Summer Games DFS plays: Men’s Basketball (8/6)

The Summer Games men’s basketball tournament will come to close with the two medal matchups, and DraftKings has posted some great contest offerings for us to dig into on a two-game slate. FanDuel will also offer single-game contests for the United States versus France game. 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, project starting lineups and give 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 an hour before the first game starts, so don’t hesitate to hit me with questions. I will make sure to get back to you before the games get underway. It should be an exciting slate of international hoops, let’s get started. 

United States (-13.0) vs. France, 175.5, DFS Plays

I’m not sure the Americans could have asked for a better way for this tournament to play out after their opening loss to this same French team. Not only has the United States looked absolutely dominant since their slip-up in the group stage, but they’ve positioned themselves for a chance to send every talking head and Twitter avatar on an apology tour if they take care of business. 

Unlike the women’s tournament DFS contests, DraftKings has actually tightened pricing based on rotations and results, in addition to eliminating multi-position eligibility, making it tough on us to decide how to build on this slate. The Americans are very much led by Kevin Durant ($10.1k), and he’s my favorite spend-up on the slate of the six players priced at $8.5k and above. Two other players from Team USA, Damian Lillard ($9.7k) and Jrue Holiday ($8.5k), also fit into that price tier. I lean heavily toward Holiday, as we have seen Lillard struggle thus far on the International stage and fall to eighth on the team in minutes in the semifinal game. Teams are really attacking him on the defensive end, and Coach Popovich has seemingly recognized the best chance for the USA to win may be with Lillard playing a more limited role. My two other targets here are Devin Booker ($7.2k) and Khris Middleton ($5.6k). Unlike Lillard, Booker has been able to contribute on both ends of the floor and is a cheaper option for guard exposure from this team. Middleton remains too cheap for a rotation player in this offense with the highest team total on the slate. While his minutes continue to hover in the low 20’s, it would not be surprising to see him end up in the optimal lineup, and he is a nice pivot off Nicolas Batum chalk, who we’ll get to shortly. Other GPP shots I would take in MME builds include Zach LaVine ($8.1k), Jayson Tatum ($7.9k) and Bam Adebayo ($6.4k).

Les Bleus get a shot at winning their first gold and their first trip to the final since 2000, and to get there they’ll have to do the unthinkable and beat the Americans twice in two weeks. For our DFS purposes, my favorite targets remain Evan Fournier ($8.3k), Nando De Colo ($8.0k) and Nicolas Batum ($6.1k). I prefer to roster De Colo over Fournier in GPPs. Both players possess similar upsides, yet the latter projects to be much higher owned due to positional scarcity. Batum, on the other hand, has been brilliant over the last two games at his midrange price tag. The cost to roster him has increased due to his performance, but he’s going to be one of the most popular ways to go at the SF/F spots on DK, and I’m fine to eat the chalk. I’m still not a fan of rostering Rudy Gobert ($8.4k) due to the other options in and around his price range, but the price has certainly decreased to a point where I won’t call you crazy if I see him in your lineup. We can also look to France for value, specifically with Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot ($4.8k) and Thomas Heurtel ($4.7k). I prefer the former for the simple fact that his minutes in this matchup are more secure. We did see the French deploy some double-center lineups against the USA in the group stage, and if you think they go back to that strategy in this game, then Vincent Poirier ($4.5k) and even Moustapha Fall ($3.4k) are in play. Last, but certainly not least, DK decided to torture us with the PF position. There are only four eligible players at PF, and two could be DNPs. Guerschon Yabusele ($3.8k) is going to be massively owned, likely 90% or so, but I’m just going to lock in his value and move on rather than take shots on the others.

Australia vs. Slovenia (-2.5), 180.5, DFS Plays

Third-place games in any tournament setting can easily devolve into a bore to watch. However, both of these teams are looking for their first ever medals at the Summer Games. For that reason, I think we get an extremely competitive and chippy game. If you can swing it, I’d recommend setting that early alarm and watching this one. 

The Boomers got out to an early lead against the USA in the semifinals but were absolutely dismantled down the stretch and pulled their starters with four-plus minutes to go. I like getting to their core guys as much as possible, considering this is likely the end of the road for multiple mainstays on this roster. Up top it remains International Patty season for one more go-round, and Patty Mills ($10.8k) is a fine spend-up if you’re looking to get a bit different in GPPs. I expect him to be significantly lower owned compared to Kevin Durant, and his fantasy-point projection is much closer than that ownership disparity will be. We’ve been waiting on a Joe Ingles ($8.2k) game throughout the tournament, and he’s continued to underwhelm. His price is the lowest it’s been thus far, and he’s a great GPP pivot in that mid-$8k price tier. I like getting to Dante Exum ($5.1k) at the SG spot. He’ll be highly owned, so I would make sure to differentiate at other positions in my Exum lineups if I’m running a lot of him in an MME build. The prices for the Aussie duo of centers, Nick Kay ($5.9k) and Jock Landale ($5.5k), continue to rise. They’re both too cheap for their roles still, and I think the ownership will remain high. I like getting away from the stack if you can, but it’s certainly a build with high upside in a raw point sense. Matisse Thybulle ($7.3k) will likely be called upon to play big minutes and attempt to slow down Luka Doncic, and I’ll have a few shares in my 20 lineups. Finally, Chris Goulding ($4.0k) has been getting the minutes in the knockout stage that we expected all tournament, and he’ll be a strong (albeit chalky) value option. 

Deciding what to do with Luka Doncic ($13.5k) and his insane price tag has defined the last few slates. He triple-doubled in the semifinal loss to France and ended up optimal. With prices tightening across all four teams on the slate, I cannot bring myself to full fade him in my 20 lineups. However, if I’m only entering one lineup, then I’m more comfortable building without him. Mike Tobey ($8.9k) has been supremely consistent down low for Slovenia throughout the tournament, and he’s a near lock for the double-double bonus on DK. After those top two, four others really stand out from this team. My favorite is Klemen Prepelic ($7.0k), who comes off the bench but is a high-usage player and a talented scorer. He’s been more consistent than teammates like Vlatko Cancar ($7.8k), Zoran Dragic ($7.7k) and Jaka Blazic ($6.2k), all of whom I expect to have shares in my 20 lineups. Finally, Ziga Dimec ($4.1k) is in play as a punt. He’s not going to light the world on fire, but his high-intensity play could net him double-digit fantasy points in single-digit minutes (like he has in two of the five games), and the extra salary you save at the C or UTIL position could unlock a unique build to win you a tournament. 

Projected Starters

United States: Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard, Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bam Adebayo
France: Nando De Colo, Evan Fournier, Nic Batum, Guerschon Yabusele, Rudy Gobert
Australia: Matthew Dellavedova, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Jock Landale, Nick Kay
Slovenia: Luka Doncic, Zoran Dragic, Jaka Blazic, Vlatko Cancar, Mike Tobey