NBA

FanDuel NBA Sim Sports Picks for 3/19/20

Which players pose the best odds to pay off in FanDuel's NBA Sim Sports contest?

During this downtime in the sports calendar, FanDuel has been innovating a lot of different ways to get some daily fantasy sports action.

One of those includes NBA Sim Sports, a format that looks pretty much identical to the usual FanDuel offering. The only twist is that the games won't be played live. Players will instead be assigned a random game from their 2019-20 season.

Matchups don't come into play, and late-scratches and other games missed by players won't come into effect. Scores roll out throughout the night for a bit of a sweat.

It's free to enter, and here are some potential standout picks.

Finding Value

A rule of thumb in NBA DFS is finding certain value thresholds. For example, seeking players who can score 5.0 FanDuel points per $1,000 in salary. This is known as "five-times value" or "5x." The reason for that is if you max out your $60,000 budget and every player in your lineup scores exactly 5.0 points per $1,000, you'll total 300.0 FanDuel points. That's a good starting point.

Of course, for bigger totals, you'll want to shoot for 6x or higher, and for safety, 4x is a fine mark to uncover. What you will typically find is that the more expensive players hit 4x value often (because their roles are secure but their prices are high enough that they really need a huge game to pay off big price tags) and cheaper players hit 6x more frequently (because their bigger games are less about 50-point triple-doubles and more about a simple double-double at a cheaper price).

Value Leaders

These tables include the top-eight performers at each position based on how many times this season they had games that hit our three different value thresholds when compared to their current price for today's contest.

In parenthesis, you can see how often a player hit the given threshold. For example, De'Aaron Fox returned 4x value in 85% of his games and 5x value in 54% of his games.

4x Value Leaders

4x PG SG SF PF C
1 De'Aaron Fox
(0.85)
Donte DiVincenzo
(0.8)
Giannis
Antetokounmpo
(0.83)
Al Horford
(0.77)
Nikola Vucevic
(0.78)
2 Collin Sexton
(0.77)
James Harden
(0.79)
Tobias Harris
(0.77)
Aaron Gordon
(0.76)
Joel Embiid
(0.76)
3 Markelle Fultz
(0.75)
Khris Middleton
(0.77)
Tim Hardaway Jr.
(0.76)
Robert Covington
(0.76)
Cody Zeller
(0.74)
4 Ben Simmons
(0.73)
Evan Fournier
(0.75)
Harrison Barnes
(0.75)
Jaren Jackson Jr.
(0.76)
Andre Drummond
(0.72)
5 Luka Doncic
(0.71)
Terrence Ross
(0.75)
Dorian Finney-
Smith (0.72)
Kevin Love
(0.75)
Hassan Whiteside
(0.72)
6 De'Anthony Melton
(0.71)
Devonte' Graham
(0.73)
Eric Gordon
(0.71)
Brandon Clarke
(0.75)
Tristan Thompson
(0.72)
7 Terry Rozier
(0.7)
Buddy Hield
(0.73)
Cedi Osman
(0.71)
Maxi Kleber
(0.74)
Willie Cauley-
Stein (0.67)
8 Russell Westbrook
(0.69)
C.J. McCollum
(0.71)
Jonathan Isaac
(0.69)
PJ Washington
(0.71)
Jonas Valanciunas
(0.66)

5x Value Leaders

5x PG SG SF PF C
1 De'Anthony Melton
(0.6)
Josh Richardson
(0.63)
Rodney Hood
(0.62)
Kevin Love
(0.61)
Willie Cauley-Stein
(0.61)
2 De'Aaron Fox
(0.54)
Donte DiVincenzo
(0.61)
Harrison Barnes
(0.58)
Brandon Clarke
(0.57)
Tristan Thompson
(0.54)
3 Eric Bledsoe
(0.54)
Terrence Ross
(0.57)
Glenn Robinson III
(0.58)
Jaren Jackson Jr.
(0.56)
Cody Zeller
(0.52)
4 Luka Doncic
(0.52)
Buddy Hield
(0.55)
Cedi Osman
(0.57)
Al Horford
(0.55)
Alex Len
(0.51)
5 Terry Rozier
(0.52)
Dillon Brooks
(0.55)
Josh Jackson
(0.56)
Richaun Holmes
(0.53)
Jonas Valanciunas
(0.48)
6 Ja Morant
(0.52)
Devonte' Graham
(0.53)
Tim Hardaway Jr.
(0.54)
Aaron Gordon
(0.52)
Dwight Powell
(0.48)
7 D.J. Augustin
(0.51)
James Harden
(0.52)
Miles Bridges
(0.53)
PJ Washington
(0.51)
Gorgui Dieng
(0.47)
8 Seth Curry
(0.51)
Delon Wright
(0.52)
Giannis
Antetokounmpo
(0.5)
Nemanja Bjelica
(0.49)
P.J. Tucker
(0.45)

6x Value Leaders

6x PG SG SF PF C
1 De'Anthony Melton
(0.4)
Josh Richardson
(0.42)
Josh Jackson
(0.44)
Nemanja Bjelica
(0.38)
P.J. Tucker
(0.41)
2 Ja Morant
(0.37)
Terrence Ross
(0.4)
Glenn Robinson III
(0.4)
Richaun Holmes
(0.33)
Dwight Powell
(0.38)
3 Seth Curry
(0.37)
Dillon Brooks
(0.38)
Cedi Osman
(0.38)
Michael Porter Jr.
(0.33)
Bismack Biyombo
(0.38)
4 D.J. Augustin
(0.35)
Malik Monk
(0.36)
Harrison Barnes
(0.37)
Larry Nance Jr.
(0.32)
Gorgui Dieng
(0.36)
5 Darius Garland
(0.31)
Cody Martin
(0.33)
Danuel House Jr.
(0.36)
Brandon Clarke
(0.31)
Cody Zeller
(0.33)
6 Shake Milton
(0.31)
Delon Wright
(0.32)
Trevor Ariza
(0.36)
Kristaps Porzingis
(0.31)
Alex Len
(0.33)
7 JJ Barea
(0.31)
Donte DiVincenzo
(0.31)
Dorian Finney-
Smith
(0.34)
Al Horford
(0.3)
Willie Cauley-Stein
(0.31)
8 Terry Rozier
(0.3)
Bogdan Bogdanovic
(0.31)
Kent Bazemore
(0.33)
Maxi Kleber
(0.3)
Jonas Valanciunas
(0.31)