DRAFT NBA Value Watch: Thursday, April 19th
Aaron Hendrix will be bringing Premium subscribers his tiers for head-to-head, three-man, four-man (tournaments), and six-man drafts on DRAFT. Included will be strategy discussion, options for the day’s slate and players that might go overlooked on the DRAFT platform.
Thursday, April 19th
Good afternoon Grinders! Welcome to our newest addition to DRAFT Premium. Each day, I will go over the NBA slate with tier rankings for head-to-head, three man, and six man drafts. I’ll also provide a brief slate analysis as to how to attack drafts for the slate.
A couple notes to remember about DRAFT contests. One, there is no salary cap so you’re not worried about fitting players in on a budget. Raw fantasy points is what matters most, not the popular point per dollar. Second, while there is no late swap, if a player is ruled out, you will be able to swap them out. For more information on how this works, read the DRAFT Swap Rules Page – for this reason you can take some marginal chances in the later rounds on players that are questionable to play. Last, roster requirements are two guards, two forwards, and one center. All analysis and rankings will be based on that.
Slate Overview
| Road Team | Home Team | Vegas Line | Over/Under | Away Total | Home Total | Game Time (ET) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia 76ers | at | Miami Heat | PHI1.0 | 217.0 | 109.0 | 108.0 | 7:00 PM |
| Portland Trail Blazers | at | New Orleans Pelicans | NO -3.0 | 216.0 | 106.5 | 109.5 | 9:00 PM |
| Golden State Warriors | at | San Antonio Spurs | GS 3.5 | 206.0 | 104.8 | 101.3 | 9:30 PM |
All the games are projected to be close with the Spurs/Warriors game easily the lowest projected total of the night. Anthony Davis is the clear top pick and it’s not close. You could make an argument for Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, or Damian Lillard as the #2 but I’ll go with the projections and rank them in that order, although my gut is saying Lillard has a huge game. The numbers say he’s 4th though. Center is terrible and none of them truly stand out as being good enough to move them up the rankings. I’d only make sure that if I am playing a four man tournament to make sure I get one of the top three as I would not want Pau Gasol as my center. Other than that, it’s pretty straightforward and you should go on projected values which is what my rankings reflect.
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