Summer Games DFS plays: Men’s Basketball (8/2)

The Summer Games are rolling into the quarterfinals and DraftKings has posted some great contest offerings for us to dig into on tonight’s four-game slate. FanDuel will also offer single-game contests for the United States vs. Spain game which tips off at 12:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday. This article will cover the DraftKings slate. I’ll be playing the single-game slate on FanDuel so feel free to ping me in the FTN Daily Discord if you want to discuss.

Throughout the tournament, this article will break down the upcoming games, give injury updates, projected starting lineups and of course some of our favorite players for the given slate. I’ll be in and out of the FTN Daily NBA Discord channel all day leading up to lock but will be around in the hour prior to the first game starting so don’t hesitate to ping me with questions and I will make sure to get back to you before the games get underway. It should be an exciting two weeks of international hoops, let’s get started.

Germany vs. Slovenia (-16.5) DFS plays

The Germans come into their quarterfinal matchup against the Slovenians as the largest dogs on the slate. In my biased opinion, they’ve overachieved a bit even being in this tournament after upsetting Croatia in the semifinal of their qualifying tournament and beating out Brazil in the final. Just look at the picture in this article about that win, does that look like a team that expected to win an Olympic bid to you? Regardless, they’re here now and despite being in a tough spot, we still can roster some Germans on this slate. There are two ways to attack this team in my opinion. If you think they can keep it close, they’ll likely be doing so on the back of a big Maodo Lo ($7.2k) shooting performance. His peripherals are strong, but he’s been loose with the juice, racking up 15 turnovers over the last two games. He’d also likely be getting some major help from Johannes Voigtmann ($5.9k) in a tight game, whose price has retreated a bit and will likely be under-owned due to the projected popularity of the Aussie centers, who we will get to later. Coach Rodl has shown big-time hesitancy to play Mo Wagner ($7.7k) big minutes, but it’s not the craziest thing to imagine him putting up 30+ DK points. I’m still debating as of this writing if I want to have a share of him in my 20-max builds. It’s tough to get to Isaac Bonga ($4.5k) because of his center-only eligibility on DK. He’ll be low-owned, again because of the Aussie centers, but as a guy who has struggled to consistently contribute counting stats on offense in his young career, he’s not a priority for me on this slate. I’d rather shift to PF and roster Johannes Thiemann ($4.1k), or even take a shot on the sharpshooting Andreas Obst ($4.2k), who could attempt double-digit threes again in this one. I’d much prefer these last three players listed if you think Slovenia runs them off the court, just to save the salary to spend up on some of the more closely contested games later in the slate.

We finally get to play Luka Doncic ($13.2k) on a four-game slate for the first time this tournament. Even though his price has climbed to an astronomical level, it’s easier to roster him with confidence compared to the two gamers we have had Slovenia on throughout the group stage. I have no problem locking him into your build if you please, but I think I’ll end up with him in around half of my lineups. There’s a lot of plays in the $8k-10k range that you can squeeze into a lineup today and, in my MME build, I want to take some shots on those constructions as well. I’m a big fan of running some Mike Tobey ($8.9k) in GPPs. Again, every center outside of the Aussies will be under-owned today, and he can really put up a big number down low. Playing with Doncic is a dream for his fantasy upside. Both Vlatko Cancar ($8.1k) and Zoran Dragic ($7.4k) are certainly in play, but if I’m looking elsewhere on this roster outside of Doncic and Tobey, give me Kremen Prepelic ($6.3k). Prepelic is streaky in the EuroLeague for Valencia, but he’s an extremely aggressive offensive player and he’s one of my favorite guys to roster in non-Doncic lineups on this slate. Jaka Blazic ($6.0k) would make my MME pool if I was running 150 lineups.

United States (-12.5) vs. Spain DFS plays

This is a tough blow for both teams, and every broadcasting outlet carrying the games. The random draw, which takes the top four seeds and randomly matches them up with the bottom four seeds in the knockout round, ended up pitting the top two teams in the FIBA rankings against each other. If you need a case against seeding a bracket like this, look no further.

The United States faces an international gauntlet over the next five days. If they make it past Spain, they’ll likely face the third-ranked team in Australia in the semis, and all signs point to Slovenia or France (who of course already defeated the Americans) waiting in the final. For this slate though, Kevin Durant ($9.5k) is much too cheap for his upside in a game like this. Barring foul trouble like he suffered through against France in the group stage, he should be the best spend-up play on the slate. He’s $3.7k cheaper than Luka! The rest of the United States roster remains tough for me to roster with confidence. If you want to roster Damian Lillard ($10.1k) with volume go ahead, he certainly did great in the exhibition win over Spain a few weeks ago. But I will be keeping my exposure to one or two shares in my 20. This USA roster now boasts Jrue Holiday ($8.5k), Devin Booker ($7.0k) and Khris Middleton ($5.5k), who did not play in that exhibition, to take away minutes and usage at the guard spots. I prefer to roster Middleton for the savings out of the three, and we’ve seen Coach Popovich increase his minutes each game throughout the group stage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 25 minutes or more of Middleton in this one. You can also take shots on Bam Adebayo ($6.7k), considering he should be needed out there for his defense against the talented Spanish frontcourt.

