Stars and Scrubs vs. Balanced Lineup Construction

The most common lineup build in NBA DFS tends to be a “stars and scrubs” type of lineup. NBA is a bit of a unique sport in that we have a fast-paced, hard-hitting injury news feed almost every single night. Sometimes, we have injury news well in advance, and then we get EVEN MORE news as we get closer to lineup lock.

With all the injury news constantly hitting, it is more difficult for the DFS sites to offer difficult pricing in the NBA game than it is for other sports. Inevitably, there will always be a screaming value or two on every NBA slate. Obviously, there are exceptions, but this is the norm more often than you might think at first glance. In addition, NBA is often a sport where the stud plays will rarely let you down. Kevin Durant is going to generally “get his” on a nightly basis. Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to contribute across the entire stat sheet on a nightly basis. In contrast, the top plays in NFL or MLB are prone to duds any time. The best wide receiver in the NFL can have a poor game. The best hitter in baseball can go 0-for-4 on any given night. The NBA game is a completely different animal when it comes to this.

For those reasons that I just described, it is often desirable to plug in a lot of top-end plays on a nightly basis. When you combine that with the fact that there is often a lot of value to be found, the stars and scrubs approach makes the most obvious sense. Certainly, this is the approach you can take in your cash games.

There is an additional layer of strategy to be considered when it comes to GPP play, though. If everyone is creating stars and scrubs builds, your likelihood of winning a solo first place prize in a large tournament is smaller, because you are generally going to duplicate someone else’s lineup. On nights where it seems like stars and scrubs builds will be super popular, it might make sense to zag to a balanced lineup.

A “balanced” lineup is one that generally avoids the highest dollar players and the scrubs and “lives in the mid-range.” This is often a more viable strategy than some people would lean to believe, because often times the mid-range players are capable of scoring 50 fantasy points on a good night. If you hit the right combination of mid-range players, you can absolutely win a GPP even without having the safety and security of a top-end player in your lineup.

In short, don’t be afraid to steer away from the masses! NBA lineups often become very similar among users, especially when there is a lot of injury news that opens up some value. This also dove-tails perfectly with another concept that I want to discuss, and that’s the idea of leaving money on the table. Let’s get into that now.

About the Author

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Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84)

Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84) is a longtime RotoGrinders contributor and show host. He’s appeared in numerous Live Finals, has logged countless 6-figure wins in a host of different sports (including 5 in PGA), and is a former DFS Writer of the Year Nominee by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. You can find Justin’s ‘Covering The Bases’ series on weekends during the MLB season. He is also a main contributor of sports betting picks at our sister site, ScoresAndOdds, and is a co-host on the RotoGrinders Game Night show on SiriusXM. Follow Justin on Twitter – @stlcardinals84