The past week’s NBA slates have offered up some interesting trends that wannabe winners should take note, ahead of more big-money Draftstars slates. We’ve assessed the winning teams, form lines and key player ownership info.
PLAYER OWNERSHIP/WINNING TEAMS
Tuesday’s slate
Premium Hawks guard Trae Young (PG $20,890) was only owned by 4% but top scored for the slate with 85 DS points, while high-priced Joel Embiid (C $21,630) was next best with 71.25 DS points for his 4% ownership. In the premium category, 15% turned to Luka Doncic (PG $19,330) who only managed 62 DS points.
Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons (SG|PF $8,890) was popular with 57% ownership and delivered 60.75 DS points, so owning him was key. Minnesota’s Naz Reid (C|PF $9,900) was another well-owned cheap option (53%) but only managed 25.5 DS points.
Tuesday’s $30,000 slate winner Crispie88 owned Young, Doncic, Simons and Reid but found value with Furkan Korkmaz (SG|SG $6,300) scoring 51.75 DS points and Rockets rookie Josh Christopher (SG|SF $6,000) adding 28 DS points.
Monday’s slate
The $25,000 slate winner dtownsend only got the victory by a small margin from sammy, with both owning slate top scorers Jaylen Brown (SF|SF $17,010) and Josh Giddey (SG|SF $13,980), with the former scoring 50 points in a game which went to over-time and the latter recording his first career triple-double equating to 76.25 and 65.25 SC points respectively. The majority of coaches missed the pair who had ownership of 24% and 14% respectively.
Heat forward Jimmy Butler (SF $16,610) attracted 53% ownership but an in-game injury meant he only managed 35.5 DS points, so fading him was key. Pacers cheapie Duane Washington (SG $6,000) was the most-owned player with 66% ownership and delivered 28.75 DS points, while 62% got on Ty Jerome (SG|PG $8,490) who only added 18.75 DS points.
The difference between dtownsend and sammy was the victor faded Jerome, grabbing Aleksej Pokusevski (PF|SF $6,000) instead, posting 20.75 DS points to win the slate by 2 DS points.
Sunday’s slate
There were joint winners in Sunday’s $25,000 slate with johnnydees and drondron taking it out with the same line-ups led by Bryn Forbes (SG $6,000) who broke the slate at 17% ownership with 41.25 DS points.
Spurs guard Tre Jones (PG $6,650) was the most-owned player at 68% returning 27.75 DS points, while Devin Vassell (SG|SF $8,360) offered value with 38 DS points at 49% ownership. Pistons mid-pricer Hamadou Diallo (SG|SF $15,120) attracted 27% ownership but returned 71.5 DS points, which was the second highest behind bumper-priced James Harden (PG $23,510).
Saturday’s slate
Uber premium LeBron James (SF|PF $22,680) powered JP4_3 to victory in Saturday’s $25,000 slate with a slate-high 78.5 DS points at only 23% ownership. Rarely does owning the most expensive player in a slate pay off, but it did for JP4_3.
JP4_3 also had good assistance with valuable points from Memphis’ Brandon Clarke (PF|C $6,800) with 35.25 DS points at 22% ownership, along with Raptors bigman Pascal Siakam (PF|C $15,720) with his 67.75 DS points being the second highest for the slate.
Rarely does owning the most expensive player in a slate pay off, but it did for JP4_3 with LeBron James.
TEAM FORM
The Philadelphia 76ers have won four in a row and that’s been fuelled by Joel Embiid (C $22,410) finding some consistently good form. He’s scored 71.3, 52.8, 59.3 and 61.8 across his past four games.
On the flipside, the Brooklyn Nets have lost three in a row despite the reunion of Kevin Durant (SF|PF $21,970) and James Harden (PG $23,080) after both had time in COVID-19 protocols. Harden’s numbers are down with nothing above 51 DS points in his past three games, so he’s worth fading.
PLAYER FORM
Celtics forward Jaylen Brown (SF|SG $18,410) is enjoying some career-best form, fresh from a 50-point haul in the over-time win over the Orlando Magic which equated to a DS season-high 76.3 points.
DOOR OPEN
Trae Young (PG $20,680) has hit form with several Atlanta Hawks absent, with a three-game average of 64.1 DS points up on his season average of 49.9. He’s not cheap though.
Keep an eye on Mavs All-Star Luka Doncic (PG $19,070) with gun teammate Kristaps Porzingis (PF $16,660) entering into COVID-19 protocols. Doncic scored 62 DS points in the Mavs’ win over the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday with Porzingis out.
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