Despite being a very talented and complete team, the Spanish are going to be tough to roster tonight. They run an even flatter rotation than we can expect to see from the Americans in this game, and very few of them are priced advantageously. I’m perfectly fine with rostering Ricky Rubio ($9.8k) as a spend-up on this slate, but he’s a secondary play in that price range. He’s averaging a massive 1.61 DK points per minute in this tournament, but only 23.7 minutes per game. I’m not sure that number eclipses 30 tonight even against the USA, as the Spaniards can (and will) trot out guards like Sergio Rodriguez ($4.3k) and Alberto Abalde ($3.2k) to take up some minutes handling the rock on offense. I do think both of those players are in play, with the former being the safer of the two for DFS. But EL veterans will know how versatile Abalde is, and if Coach Scariolo decides to go bigger, he could work his way into the optimal tonight at such a cheap price. I don’t have much interest in the rest of this roster, the Gasol brothers (Marc at $7.5k and Pau at $5.7k) pillage each other’s minutes. Guillermo Hernangomez ($4.3k) and Usman Garuba ($3.8k) just don’t get enough time in this frontcourt to project as a great value.

France (-8.5) vs. Italy DFS plays

You should have a ton of interest in this French roster for DFS tonight. We saw the rotation flatten out against Iran as expected, and I’m hoping that the field will gravitate away from the main guys here. All three of Evan Fournier ($8.3k), Nando DeColo ($7.8k) and Nicolas Batum ($5.4k) are attractively priced. I’m still not high on Rudy Gobert ($8.7k) due to the other options in his price range. A number of the cheaper role players are also acceptable in GPPs tonight including Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot ($4.2k), Thomas Heurtel ($4.1k) and Frank Ntilikina ($3.6k). I wouldn’t call you crazy if you wanted to roster Vincent Poirier ($4.0k) or Guerschon Yabusele ($3.5k) in GPPs either at low ownership, especially if Yabusele continues to start.

The Azzurri are likely meeting the end of their journey in the Summer Games tonight, but we can look to some solid plays here to hopefully see some green on their way out. Nico Mannion ($5.6k) continues to have extremely high usage in this offense (37 shot attempts in 63 minutes) and at his price, I’m fine rostering him on this slate. My favorite play on this team remains Achille Polonara ($4.6k) and I think he will continue to go under-owned. Polonara is not only a solid fantasy option at his price, but his SF/PF eligibility makes him very easy to roster as a value with different constructions. You can play Nicolo Melli ($4.9k), but I still prefer Polonara. I remain off the Simone Fontecchio ($7.3k) train and I hope he is once again over-owned. If he doesn’t shoot 50%+ from the field, it’s extremely tough for him to return value on that price. Can you now look to Danilo Gallinari ($6.9k) at his lower price with how disappointing he has been in this tournament? My answer is a very skeptical yes. I will have one or two shares in GPPs because he’s gotten so cheap, but his play has been a bit of a head-scratcher thus far. Stefano Tonut ($4.5k) is a fine option at an ugly SG position.

Argentina vs. Australia (-8.5) DFS plays

The Argentinians have put up a decent fight in this tournament, but it looks like their time as a gold medal threat in the Summer Games may have come to an end for now. But like the Italians, they do have multiple options for DFS before they likely bow out. Facundo Campazzo (Tony Kornheiser voice: “Ya boy!”) is the top spend up for me on this team. Campazzo ($9.2k) is my preference over the legend that is Luis Scola ($8.8k), whose rebounds have been down from what I expected coming in and he’s showing a lower ceiling than his point guard. I also have interest in Gabriel Deck ($7.9k), who sandwiched a bad game between two solid ones in the group stage. Both Nico Laprovittola ($6.2k) and Luca Vildoza ($4.7k) could put up great games for their prices, but I prefer the savings on Vildoza, who I personally think is just a better player at this point in his career. Nicolas Brussino ($3.7k) is a good option at the SG spot tonight, again boosted by the fact that SG is tough to fill.

The Aussies continue to be led by International Patty and at nearly 40 DK points per game, Patty Mills ($10.8k) is one of my favorite spend-ups on the slate, just behind Doncic and Durant. I mentioned the centers for this team multiple times in the above breakdowns. Aron Baynes remains out for Australia and both Nic Kay ($4.8k) and Jock Landale ($4.7k) figure to play big minutes. Each is a great fantasy point per minute producer, and I think the most common build tonight will stack the two. You can definitely follow suit and get different elsewhere, but I think it’s easy to differentiate in GPPs by rostering only one of them (I lean Landale because of the lower fantasy point average on the lineup page) and pick up another center only option from one of the other teams. You can of course play Joe Ingles ($8.6k), Matisse Thybulle ($7.1k) or Dante Exum ($4.6k), but they are all secondary plays for me tonight.