FanDuel NBA: Monday Game 5 Value Plays

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Published on June 13, 2022

With the series now deadlocked at 2-2, the Warriors will attempt to keep their comeback going in San Francisco in a pivotal Game 5 match. We'll attempt to find the best combination for FanDuel's single-game Monday offering.

For FanDuel single-game contests, participants are given five positions to fill. While two of them are normal (UTIL) spots, the remaining three allow for a multiplier to be given to the selected player. There are three tiers:

MVP - 2x
STAR - 1.5x
PRO - 1.2x

The common mistake made in this format is a lack of emphasis on the 2x player value and the over-valuing of the 1.2x multiplier. In reality, adding 20 percent to a player's score is not that significant, while picking the wrong 2x player will likely kill your chances of cashing. You can survive most misses at 1.2x and even 1.5x, but getting the 2x spot correctly is essential.

Unlike other sites, the salaries are not weighed according to the slot selected. All of FanDuel's salaries are static, meaning that no matter where you put a player, their value remains the same. This eliminates the challenges of CPTN format games where you must consider the overall value of the multiplied salary as you fill a slew of utility spots. Instead, FanDuel's single-game contests are mostly about picking the top three scorers and rounding out the roster with two value utility players.

Although I put together a winning combo for Game 4, I took a macro approach and made some lineup built for FanDuel's second-half contests. I assembled lineups based on two verifiable principles:

The Warriors are a +EV team in the second half.
In this series, Jayson Tatum has started slowly and finished strong in the second half.

By pairing Tatum with Curry in the top multipliers and littering the remainder of the lineup with the Warriors' supporting cast, we finished with a positive result in the second-half contests we entered. A nearly identical lineup fared well in the full-game options too. I recommend experimenting with the second-half contests, as the potential overlays yield more profitability.

MULTIPLIER CANDIDATES

Stephen Curry ($15,500) MVP

Jayson Tatum ($16,000) STAR

Jaylen Brown ($14,500) MVP, STAR

Andrew Wiggins ($12,500) PRO

Marcus Smart ($12,000) PRO

Klay Thompson ($11,500) PRO

Smart and Thompson can also play in the Utility category as long as you pair one of them with a low-cost option. Of the trio of Warriors, Wiggins' defensive contributions in the paint seem to make him the safest Golden State player outside of Curry who is worthy of a multiplier. Brown gets a nod for MVP or STAR, but Tatum would then be the odd man out in this scenario. Curry's potential at Chase Center is simply too powerful to ignore, and fading him for Game 5 is likely a losing endeavor. Although it's unreasonable to expect another 43-point performance, superlative stat lines have been a constant for Curry in the playoffs and there's no reason to expect a deviation. While I also like Smart, his salary sits in a no man's land that makes him a difficult fit.

UTILITY CANDIDATES

Robert Williams ($10,000)

Jordan Poole ($9,000)

Derrick White ($8,500)

Gary Payton ($7,500)

Williams soared with an impressive 36.4 FDFP in Game 4. Much like Thompson and Wiggins, Williams is a viable option in both the Pro and Utility slots. Curry-Tatum or Brown-Wiggins stacks will have to dip down to White or Payton for one of their Utility players, and that's as high as you can go up top. Using Curry, Tatum and Brown will only leave you $7,000 per player remaining, and that will leave too many points on the table. By going 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-centric build, incorporate Wiggins or Thompson with Poole and Payton.

CONCLUSION

As usual, your options depend heavily on how you think the Celtics will fare in the Bay area rematch. A balanced build that includes Williams will probably yield a good result in cash games, but weighing the Warriors may be the best way to go contrarian in tournaments. Mixing and matching Tatum and Brown is a smart approach if you are engaging in bulk-entry GPP contests.

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire.