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In case you were wondering the answer is no, I’m not going to let coronavirus and/or simulated basketball shy me off of a good narrative. DraftKings is doing another slate of simulated basketball contests for you to choose from on Monday, including the night cap between the Brooklyn Nets and Golden State Warriors. Kevin Durant doesn’t have any box scores to go off of this season, so unfortunately we can’t play him in this contest. Unlucky. We do get Kyrie Irving, though. The Nets PG was slated to miss the rest of the regular season due to shoulder surgery. Instead, he’s back, thanks to computers. Let’s take a look at some picks for this contest.
Captain’s Picks
It’s Kyrie at $15,900 and I don’t think it’s even close in this one. For one, the injuries he’s endured during the season give him fewer games to go off of, which lowers the range of outcomes. When Kyrie was healthy this season, he was generally putting up decent numbers and nobody else in this contest possesses the ceiling Kyrie has. Caris LeVert ($15,000) seems like more of a trap. We’d be banking on him hitting one of those insane box scores the last month or so. Outside of this recent stretch, LeVert has had a pretty disappointing season. I’d shy off him at such a high price tag. Maybe I roll the dice on Draymond Green at $11,400, given he has some triple-double-ish box scores.
FLEX Options
A couple of Warriors options I find attractive are Marquese Chriss ($6,200) and Dragan Bender ($1,600). Chriss had a strong February, averaging 13.8 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. He had started off March in the same fashion, averaging a double-double on 13.6 points and 10 boards per contest. Chriss to be has a safe enough floor for this price and doesn’t need much of a ceiling. Bender doesn’t have a ton of box scores to go off of, but some of his outcomes are appealing at this price. Eight of his nine games with the Warriors this season would technically be hitting value at this price point in Showdown contests. Spencer Dinwiddie ($9,800) and Eric Paschall ($8,600) would be my other UTIL options given their ceilings from earlier in the season.