What’s up Mafia? I hope this article finds everyone safe, happy and most importantly, at home. Another week without the NBA has gone by and, to be quite honest, it seems like it’s been another month. While there’s still hope that league play resumes at some point, there is no definitive timetable as to when this could happen.
I’ve heard all sorts of ideas as to how the league could salvage the season, but for now, the only thing we can do is wait. If there’s a chance for the league to come back, I’ll have NBA DFS on the brain. To keep everyone occupied, I came up with a quick look at the FanDuel Sim contests. They are one of the few contests on the site that involves sports. How accurate are they to the real players? Are there any outliers? Are matchups the same? We have a chance to win big money for free and load up on for when the games come back.
I am going to be looking at two contests. April 1 and April 2nd. I entered each contest but have yet to win more than a few cents. Are the games just random? Is there something we can take advantage of? Let’s dive in!
April 1
$1k NBA Sim Sports Free Play: 1pm slate
Scoring Leaders:
PG: Trae Young – 48.7 (4.9x) v CHA
SG: Buddy Hield- 49 (7.9x) v LAL
SF: LeBron James – 67.90 (6.2x) v SAC
PF: Anthony Davis -81.40 (7.5x) v SAC
C: Clint Capela – 60 (7.9x) v CHA
Summary: Sim Hield smashed his two contests that Real Hield put up by nearly 14 fantasy points. Sim LeBron outscored the Real Lebron in both games against the Kings. He didn’t even hit 5x value in either contest. Sim AD greatly outscored the Real AD by scoring four more fantasy points than both games combined. The biggest fluke overachievement came from Clint Capela. First off, he has yet to even play a game as a Hawk, yet he led all Centers on the slate. So that’s very fluky. Then, he posted more than he had against the Hornets when he was on the Rockets. Real Trae Young had more fantasy points in each game than what the Sim Young put up. Sim Jabari Parker scored 60.2 (10.6X), Real Parker scored 60 plus twice to all season. Bottomline, this slate was random with no logic to why, outside the highest priced players who seem to hit where they averaged.
April 2nd
$1k NBA Sim Sports Free Play: 1pm slate
Scoring Leaders:
PG: Dame Lillard – 70.3 (6.9x) v MEM
SG: DeMar DeRozan- 50.5 (6.6x) v NO
SF: Pascal Siakam – 54.7 (6.3x) v HOU
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge – 48.9 (7.5x) v NO
C: Jakob Poeltl – 47.5 (12.2x) v NO
Summary: The Spurs. Wow, three led the way. If the matchup were real, this game would probably have been fact paced and had the one of the highest totals. However, the Sim was a tad off the Real players. DeMar in this matchup scored less than 40 fantasy points total in two games against the Pelicans. Poeltl was double the fantasy points in both NOP games, so he was WAY over real with a 12.2x. Like WTF. Aldridge was a letdown but still led the PF spots less than 10 fantasy points from his only matchup this season. Sim Lillard hit a 70 burger. He did that four times in a span of six game at the end of January and one other time in Oct. Of course, in this Sim matchup it was against Memphis. On 2/12, Lillard scored only 40 fantasy points and hit 4.2x. Again, no real explanation on why he saw a 30-point boost. Same goes for Sim Pascal, he scored 54.7 or more five times this season. However, not against Houston, those games he was below 45 fantasy points in all three games.
Conclusion: There just doesn’t seem to be any correlation between the Sim players and the Real players. The high price players have overachieved and should be the core to any lineup, like a CASH game. Outside of that, good luck. The Sim is 100% random IMO. I will continue to play them and next article, if the season isn’t back, I’ll look at a few more slates. Until then, best of luck and stay safe.
