, games that they have recommended or advised on in this article. While playing these games with their personal accounts, it is possible that they use players in their lineups or other strategies that deviate from the recommendations given above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire.