NBA FANTASY: 2019-20 Season Preview - Part 5 - Draftstars Blog

NBA FANTASY: 2019-20 Season Preview – Part 5

Part 5/6

If you’ve missed any of our previous articles in this series you can follow the links below.

In part 5, we are focusing on the Pacific Division: Golden State, LA Clippers, LA Lakers, Phoenix, Sacramento

Below is every team’s projected starting 5 with betting and DFS notes.

⛹️MVP CANDIDATE ⛹️ – A player in the upper echelon of the NBA, will be in the conversation for MVP in this year’s wide open race!

🏀 ROOKIE STANDOUT 🏀 – Primed to be one of the top rookies this season in the running for Rookie Of The Year (Though it’s Zion’s award to lose at this point).

⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐ – A consistent performer that typically will put up big numbers for your Draftstars Fantasy Lineup

💤 SLEEPER ALERT 💤 – A player that will either slip under the radar for a lot of people, or has the potential to greatly exceed most punters expectations

Part 5: The Pacific Division

Golden State Warriors

💸 Championship Odds: $15 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Stephen Curry ⛹️MVP CANDIDATE ⛹️ ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Shooting Guard: D’Angelo Russell/Klay Thompson
Small Forward: Alfonzo McKinnie
Power Forward: Draymond Green ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Center: Willie Cauley-Stein

In the space of a few games, Golden State lost Durant and Klay, the NBA title, and their dynasty may have just come to an end. They will still be a dangerous team, with Curry/Green/Russell in the mix, and if Klay can make a return for the playoffs it’s still possible they can win the West.

Curry (27.3ppg, 5.3rpg, 5.2apg) is going to shoulder much more of the offensive load for the Warriors this season, particularly in the early part of the season. Some bookies had his under/over set at 32.5ppg for his season average which is pretty insane. Curry is going to be a very popular play in DFS this season, and if the Warriors can somehow stay near the top of the West he has a great shot at winning the MVP this season, $6.0 odds with Playup.

D’Angelo Russell (21.1ppg, 7.0apg) could pour in 20+ ppg this year as the Warriors second option behind Curry, and if Curry goes down at any point this season, pile in on Russell to put up big numbers!

Draymond Green will probably have a bounce-back season as well. Coming off a year where he averaged 7.4ppg, 7.3rpg, 6.9apg with defensive stats, he should see an uptick in most of those numbers with Durant and Klay no longer in the mix. Klay should be back some time after the all star break, making this a danger team and a nice darkhorse for the championship at $15 odds.

Los Angeles Clippers

💸 Championship Odds: $4.33 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Patrick Beverley/Lou Williams
Shooting Guard: Paul George ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Small Forward: Kawhi Leonard ⛹️MVP CANDIDATE ⛹️ ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Power Forward: JaMychal Green
Center: Ivica Zubac/Montrezl Harrell

Wow. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George!

The Clippers pulled off a massive coup by bringing in 2 star players that are elite on both ends of the floor. Returning is Lou Williams as the reigning 6^th man (20.0ppg, 5.4apg) that can come in and put up ridiculous numbers off the bench. Good defensive guard play from Patrick Beverley makes this a team to reckon with.

The biggest risk for this Clippers team is how the health of Kawhi Leonard (26.6ppg, 7.3rpg, 3.3apg, 1.8stl) and Paul George (28.0ppg, 8.2rpg, 4.1apg, 2.2stl) holds up. Paul George has had off season shoulder surgery, and Leonard has a degenerative condition in his quad muscle that limited him on back to back games last season as he hobbled his way to another title.

Both of this team’s stars will be popular plays in DFS that can put up big totals when healthy, but I will be looking elsewhere most games. With the time management, and the risk of blowing teams out and getting reduced minutes, there may be just as many disappointing games as there are good ones. If you can time it right with Lou Will he’s a great low end play too when you want to swing for the fences. In the early going of the season if Paul George is out, play him regularly, especially if Kawhi is also getting the night off!

