Beginner NBA DFS: Scoring

In daily fantasy basketball, like in most things, getting the fundamentals down is integral toward laying a foundation of knowledge to build from as you progress as a player. For DFS, that means understanding the scoring rules.

Scoring

This is the scoring system for DraftKings daily fantasy basketball. You might find other versions of scoring, but this is a fairly straight forward setup.

Point: +1 Pt
Made 3pt Shot: +0.5 Pts
Rebound: +1.25 Pts
Assist: +1.5 Pts
Steal: +2 Pts
Block: +2 Pts
Turnover: -0.5 Pts
Double-Double: +1.5 Pts
Triple-Double: +3 Pts

Note: This scoring is used throughout all of DraftKings daily fantasy basketball contests. In Showdown Captain’s Mode, the Captain receives a 1.5x fantasy point boost.

Strategy

NBA DFS scoring is designed to balance out players who score a lot and players who receive peripheral stats — assists, rebounds, blocks, steals, etc. So naturally the upside lies in players who can both score at a high clip and also post secondary statistics.

For example, a player like Bradley Beal averages 30.5 actual points per game, draining 3.0 three-pointers per contest. LeBron James only averages 25.7 points per game but also posts 7.9 rebounds and 10.6 assists per contest. Just because a player scores a lot of actual points doesn’t mean he’ll be the leading fantasy point scorer. This is generally reflected in the prices but getting familiar with the scoring system is very important.

3-Point Shots

Just to clarify, a 3-point shot is not worth 0.5 fantasy points. It is worth 3.5 fantasy points — the 3.0 from the actual points and a bonus from the make. Going out of your way to target players who hit a lot of 3-point shots isn’t necessary. Really, the shot volume and amount of makes per game only elevate a players ceiling — their best expected fantasy outcome.