FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball for Friday's NBA games

We're back!

As you recall, SBNation has partnered with FanDuel this season to give our readers a chance to see what is the latest breaking trend in the fantasy basketball industry, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS).

Even though this is a sponsored post with affiliate links, all of the opinions in this post are my own. And as an FYI, FanDuel gave me some cash to play its daily fantasy games.

The excellent thing about daily fantasy sports, and especially fantasy basketball, is that it's a new game every day. No worries about injuries, deadbeat owners in your league, etc. It's just day after day of heart pounding, game following excitement.

I am taking you guys through a season of NBA games from the daily fantasy point of view, complete with tracking my every day wins and losses. When will I bust out and lose it all? Come back and find out!

What Happened Recently?

I jinxed myself with my last piece and lost the last two nights. Some 50/50s have paid, but the GPPs have landed within a point of two of cashing. So, with that, I am down to $86.85, still up over 36 dollars from the start. The lesson is, writing costs more than just time.

Going Broke Pace: Playoffs, baby!

Friday's Take:

I am, again, entering the $2 Shot and the $1 Swat and the $1 Dribbler tonight, along with a small group (558) $2 Double-up. Here's my lineup so you can pick against it and win while I inevitably slide back toward bankruptcy.

Quick Note: I've decided to forego the large group Double-ups for a while because the multi-entry nature of that made it hard for a single lineup guy like myself to escape the lineup trains some of the pros were using in there and cash. Sometimes the threshold for cashing was the same as GPPs. No thanks. The smaller groups, like the 558-entry contest I am in, is limited to one lineup per user, raising my chances. There is typically a lower rake percentage there as well, if that's important to you.

There is a lot to choose from tonight, with over 14 games on the slate, yet it's hard to pin down must starts and value.

For value, there will be many pouring into a Bulls lineup that has Aaron Brooks at a low price and a heavy role and Taj Gibson filling in for Pau Gasol.

Others will look to two rotation surprises, Brooklyn's Markel Brown and Denver's Joffrey Lauvergne, who are minimum priced and can unlock more top end players in the slate.

There are also a ton of centers which can be frustrating on a site like FanDuel where you can roster only one. Hassan Whiteside, Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan, Rudy Gobert, Nikola Vucevic, Al Horford and Al Jefferson are all very good plays tonight.

On the very tippy top it's hard to choose, too. Russell Westbrook may be underpriced at the top of the tree, even, and Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, LaMarcus Aldridge, LeBron James and James Harden are all going to be looked at as rosterable tonight.

As always, I am very interested in hearing from others in the comments area about what they are doing in DFS and if you have any questions, feel free to chime in! If you have a success story, get in there and shout about it!

Jason Walker is the Managing Editor for Peachtree Hoops and is an avid fantasy sports player in both seasonal and daily sports leagues. You can read other fantasy related items at his site dedicated to such things, RotoAdvice.com and hit him up on Twitter @JasonWalkerRoto.

How to Play and The Rules of Engagement:

The way that FanDuel works is as follows:

1. Head over to FanDuel today, register and check out the NBA games they have running.

For example: You can compete against friends, family and total strangers by entering the $2 NBA Shot contest! Click this LINK TO JOIN THE CONTEST and get into the tourney!

2. Once you enter, you set a lineup based on a salary cap of $60K and enter 2 PG, 2 SG, 2 SF, 2 PF and a Center (yes, Horford is considered a center).

3. Once your cap-friendly lineup is complete, click Enter and BOOM!, the fun begins!

Now, a bit of bad news. Here are specific rules. They include this: "In order to deposit money to play paid entry games you must be able to represent and warrant that you are not a resident of any of the following states: Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana or Washington."

But there are still free games on the site, in which you can take part if you are from those states, and I know most of our readers don't fall into this category, but if you do, you can still have some fun!