Los Angeles Lakers

💸 Championship Odds: $5 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Lebron James ⛹️MVP CANDIDATE ⛹️ ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Shooting Guard: Avery Bradley
Small Forward: Danny Green/Kyle Kuzma
Power Forward: Anthony Davis ⛹️MVP CANDIDATE ⛹️ ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Center: JaVale McGee/Dwight Howard 💤 SLEEPER ALERT 💤

The Lakers traded away Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Jason Hart and multiple first round picks in order to get their most coveted player Anthony Davis!

‘Bron and The Brow will make a devastating tandem, and even though the Lakers held out waiting to see if Kawhi would sign with them, they managed to salvage things and round out their lineup with some of the best available players that were left.

Don’t sleep on LeBron in DFS, he still managed to average 27.4ppg, 8.5rpg, 8.3apg last season, and had the longest break of his career with the Lakers failing to make the playoffs. It will be interesting to see if Davis can hold his own where Bosh and Love dipped playing next to King James. With Davis being a superstar in his own right and this team not having a Wade/Kyrie 2^nd option to contend with, Davis should be just fine and shouldn’t see too much of a decrease if at all.

They added Danny Green, retained Rondo and McGee, they signed Cousins (who’s since gotten injured and out for the season) and they managed to get Dwight Howard in to essentially take on the role that Cousins was going to do.

Kuzma (18.7ppg, 5.5rpg, 2.5apg) is going to be a good scorer for them off the bench, and McGee doesn’t need many minutes to make an impact in DFS. As long as the Lakers don’t switch things up and play Davis at 5 and Kuzma at the 4 he should carve out around 20 minutes a game which is enough for him to put up some nice stats. For the Lakers this season it really comes down to 2 things: How will Lebron and Davis mesh together, and will the team stay healthy.

Phoenix Suns

💸 Championship Odds: $501 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Ricky Rubio
Shooting Guard: Devin Booker ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Small Forward: Kelly Oubre
Power Forward: Dario Saric
Center: Deandre Ayton

The Suns finally get a true point guard in Ricky Rubio. Coming off his MVP award at the FIBA World Championships, he will now take the reigns in Phoenix and try to help the team win more games than they have in recent years.

Booker (26.6ppg, 6.8apg) and Ayton (16.3ppg, 10.3rpg) will likely be the 1-2 guys you want to play in DFS, but Rubio and Oubre can also put up good games when you time it right. With the 1.5 points awarded per assist in Draftstars, Rubio is in a good position to contribute right away. The Suns are very unlikely to make the playoffs, but they should be an improved team this season as long as their management decides to quit tanking and picking up high draft picks.

Sacramento Kings

💸 Championship Odds: $176 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: DeAaron Fox
Shooting Guard: Buddy Hield
Small Forward: Harrison Barnes
Power Forward: Marvin Bagley
Center: DeWayne Dedmon

Sacramento did surprisingly well last season and exceeded many expectations. DeAaron Fox emerged as a legitimate franchise leading point guard and led the young team to a 39-43 record. His season averages of 17.3ppg, 3.8rpg, 7.3apg, 1.6stl were a significant increase over his rookie season.

The Kings don’t have the superstar level players like some of the other elite teams in the West, but they do have several guys that know how to score. Buddy Hield became a lethal 3-point threat, averaging 20.7ppg and hitting 3.4 treys per game on 42.7%

It’s hard to predict if this team will do better or worse than the 39 wins they racked up last season, and whether that number was a fluke or is something they can repeat this season. In terms of DFS, Fox and Hield are likely going to be the top 2 guys, but don’t be surprised if Marvin Bagley becomes a force this season and lives up to the potential that had him as a #1 prospect in Highshcool.

Stay up to date

For daily player news and updates, sites like Rotowire, Rotoworld, Basketballmonster and ESPN are crucial to stay up to date. Another good tip is to do a quick Twitter search for news shortly before the first games start and line ups lock for the day. You may get a late scoop before some of the big sites pick it up and publish it.

This is going to be an amazing year for basketball. Best of luck on all your NBA bets this season, as well as any big tournaments you enter on Draftstars!

This concludes Part 5 of the NBA Season Preview! Check back tomorrow for Part 6 which covers the Southwest Division, with more NBA content to follow.

*All odds accurate at time of writing, please check on site for latest betting odds.

October 6, 2019 By Peter Arena NBA