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Best lineup strategy for Warriors vs. Raptors NBA simulation Showdown

We go over how to approach Tuesday afternoon’s simulated fantasy basketball contest between the Warriors and Raptors on DraftKings.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Toronto Raptors guard Norman Powell during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

The featured simulated basketball contest on DraftKings for Wednesday afternoon is between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors. Here, we’ll go over how to approach lineup construction for the fantasy basketball contest.

Captain’s Picks

Normally we’d have Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to pick from in this contest, but it isn’t last regular season we’re talking about here. So the rematch of the 2019 NBA Finals in simulation form isn’t really the same. With that in mind, we need to consider other options, which shouldn’t be too hard with the Raptors.

Toronto has a ton of value options due to their numerous injuries in 2019-20. Guys like Norman Powell ($8,700), Terence Davis ($6,300) and Marc Gasol ($3,600) make for really good Captain’s options given their role with players injured. Gasol has had his fair share of injuries this season as well, but that only decreases his variance and price. Powell would be more of a leverage play against lineups leaning heavily on Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry.

For the Dubs, it’s sort of the same deal, right? We’ve had no Curry and no Thompson for most of this season. As a result, there are only nine players eligible for this contest from the Warriors roster. There’s not as much value on their roster for Captain. The cheaper options don’t have great ceilings and the high-priced guys aren’t as appealing as Toronto’s players.

FLEX Options

As for FLEX, we can really expand on our builds a bit with a lot of flexibility. If we go mid-range and Captain Powell, then there’s an easy path to a winning lineup with $8.3K on average for the final five spots. Draymond Green ($6,400) and Marquese Chriss ($6,800) are both strong plays in the FLEX.

Dragan Bender ($1,400) was getting an extended run for the Dubs before the coronavirus hit. He’s a cheap lineup filler that allows us to get a high-priced stack in there. Damion Lee ($5,400) is also really cheap for his ceiling. He had been filling in at SG and SF for the Warriors, who were down plenty of wings before Andrew Wiggins got to town.