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NBA All-Star Game Daily Fantasy Helper

LeBron James traded away Russell Westbrook during the All-Star draft. Could that allow us to roster both on Sunday? Which other All-Stars should be at the top our wish list?

If you're new to daily fantasy basketball -- maybe you started your DFS journey during the MLB or NFL seasons, or maybe basketball is your sport and this will be your first year giving it a shot -- you're in for a treat. The NBA scene changes hugely on a week-to-week, day-to-day, and -- depending on injury news -- even a minute-to-minute basis, making every slate a unique one that requires an ever-changing approach.

This weekend, we have a very unique single-game slate for the 71st NBA All-Star Game. How this format works is, as always, you have to stay within the $60,000 salary, but you select five total players, including: one "MVP" whose FanDuel points are multiplied by two, one "STAR" whose points are multiplied by 1.5 and one "PRO" whose points are multiplied by 1.2 -- I'll refer to these as the bonus spots. The other two are utility spots in which those players will receive no bonus beyond their actual fantasy total.

There are no positional restrictions, which makes this that much more fun for DFS players from all backgrounds. Without further ado, let's see who we should be targeting for Sunday's All-Star Game slate.

Bonus Spot Plays

LeBron James ($15,000): After opening as six-point favorites (per Sports Insights) and briefly being bet up to -6.5 on the spread, Team LeBron are now 5.5-point favorites (-250 moneyline) to win for a second straight year. As such, LeBron and his team of draftees carry an implied total of 158 points with a 310.5 over/under. So it follows that The King is first in MVP odds (+450) at FanDuel Sportsbook. Given all the star-power together on the floor at any one point, an MVP has to put up big numbers, which is exactly what James did last year, when he used 25.4% of the team's possessions, per RealGM, to amass 51 FanDuel points behind 29 points (on 17 field goal attempts), 10 rebounds and 8 assists. He played 31-plus minutes in that one and has averaged 29.6 minutes in his 14 All-Star starts, so he'll probably play as many minutes as he so wishes here. At his season-long rate of 1.46 FanDuel points per minute (seventh among players with 500-plus minutes), 30 minutes would come to 43.8 FanDuel points; that makes him the obvious -- and likely the most highly-owned -- candidate for the masses' MVP spot.

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