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Our first BIG slate of the year is tonight with 12 NBA games on tap for us in the Battle Royale and Snake Draft streets. We saw what we expected with the two games last night where the Warriors severely limited the minutes for their keys guys, and the majority of the options from the first game come through big… except Al Horford.
Don’t forget to check out our FREE Rankings for NBA Battle Royale and Snake draft tournaments every day. These rankings are where a lot of the analysis here gets derived from, and they’re based off both median and ceiling projections to put the most accurate rankings together for your chance to win these tournaments.
Let’s dig into Night 2 in the NBA.
NBA Battle Royale & Snake Draft Strategy for October 19th, 2022
Overall Strategy
With such a big slate to kick off the year, it’s important to remember that now more than ever are when drafts are going to be the least efficient. We’ll look back in a couple months and laugh at where some players were being drafted or some players who weren’t being drafted at all. There are BIG discrepancies between our rankings of some of these players and their ADP heading into night one, and while it may feel uncomfortable taking players that are further down the board in your ADP list, I really think it’s something we should lean into. We can trust in our own projections and rankings, especially because it will allow us to be extremely unique and even target some lower owned players with big upside that can differentiate us.
Top Options
Luka Doncic just slightly edges out Nikola Jokic as our top option, and then Ja Morant edges out Kevin Durant for our third overall spot. Ja took a huge step last year, and projects as an absolute fantasy monster in this game with the Grizzlies missing Jaren Jackson Jr. and Dillon Brooks.
After these players is where things get interesting… and extremely wide open. Domantas Sabonis is a home run pick in the next tier with his role on the Kings offense in maybe the best game environment of the night against the Blazers. Sabonis is a triple double threat every night and looks to be underrated by the market heading into the season.
Beyond that, the top tier then becomes extremely flat, and I think this is where we can lean into the rankings and create unique rosters. The tier from that 6th pick all the way down into the 20s or even 30s has very little difference from player to player.
Undervalued and Overvalued Players
Terry Rozier – There are a lot of candidates for Undervalued players tonight, but let’s stick with Rozier here. Without LaMelo Ball (and with James Bouknight getting in trouble again) the Hornets are severely lacking in firepower and particularly in lead guards. Rozier should take over that role and play big minutes here against a tanking Spurs team. He should play huge minutes with big usage and tons of ball handling, and the matchup is ideal. His ADP is criminally low.
Karl-Anthony Towns – KAT is a great player, but his fantasy role is not at the superstar level heading into this year. Rudy Gobert is in Minnesota now, which is definitely going to lower KAT’s impact on the interior and on the glass. And Anthony Edwards continues to ascend closer to the “star” tier in the NBA, which caps the upside for usage in this offense. He ranks just 13th for us, and even that might be too high despite the matchup with the Thunder.
Injuries and Situations to Monitor
It’s the first game for all of these teams, so there’s really not much we don’t know with injuries and unknown situations. LaMelo Ball is out, which clearly gives a huge boost to Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward and Kelly Oubre in a great spot against the Spurs. Dillon Brooks and Jaren Jackson Jr. are out for the Grizzlies as mentioned above, and Keegan Murray is out for the Kings, but that’s not too significant of a boost to the Kings. Jalen Smith is questionable for the Pacers which could give a slight bump to his fellow Pacers like Myles Turner or Tyrese Haliburton, but it’s an extremely minor change if he is in fact ruled out.
Good luck!
