Underdog Fantasy has become wildly popular due to their massive Best Ball contests as well as their Pick ‘em games, but their daily snake drafts are another incredibly fun option for fantasy drafters. Their NBA drafts (or Battle Royale as they call it format) are incredibly simple, and they give you a shot at 4 or 5 figure winnings every single day.
All you have to do is draft 6 players from the games taking place that night in the NBA in a traditional snake draft against 5 other users. No positional requirements. No salary cap. Your team of 6 players competes against every other team of 6 drafted that day in that tournament for your share of the prize pool, which typically pays out approximately 20% of the field with 20-25% going to first place.
If you haven’t yet signed up for Underdog Fantasy, you can use Promo Code ‘SPIKE’ to receive a 100% Deposit Match on any deposit up to $100.
Underdog offers a variety of options each day with single entry, double entry and multi entry contests available. Their player scoring is also incredibly simple:
Below are the additional details and rules provided by Underdog for their general Battle Royale contests, as well as their Daily NBA specific contests:
Let’s dive into the strategy for today’s contests. Much of the strategy for today is driven by the incredible Daily NBA Projections from the RotoGrinders team. If you’d like to subscribe to the full set of projections for every player and team, head to RotoGrinders NBA Premium , which includes fantasy point projections and daily fantasy ownership projections for sites like DraftKings, Fanduel, and Yahoo, as well as LineupHQ Optimizer access and much, much more.
Underdog Fantasy Daily NBA Battle Royale Contest Strategy for February 16th, 2022
Top Options
It’s interesting to see how the elite options have slowly shifted around over the course of the season. Tonight, the Spurs take on the Thunder, and Dejounte Murray has truly ascended to the elite tier without Derrick White. He actually projects for just slightly more points than Nikola Jokic in our projections tonight. Beyond them, we have the Bulls big 2 (Demar Derozan and Nikola Vucevic) in a bit of a next tier of their own, as we just know how much burden they have to carry without Zach Lavine, and they face a defense-optional Kings team tonight. It’s extremely wide open after those four with the likes of Lebron, Randle, Siakam and more all projecting very similarly.
Undervalued and Overvalued Players
Pascal Siakam – Pascal has struggled a bit lately, but his role is still an incredible one for fantasy, and we should be buying the dip on him. 40 minutes per night with a 25+% usage rate and strong peripheral production should not be going so late. He’s way undervalued even if VanVleet plays, but if he misses it’s a total home run.
Jaren Jackson Jr. – Jaren is similar to Pascal in that he’s undervalued even if Ja Morant plays, but has massive upside if he were to miss. He can be had at the back end of drafts today, and you could be landing a gold mine if Morant sits this one out. Jaren scored 40 fantasy points in just 25 minutes last night despite shooting just 8 of 20 with so-so peripheral production. The ceiling is insane against the Blazers tonight.
D’Angelo Russell – Might as well continue the trend of similar undervalued players with Russell. Anthony Edwards got hurt last night, and Russell ended up with over a 30% usage rate. If he actually makes some shots (40 fantasy points last night with 5 for 20 shooting), he could easily put a total slate breaking score from a super late round pick if we see Edwards sit this one out tonight.
Injuries and Situations to Monitor
Fred VanVleet – VanVleet is questionable, which is quite massive given the Raptors rotations under Nick Nurse. If he were to miss, Siakam gets the biggest boost as he’ll become the de factor point guard, and all of Trent, Anunoby and Barnes would be draftable given the heavy minutes and increased role they’ll take on.
Lebron James – We’ve seen the Lakers at full strength for a little while now, but Lebron is questionable here. Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook would get huge bumps, as both their usage and peripheral upside would take massive jumps without Lebron.
Ja Morant – Ja missed last night’s game, which led to a massive 35% usage rate for Jaren Jackson Jr. with the star point guard out. Especially with a Blazers matchup on tap, Jaren makes for an elite pick if Ja misses again, and Desmond Bane also enters the conversation in the last round.
Anthony Edwards – Edwards left last night’s game early, so it would be surprising to see him play on the back end of a back to back. If he is out, the offensive burden would fall entirely on D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns, giving them massive upside at their respective costs.
Good luck!
