Wednesday's NBA showdown is a single game, LAL @ LAC, with a $50,000 cap and a captain slot that scores 1.5x points at 1.5x salary. The slate locks at 10:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. PT).
At the top, our model's ranking puts Luka Doncic (LAL) at $13,800 with a ceiling of 75.5 and a DraftKings average of 51.4, the highest of any player on the board. Darius Garland (LAC) is the best option on the other side at $9,400, with a ceiling of 52.3 and an average of 39.2. Walker Kessler (LAL) sits at $9,000 with a ceiling of 49.4 and an average of 32.3. Brook Lopez (LAC) is a step down in price at $5,400, with a ceiling of 40.2 and an average of 21.5.
The value plays are where this slate gets interesting, and the sheet is full of them. Collin Sexton (LAL) costs $3,200 and carries a ceiling of 40.9 against an average of 14.8. Jake LaRavia (LAL) is $2,800 with a ceiling of 29.1 and an average of 11.2. At the very bottom, Jaden Hardy (LAL) is $1,000 with a ceiling of 28.4, and Jalen Pickett (LAC) is $1,000 with a ceiling of 15.6. Those two are minimum-salary pieces that free up cap room for the stars. Several LAC players, including Rui Hachimura, Brandon Ingram and Bradley Beal, carry an OUT tag on DraftKings, as do Cameron Carr and Adou Thiero on the LAL side.
We don't have ownership figures for this slate, so there is no read on where the crowd will land.
Our model's top lineup uses $49,500 of the $50,000 cap. It puts Doncic in the captain slot at $20,700, then fills the utility spots with Kobe Sanders at $4,000, LaRavia at $2,800, Kessler at $9,000, Matisse Thybulle at $3,600 and Garland at $9,400. It leans on one LAL star at captain while pairing Kessler and Garland to anchor the rest of the build.
Lock is Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. ET.
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