Daily Fantasy Basketball and the Atlanta Hawks

As you recall, last year I engaged in a season long trip with a $50 stake to play throughout the year. At times, I thought all would be lost, but....it all worked out and have built that stake quite well over that time.

Now we're back in 2015-16 and, while I'm not going to subject you to the same running tally as last season, I want to start this weekly series by looking at the Hawks and we'll work over time on individual game slates, basic strategies for NBA DFS and answer any questions you might have about the game I've grown to love more than even season long fantasy sports.

So how are the Hawks priced on FanDuel at this point?

Paul Millsap, $8,500

Al Horford, $7,700

Jeff Teague, $7,600

Kent Bazemore, $5,100

Kyle Korver, $5,000

Dennis Schröder, $4,600

Tiago Splitter, $3,900

Thabo Sefolosha, $3,900

Mike Muscala, $3,500

Mike Scott, $3,500

Justin Holiday, $3,500

Ok, so on FanDuel, you typically want someone who is going to score 5x his salary. So, for Millsap at $8,500, he'd need to score 42.5 to achieve "value" for his slot.

Tonight, Boston is a high pace team, so the Hawks can be expected to post more stats than normal thanks to the extra 4 to 6 possessions they would get, in theory, from playing up in pace. Millsap is definitely in play tonight because of this and the fact that the Celtics have not been defending bigs well this season. Millsap is in the top 10 in a quick metric I use to filter out scoring in fantasy points, focusing on rebounds, assists, blocks and steals. Millsap is so good at delivering these peripherals that when he does have a big scoring night, you can ride him way over the value line.

Al Horford is also in play tonight for the same lack of defense reasons and also because, if Brad Stevens puts David Lee on him, the Boss owns his former college teammate. Shreds-ville. Like some revenge for freshman hazing or something. He's in play.

I like the Umlaut tonight, even off the bench, because the Celtics do play pacy games and have a lot of guards to contend with, when completely healthy. He gets nearly 20 FD points per game even off the bench, so at his salary, he's a sneaky play in tournaments.

If Thabo were to get more minutes, he would be a sensational play for the same peripheral reasons I gave on Millsap. Thabo, per 36 minutes, gets nearly 20 FD points on those non-scoring categories alone. Alas, he's not going to get 36, probably half that at most, so he's off the radar for now.

Good luck!

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 daily fantasy related items from him through his Twitter feed @JasonWalker_72.

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!