There are a ton of major differences between DFS in the NBA and NFL. Besides the obvious, the biggest is how incredibly difficult it is to project ownership percentages. In the NBA, we don’t get the opportunity to have an idea of where the “crowd” will go or what they are thinking before rosters are locked for the night. Now, there are tricks that you can use if you play on both FanDuel and DraftKings, but we don’t really know that until after lock. We can however, get a close idea of how much a player is going to be owned by listening to the “chatter”. By listening to podcasts, reading articles, and depending how the matchups are looking, we can use this to our advantage. As I’ve said before, the first thing I do is write down the spreads and the players in those games. The main reason I do this to make sure I look at things before being influenced. I have found that this not only helps me find value, but to also find lower ownership players, which is extremely important in tournaments.

There are certain situations where I don’t even look at ownership percentage or take it into consideration when building my lineups. Russell Westbrook without Kevin Durant is never a question for me. In that situation though, I really pay a lot of attention to what the chatter is saying about where the crowd my be leaning too. Typically, whenever you pay up for one of the elite players, human nature is to save at the other position. In this situation, I like to pay up for another elite player. My favorite move is always paying for Russell Westbrook and another higher end PG in tournaments. My reasoning behind this is because even though Westbrook might be one of the higher owned players of the night, I’m looking at the combined ownership percentage of PG in the tournament. Even if I get one at 34% and another at 26%, the odds of both being in the same lineup are considerably lower. This accomplishes two goals. One, I’m getting two very good players at a lower combined ownership that typically have a higher usage rate, higher floor, and higher ceiling, and two, it forces me to have a different roster construction than most of the field in the tournament. This one move, no matter how small, gives me a huge advantage over the field and usually gives me two or three more positions with lower ownership. This is the kind of move, that if you hit on the rest of your positions, will allow you to move up the leader board a lot quicker than if you roster the same type of players that everyone is talking about and hoping you nail one or two lower ownership players by reaching or trying to get too cute.

We can accomplish this in a couple of different ways. The most common is by trying to pair a couple elite players together and hoping you hit on the right combo. The other is when there is a lot of value at a position, I like to pay up if possible. So keeping an eye out on what the value of the day is and not always falling into the crowd pool is a perfect way to achieve the different roster construction. When it comes to value in the NBA, the latest value is always the new toy. Meaning, that’s who people are going to looking at the most. By writing down my value plays early, it allows me not to fall into that trap. Gerald Green last night was under 8% owned in some of the tournaments I was in. Where players like Otto Porter and Drew Gooden were above 25%. Hind site is always 20/20, and I had shares of all three, but Green outscored both of them. Almost put together.

Make sure that you grab your NBA Cheat Sheets for tonight.

NBA Cheat Sheet (DK) PDF

NBA Cheat Sheet FD PDF

NBA Cheat Sheet

NBA Cheat Sheet (DK)

I also want to blame apologize for yesterday’s podcast. I’m working on it and it should be go tomorrow.

Please, make sure that you like, subscribe, and share the DFS Army Show YouTube page so we can get out there to more people. You can also follow me on Twitter @Boomersdfsdaddy and the DFS Army show @dfsarmy.

Good Luck Tonight!