NBA FANTASY: 2019-20 Season Preview - Part 6 - Draftstars Blog

NBA FANTASY: 2019-20 Season Preview – Part 6

Part 6/6

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

In part 6, we are focusing on the Southwest Division: Dallas, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio

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 6: The Southwest Division

Dallas Mavericks

💸 Championship Odds: $67 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Delon Wright
Shooting Guard: Luka Doncic ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Small Forward: Justin Jackson/Tim Hardaway Jr
Power Forward: Kristaps Porzingis ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Center: Dwight Powell

The Mavericks are going to be one of the danger teams in the West next season that will have a real shot at making the playoffs.

Built around their two stars; last year’s ROY Luka Doncic, and the unicorn, 7’3” Kristaps Porzingis.

The Mavs have some other good players on their roster. Dwight Powell is a consistent low end DFS player to add to your squad when you need some reliable stats to round out your roster at a discount price. They’ve also added Boban Marjanovic and Seth Curry who have been known to put up nice numbers in limited court time.

Doncic (21.2ppg, 7.8rpg, 6.0apg, 1.1stl) will be a very popular play in DFS, however most players will want to take a wait and see approach on Porzingis seeing as though he is coming back from a lengthy absence due to injury. Dallas may also have an outside shot at upsetting the Spurs and Rockets on the division winner market too. Keep an eye on their odds, because they could present some great value to back and later cash out or lay on Betfair for a profit if it’s a tight race!

Houston Rockets

💸 Championship Odds: $10 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Russell Westbrook ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Shooting Guard: James Harden ⛹️MVP CANDIDATE ⛹️ ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Small Forward: Danuel House
Power Forward: PJ Tucker
Center: Clint Capela

Chris Paul is now gone from Houston, and it becomes a new 2-guard experiment. This time though, it will be a lineup that features the 2 highest usage players in the NBA over the last 5 years as Harden is paired up with Westbrook.

It will be interesting to see how this works out because Harden (36.1ppg, 6.6rpg, 7.5apg, 2.0stl) scored virtually all of his points last season off iso-plays where he’d create his own shots. He’s now playing next to another guard that needs the ball to be effective in creating offense.

The smart move would be to stagger the two players’ minutes as much as possible, but at the very least we should expect to see a reduction in the output of both players this season, with Harden the less likely of the two to take too big of a dip.

They will be a danger team in the West, and these two will still feature heavily on DFS lineups. If Westbrook (22.9ppg, 11.1rpg, 10.7apg, 1.9stl) doesn’t steal too many of Capela’s rebounds like he did with Steven Adams, his value should be pretty safe as a big that scores around the hoop and gets rebounds and blocks.Harden is currently paying $8 as the third favourite in the MVP market at Playup, however it would take something magical to get it seeing as though he was overlooked last season despite averaging a whopping 36ppg!

Memphis Grizzlies

💸 Championship Odds: $501 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Ja Morant 🏀 ROOKIE STANDOUT 🏀 💤 SLEEPER ALERT 💤
Shooting Guard: Dillon Brooks
Small Forward: Jae Crowder
Power Forward: Jaren Jackson Jr 💤 SLEEPER ALERT 💤
Center: Jonas Valanciunas

Ja Morant seemingly came out of nowhere to leapfrog RJ Barrett in the NBA draft. He’s been compared to Russell Westbrook and plays with a lot of excitement to his game. Memphis shipped out Conley to the Suns, and basically handed Morant the keys to the kingdom right from the outset. Morant’s college stats were 24.5ppg, 5.7rpg, 10.0apg on 50%fg

His usage will be through the roof and this is his team to lead, as most rookie guards he will have some wild inconsistency, but when he is on his game he should put up some monster lines. He’s currently 2^nd favourite to win ROY at Playup, paying $5 odds. Keep an eye on him and if he starts to get on a tear, add him to your lineup and enjoy the ride.

Jaren Jackson Jr will be another player who could have a terrific season. He’s entering his 2^nd year and looks primed to put up some big numbers. He can play both ends and showed he can score as a rookie. Valanciunas will be another player worth playing on Draftstars, he had a resurgence last year after joining Memphis. The only thing that’s ever held him back in the minutes, which he should get in abundance this season.

New Orleans Pelicans

💸 Championship Odds: $67 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Jrue Holiday
Shooting Guard: Lonzo Ball/JJ Redick
Small Forward: Brandon Ingram 💤 SLEEPER ALERT 💤
Power Forward: Zion Williamson 🏀 ROOKIE STANDOUT 🏀
Center: Derrick Favors

New Orleans managed to come out of the Anthony Davis saga like bandits. Somehow they turned a situation with a disgruntled star player that clearly wanted out, into a smorgasbord of young players and future draft picks!

They now have the top rookie in Zion Williamson, Derrick Favors at C, Brandon Ingram gets a chance to show he’s more than a (very) poor man’s Kevin Durant on offense, and a nice guard rotation of Lonzo Ball, Jrue Holiday, JJ Redick.

This team could fight for the #8 seed in the West if things go their way, though to be on the conservative side it seems more likely that they finish up in the 35-40 wins range. They did also lose Julius Randle and Elfrid Payton amongst others, but the Pelicans are in a bright spot to grow as a team with all the draft picks they’ve amassed.

It will be a lot of fun putting Zion Williamson in to DFS lineups at Draftstars, and if things go as predicted he could wind up averaging 20, 10, 3, 1.5 ,1.5 as a rookie!

Zion Williamson is the current heavy betting favourite to win the Rookie of the Year award.

San Antonio Spurs

💸 Championship Odds: $67 💸

Projected Starting 5

Point Guard: Dejounte Murray/Patty Mills
Shooting Guard: Derrick White
Small Forward: DeMar DeRozan ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Power Forward: LaMarcus Aldridge ⭐ DRAFTSTARS STUD ⭐
Center: Jakob Poeltl

This team is built around Aldridge (21.3ppg, 9.2rpg) and DeRozan (21.2ppg, 6.0rpg, 6.2apg). You know what you’ll get with those two as they’re as reliable as they come. Aldridge rarely has a bad game so if you are confident with your other picks in DFS and want someone to put you over the top in a H2H matchup, Aldridge is probably your guy.

Past those two, it’s hard to really pick someone worth starting. Rudy Gay had some nice games last season, but it’s hard to be too confident playing him compared to someone with a cheaper price tag on the Charlotte Hornets that could have a much higher usage rate and produce a gem.

In terms of betting, the Spurs will still likely win their usual 50 games or there about, and they seem to put together a nice win streak every season, so if you can find the right time to get on them there will be some nice profits coming your way.

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 6 of the NBA Season Preview, enjoy the upcoming season!

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

October 7, 2019 By Peter Arena NBA