FanDuel Daily Fantasy Basketball Picks

As you recall from yesterday's introduction to this new series, 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. Will I be broke before Christmas? Before Thanksgiving? Come back and find out!

What Happened Yesterday?

So yesterday was an important lesson in over thinking something. I thought the Pelicans, while hosting the injured, lottery afflicted Orlando Magic, would blow out their guests, limiting the minutes of a star like Anthony Davis, who happened to easily be the highest salaried guy on the slate last night. Figuring him to be highly owned, it seemed like a good strategy to go against the grain and roster Howard, who had the feeble Lakers, and Asik, who at least was very low priced, to beat the crowds.

So all Davis did was go out and have a night to remember and what I refer to as a contest-altering game. He scored over 70 points on FanDuel last night, which is about 75% higher than normal .

To make matters worse on my roster, Nik Vucevic for the Magic was right there with him, also unrostered by me.

Despite that, I was in the hunt for the money with my alternate lineup that featured Asik and had the Lakers kept it close against the Rockets and not seen three guys (Harden, Ariza, Lin) in that game leave early, I would have broken even for the night.

As it was, it was an 0-3 night on FanDuel last night and my bankroll is now $47.

Wednesday's Lineup

A key part of DFS strategy is to stick to your spending plan and budget. I mentioned yesterday that I don't like going over 10% of my bankroll on a regular night. Sometimes, after a night like last night, you might be tempted to over do it the next night to make things up, to be so emotional about being so close, or embarrassed and the like that you push more onto the slate than you were ready to.

This is called tilting, and my record when I tilt is unofficially 2-157. Stick to your strategies and have the memory of a cornerback when playing. Don't tilt.

Here is my lineup for tonight while playing three contests, two are tourneys and the other a 50/50.

PG: Stephen Curry, Warriors @ Kings ($9,600)
PG: Russell Westbrook, Thunder @ Trail Blazers ($10,000)
SG: Kyle Korver, Hawks @ Raptors ($4,400)
SG: Alec Burks, Jazz vs. Rockets ($5,100)
SF: Perry Jones, Thunder vs. Trail Blazers ($5,000)
SF: Draymond Green, Warriors @ Kings ($5,000)
PF: Derrick Favors, Jazz vs. Rockets ($6,000)
PF: Terrence Jones, Rockets @ Jazz ($5,700)
C: Andre Drummond, Pistons @ Nuggets ($8,700)

Including Korver isn't just a homer Hawk thing -- Korver is a legit top 10 value at SG tonight across the industry, so why not? I'm banking on Curry/Westbrook to have their usual stat-stuffing games and for Jones and Green to take advantage of playing time while starters are injured (Durant, Lee). The Jazz should be sneaky offensively in the beginning of the Quin Snyder era, so Burks and Favors make for nice value plays to fill out the roster.

UPDATE: Like yesterday, I did go ahead and post an alternate lineup for one of the tourneys. This is to spread the risk of a single lineup bombing on a night. I wanted to take advantage of the Pacers/Sixers game as well as the Suns/Lakers, so here is the alternate lineup:

PG: Stephen Curry, Warriors @ Kings ($9,600)
PG: Russell Westbrook, Thunder @ Trail Blazers ($10,000)
SG: Andre Roberson, Thunder @ Trail Blazers ($3,500)
SG: Eric Bledsoe, Suns vs. Lakers ($7,400)
SF: C.J. Miles, Pacers vs. Sixers ($4,400)
SF: Draymond Green, Warriors @ Kings ($5,000)
PF: Luis Scola, Pacers vs. Sixers ($4,400)
PF: Markieff Morris, Suns vs. Lakers ($6,100)
C: Andre Drummond, Pistons @ Nuggets ($8,700)

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!

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.comand 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: One of the NBA games they have for pay is a $5 entry, 100 first place 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!