How to Play NBA DFS in 2021

The 2021-22 NBA season is only a few weeks away, resurfacing (what I view to be) the most exciting and entertaining DFS sport. While NBA DFS can be a ton of fun, it’s a fast-paced ever-changing game that can feel overwhelming for new players who aren’t entirely familiar with how to play NBA DFS.

The goal at FTN is to help you have a successful NBA DFS season. Between our extensive suite of both free and premium content, our in-house tools and projection systems, live streams, and the discord chat, it’s going to be incredibly hard to not have a great season.

If you’re looking for your home for the 2021-22 season, now is your chance to get in at the lowest possible price with our NBA DFS Early Bird offer. Below outlines some of the features of the package (please note that the price is subject to change):

Before that, however, let’s dive into how to play NBA DFS.

Differences between FanDuel and DraftKings in NBA DFS

One of the key pieces of NBA DFS to understand is the difference in scoring and how they value/devalue specific players because of the scoring settings, especially when you plan on playing on both FanDuel and DraftKings.

Across both sites, points, rebounds, and assists are all scored the same. The differences come in terms of steals and blocks as well as whether a player is rewarded for production from beyond the arc.

On FanDuel, players get rewarded three points for every block or steal that they record. This benefits scrappy defensive players who are prone to filling up the box score, or rim defenders who otherwise may not carry a ton of value. One example of a player like this is T.J. McConnell. He’s never expected to come out and get you 20-25 raw points, but he has the innate ability to have a ceiling game from a steals perspective, as we saw from a 10-steal performance in the 2020 season. That alone is worth 30 FanDuel points.

On the flip side, players on DraftKings get rewarded 2 points per steal or block, but get a bonus of 0.5 points for every three-point field goal they make, in addition to the three points for the bucket. This subsequently makes players like Joe Harris a better value option given the upside to get hot and rattle off seven threes in a game, where he carries little value elsewhere in the box score. Players who are heavily reliant on three-point production are almost always better options on DraftKings than they are on FanDuel.

Taking DraftKing’s scoring one step further, they also offer bonuses for recorded either a double-double or triple-double, adding incrementally more value to players like Nikola Jokic, Russell Westbrook, and Ben Simmons, among others.

Analyzing the Game Environment | How to Play NBA DFS

Game environments are the number one starting point to building your NBA DFS lineups. There are a number of factors that go into analyzing a game environment, listed below.

• Implied Totals: the totals are fairly simple to follow. When a game is implied for more overall points, that equates to more production. Typically when a game carries a total at or above 230 points, it’s a healthy one to target from a DFS perspective. Using the FTNBets free odds tracker, you can see all of the implied totals for the slate at hand and also follow the implied total as it fluctuates throughout the game, as shown below:

• Spread: Using the same Odds Tracker, it’s also important to pay attention to games that carry tight spreads, especially those with higher implied totals. This typically indicates a much lower chance that the game gets out of hand early, ensuring a full four quarters of playing time and production for your most important players. While tighter spreads are good to target, it’s important to not rely solely on this aspect, as there’s very little value in targeting a game with a 210-point total and a 3-point spread simply because it’s projected to be close.
• Pace of Play: When you look at the implied totals and see one that is sky-high, it’s likely because the expected pace of play is fast. When teams play at a faster pace, this leads to more possessions, which in turn, leads to more fantasy production. It’s rather simple – the more that a player has a chance at touching the ball, the more production opportunity they have.
• Defensive Efficiency: Adding the cherry on top to targeting games with a high total and fast pace, targeting matchups against or between teams with poor defensive efficiency is the final piece. The prime example of a team that struggled defensively and ran at a fast pace in 2020 was the Washington Wizards. They averaged the third-most points per game on offense (116.6) while simultaneously allowing the most points per game in the league (118.5). With an average game total of over 235 points, these were games to target just about every single slate.

Finding NBA DFS value plays | How to Play NBA DFS

Because rostering high-priced studs is typically integral in NBA DFS to balloon your lineup’s floor/ceiling combination, finding lower-priced players that offer a usable floor and ceiling combination is equally as important. To directly quote my piece from last season on FTNFantasy regarding understanding and adapting to news in NBA DFS (still applicable today):

“Often, value plays on a slate are a product of news. The most common path to a value play comes when a player is ruled out for the day and their immediate replacement either steps into the starting lineup or sees a massive uptick in playing time off the bench. When it comes to identifying the correct value, simply looking at prior game logs as well as game flow charts are typically a good indicator of which player fills in when a starter is out. On top of that, typically day-of updates will provide the lineup replacement in the update itself.

Because FanDuel and DraftKings typically post their slates the night prior to the actual slate, they aren’t able to price up players based on day-of injury news or lineup updates, which gives the value players that step into the increased roll a much higher floor/ceiling combination than their price entails.

It’s important to target these safer value plays in daily formats (especially cash games), since the floor/ceiling combination given their expanded opportunities is much higher than most players around their price ranges, while also allowing more flexibility for the rest of your lineups.”

NBA DFS Projections | How to Play NBA DFS

Tying everything together, these are all part of the laundry list of factors that go into the FTNDaily player projections. If you’re in a pinch and don’t have time to dive into the individual aspects and numbers yourself, FTN’s projection system and player rater from Kyle Murray.

Below is an example of what you can expect from one of the player projection models, including everything from raw projections, point-per-dollar measures, player rankings, and a measure of how popular they’ll be on each respective site.

Sign up for the 2021-22 NBA season with FTNDaily NBA DFS Early Bird Package!