NBA FANTASY: 2019-20 Season Preview – Part 2

Part 2/6

Central Division

Part one of our six part preview focuses on the Atlantic Division teams: Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia & Toronto

This second part focuses on the 5 teams from the Central division: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, & Milwaukee

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

NBA Eastern and Western Conferences

Part 2: The Central Division

Chicago Bulls logo

Chicago Bulls

💸 Championship Odds: $201 💸

Projected Starting 5

  • Point Guard: Kris Dunn
  • Shooting Guard: Zach Lavine
  • Small Forward: Otto Porter
  • Power Forward: Lauri Markkanen
  • Center: Wendell Carter Jr. 💤 SLEEPER ALERT 💤

The Bulls main additions this off season are Tomas Satoransky and Thad Young as well as the #7 pick in this year’s draft Coby White, while they lost Robin Lopez to the Bucks. So overall it could be seen as a clear net positive

Lauri Markkanen (18.7ppg, 9.0rpg) should step into a bigger role this season, and Wendell Carter Jr showed flashes in his rookie year. During a 6-game stretch in November he put up averages of 15.7ppg, 9.7rpg and 2.7bpg, with his best game of the season being a 25-8-5-3-3 gem so the upside is there. Zach Lavine (23.7ppg, 4.7rpg, 4.5apg) will surely once again score a ton of points and should be a pretty safe option with a high floor you can use in H2H Draftstars matchups if the price is right and the matchup looks like it will be high scoring.

Cleveland Cavaliers logo

Cleveland Cavaliers

💸 Championship Odds: $501 💸

Projected Starting 5

  • Point Guard: Darius Garland 🏀 ROOKIE STANDOUT 🏀
  • Shooting Guard: Collin Sexton
  • Small Forward: Cedi Osman
  • Power Forward: Kevin Love ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD
  • Center: Tristan Thompson

The Cavs are a team that seemingly is trapped between two minds. On one hand they are going young, trading away assets for picks and drafting young guards that like to run, on the other, they have veteran bigs that likely want no part of a rebuild process. Kevin Love makes no sense whatsoever on this lineup. If he gets injured again this season and misses a lot of games, look for Osman (13.7ppg, 4.7rpg, 2.6apg), Sexton (16.7ppg) and Garland to dominate the shot attempts from the starters, with Jordan Clarkson (16.8ppg) repeating his role as a spark plug off the bench.

However if Kevin Love (17.0ppg, 10.9rpg, 2.2apg) plays the full season healthy and they showcase him to try and bump up his trade value further, look for him to dominate with some massive lines. The Cavs aren’t going to be in the hunt for the title, or even a playoff spot really, but they may present some good opportunities for player performance bets or DFS streams.

Detroit Pistons logo

Detroit Pistons

💸 Championship Odds: $201 💸

Projected Starting 5

  • Point Guard: Reggie Jackson/Derrick Rose
  • Shooting Guard: Bruce Brown
  • Small Forward: Tony Snell
  • Power Forward: Blake Griffin ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD
  • Center: Andre Drummond ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD

Detroit just barely snuck in to the playoffs last season with a 41-41 record. They will need to be on their toes or Miami could easily unseat them this season with the addition of Jimmy Butler. Regardless, if they make the playoffs in the 7-8 seed it’s not going to be an easy run as their first round matchup would likely be Milwaukee or Philly.

In terms of fantasy, Blake Griffin had his best statistical season since 2013m averaging 24.5ppg, 7.5rpg, 5.4apg and he even hit 2.5 threes per game. If I had to bet on him going under/over that level of output this season I’d take unders, but he should still be a nice source of stats most games.

Andre Drummond had another massive season too. He’s always been a behemoth on the glass, but defensively he took it to another level, his stats for the year: 17.3ppg, 15.6rpg, 1.4apg, 1.7stl, 1.7blk   Derrick Rose could be in the running for 6th man again this year if he provides his spark off the bench. In other news, Detroit has also added Joe Johnson! The team will have a wealth of experience but risk players going down to injury, and could be a team to fade on the 2nd night of a back to back.

Indiana Pacers logo

Indiana Pacers

💸 Championship Odds: $46 💸

Projected Starting 5

  • Point Guard: Malcolm Brogdon
  • Shooting Guard: Victor Oladipo/Jeremy Lamb
  • Small Forward: TJ Warren
  • Power Forward: Domantas Sabonis
  • Center: Myles Turner

The Pacers are a team that know how to win in the regular season. Despite not having the most impressive cast of players, they are playing in the weaker Eastern conference and should be in the mix in the top 6 in the East once again.

Oladipo (18.8ppg, 5.6rpg, 5.0apg) could be slow coming back from injury but they’ve got Brogdon, Lamb and Warren who know how to score and play D. Sabonis (14.1ppg, 9.3rpg, 2.9apg) could be in line for a bigger role this season with Thad Young gone and him stepping into a starting PF role. There likely won’t be many players in this team that will win your DFS matchups too often, but there are several players that will share the load offensively and should be multiple players with high floor’s and low ceilings. The best of the bunch will often likely be Myles Turner (13.3ppg, 7.2rpg, 2.7bpg).

Milwaukee Bucks logo

Milwaukee Bucks

💸 Championship Odds: $7 💸

Projected Starting 5

  • Point Guard: Eric Bledsoe
  • Shooting Guard: Wesley Matthews
  • Small Forward: Khris Middleton
  • Power Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo ⛹️MVP CANDIDATE ⛹️ ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD
  • Center: Brook Lopez

Milwaukee becomes the team to beat in the East now that Kawhi has left the reigning champions to head West. Giannis is the man to watch in this team, as he seemingly just keeps getting better and better each year. It’s hard to tell if his numbers will plateau from last season with such a talented squad, or if he can somehow take his game to yet another level and improve on his career numbers once again.

Giannis (27.7ppg, 12.5rpg, 5.9apg, 1.3stl, 1.5blk) is the current MVP favourite and is paying $3.80 to win the award for the 2nd straight year.

Beyond Giannis, this team has several good players. Statistically, Middleton (18.3ppg, 6.0rpg, 4.3apg) eats second once Giannis has had his fill and is the next best player on the Bucks team. You can also get nice numbers out of Bledsoe (15.9ppg, 4.6rpg, 5.5apg, 1.5stl) and Brook Lopez (12.5ppg, 4.9rpg, 2.2blk, 2.3 treys) from time to time. Lopez is a risky play as he can be inconsistent but when his threes are dropping he can easily hit 20+ pts in a game.

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.

It 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 2 of the NBA Season Preview! Check back tomorrow for Part 3 which covers the Southeast Division, with more NBA content to follow.

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

By NBA