Daily Fantasy Basketball 2015: NBA DraftKings Ideal Lineup for March 30th

This part of the basketball season tends to get a little funky. Teams have been jockeying for playoff position (or, in the case of the Sixers, Knicks and T-Wolves, lottery ball position) for about 73 games. Now they find themselves in one of three groups.

Group one: Teams locked in to their current place in the standings

Examples: Warriors, Hawks, Cavs, Wizards, Pistons, Jazz, Nuggets, Lakers, Kings, Magic, Sixers, Timberwolves, Knicks

These teams are the ones to pay the most attention to in Daily Fantasy. They have so little to play for over the final nine games of the season that head coaches and upper management tend to rest starters at odd and unexpected times. All of these announcements usually occur a few hours before tip and are critical for DFS players to be conscious of. 

Group two: Playoff teams looking to exploit ideal first round match-ups

Examples: Spurs, Clippers, Thunder, Heat 

Nobody outside the organization really knows what the Spurs are up to, but I would not be surprised if they start mysteriously losing games to avoid the Grizzlies in the first round. 

I believe the Heat want to stay as the seven seed to play they Cavaliers in the first round. That whole organization is not thrilled with a certain Great Lakes area King. 

OKC wants to avoid the Warriors in the first round and will be desperately trying to catch Dallas.

Group three: Party crashers

Examples: Everybody fighting to secure a playoff birth: Teams like the Celtics, Pacers, Hornets, Pelicans and Suns will all be playing their most talented players as much as possible until they're mathematically eliminated from contention.

Taking all that into account, here's what I'm rolling out today in several of Draft Kings' hundreds of available contests: 

Position	Player	Opp.	Price
PG	Trey Burke	@ Min	$5,300
SG	Kyle Korver	vs. Mil	$4,500
SF	Gordon Hayward	@ Min	$8,000
PF	Nerlens Noel	vs. LAL	$7,800
C	Jordan Hill	@ Phi	$5,500
G	Ish Smith	vs. LAL	$5,900
F	Paul Millsap	vs. Mil	$7,300
Utility	Dennis Schroder	vs. Mil	$5,600

Trey Burke ($5,300) @ Timberwolves

It's safe to say the starting gig in Utah belongs to Trey Burke. Per Statmuse.com, over the past five games, Burke is averaging 33.5 minutes per game to Rookie Dante Exum's 20.5.

Burke has also been given the green light to shoot pretty much whenever he wants to shoot despite his scary low field goal percentage. Burke shot a paltry 38% last year and that number has somehow dipped to 36.8%. 

Tonight Burke draws the defensive point guard tandem of Lorenzo Brown and Zach Lavine of Minnesota. Both sport defensive ratings above 111, well above (or worse than) the league average of 106. 

*Dennis Schroder (my utility player) will start in Jeff Teague's absence against the Bucks tonight. Hopefully the Bucks' top ranked point guard defense will scare enough people away from playing the German floor leader. 

Kyle Korver ($4,500) vs. Bucks

Korver exceeds his value when he gets his allotment of minutes. According to Draftkings, in five the last six games in which Korver has logged at least twelve minutes, he has scored more than 25 fantasy points. Though the Bucks play stout defense overall, they struggle against opposing two guards. Korver is one of the toughest swingmen to chase in the whole league.

Korver is so effective from behind the arc that defenses bend in ways that make other Hawks more valuable. His shot chart is one of the most unique in todays NBA. 

Statmuse.com

*The size of the hexagon defines the volume of shots that a player is taking from each location. The shade defines the accuracy from that location as compared to league average from that location. The darker the shade, the more accurate the shooter.

The Hawks' offense averages 119.7 points per 100 possessions with Korver on the court. Korver has the 5th highest offensive rating in the league amongst guards.