NBA DFS Expert Survey: Friday, May 9th

by Justin Bailey (Jbails26) Last Updated 2025-05-09 17:48:33 Premium Content Part of the product NBA DFS

Our panel of experts is here to give you their NBA DFS advice for the upcoming slate by answering a handful of questions to help you make crucial lineup-building decisions. Want to know headChopper’s favorite tournament play? Or Noto’s favorite salary saver? Find out below!

NBA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Expert Survey for Friday, May 9

Who is your favorite player to spend up for in cash games?

Notorious: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
headChopper: Tyrese Haliburton (FD) / Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (DK)
tcsmith031: Jalen Williams (FD) / Jamal Murray (DK)

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What is your preferred tournament format (e.g. large-field, single-entry) to play on this slate? How do you plan to beat that field of opponents? What tactic or strategy will set you apart?

Notorious: I love small-field and single-entry tournaments. My way of being different tonight is fairly simple because my two favorite value plays are Andrew Nembhard and Isaiah Hartenstein. Nembhard has logged 36+ minutes in 3 straight games, while Hartenstein played 28 minutes in Game 1 and logged 22 minutes in the first 3 quarters of Game 2.

headChopper: I’m playing mainly small-field contests with 1–3 entry limits, but I’ll also sprinkle in a couple of large-field GPPs just in case I hit the nuts. We’re entering the classic home/road pivot stage of the playoffs, and I think you can throw out a lot of what happened in the first 2 games—strategies will adjust, and some role players will thrive at home while others may fade on the road. Early on, I’m leaning toward building lineups with two stars from the same game and filling in the rest with lower-salary players. I’d love to jam in a Nikola Jokic / Shai Gilgeous-Alexander combo, and that’s possible, but I also see a path where Donovan Mitchell and Tyrese Haliburton stay close enough in production for a much cheaper combined price. For now, I’m leaning toward two stars from the same game as a way to get a little different.

tcsmith031: I’ll play both single-entry and 20-max. Jamal Murray is projected to be heavy chalk on DraftKings, where he’s only $6,800. Avoiding duplication is a key to playing +EV lineups on such small slates, and I think one easy way to differentiate is to either fade (SE) or come in well under the field (MME) on Murray. Point guard is the deepest position on the slate, so it’s easy to build lineups that still project well even without him. If Murray flops, you have a clear path to potentially surpassing two-thirds of the field, per his projected ownership.

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