Sunday's main NBA slate on DraftKings carries four games: TOR @ MIN, ORL @ NYK, LAC @ OKC and DET @ PHI. The salary cap is $50,000, and the slate locks at 7:00 p.m. ET (4:00 p.m. PT).
At the top of our model's ranking is Cade Cunningham of DET. He costs $9,500 and carries a ceiling of 67.5, the highest among the eight plays our model ranks as its best, with a DraftKings average of 45.4. Anthony Edwards of MIN is the other premium option at $9,600, with a ceiling of 62.2. LaMelo Ball of MIN costs $8,200 and has a 61.7 ceiling, while Scottie Barnes of TOR at $7,800 posts a 57.0 ceiling and a 45.1 DraftKings average.
PHI brings the deepest set of ranked plays, which makes sense in a game with Joel Embiid tagged OUT. LeBron James is $7,100 with a ceiling of 63.3, but he carries a Q tag from DraftKings, so check his status before lock. Jaylen Brown is $7,900 with a 58.2 ceiling, and Tyrese Maxey is $8,500 with a 51.2 ceiling. Jalen Brunson of NYK rounds out the group at $8,100.
Value is where the lineup gets built. Our model leans on Anfernee Simons at $4,000, Alex Caruso at $4,200, Ayo Dosunmu at $5,000, Jakob Poeltl at $5,000 and Collin Murray-Boyles at $5,200. Those five plays free up the cap space needed to fit stars at the other spots.
No ownership figures are available for this slate, so we can't say where the crowd is headed. Several tagged players are OUT, including Paolo Banchero, Kawhi Leonard, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson and Brandon Ingram, which is worth keeping in mind as you build.
Our model's top lineup uses $48,800 of the $50,000 cap. It has Cunningham at PG, Simons at SG, Dosunmu at SF, Murray-Boyles at PF, Poeltl at C, Darius Garland at G ($7,700), Caruso at F and Ball at UTIL. Lock is Sunday at 7:00 p.m. ET.
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