NBA DFS Night Picks for May 24 2021

We only have two games again tonight, but we have a ton of stars taking the floor. The Bucks will be hosting the Heat, and the Nuggets hosting the Trailblazers. The first thing to mention on this slate is we have some tough decisions to make with our stars. A handful of the top end superstars in the league are playing tonight, and we also have some very enticing midrange studs. There is no way to roster every stud that looks good in one lineup, so we must make some strong stands on the guys we like the most. Our strategy for tonight involves avoiding the plays above $10,000, so that we can roster four studs that can all go for a huge game. We are going with a more balanced lineup tonight, as most of the plays under $4,000 are not viable. 

Here’s a balanced lineup For DFS Basketball 5/24/21 (using DraftKings Values)

Whether or not he gets the start, it certainly appears Goran Dragic is going to have a massive role for the Heat like we saw in last years playoffs. Dragic played 35 minutes last game, and he went for 31.5 FPTS. Dragic is yet to be priced up at all on DraftKings tonight, as we are still able to roster him for only $5,000. We have a few questionable price tags tonight, and this is one of them. We expect to see Dragic playing a similar role for the rest of Miami’s playoff run and his price will likely rise far beyond what we are paying tonight. Dragic has a ton of upside as we saw him take 17 shots last game, but he really does not need to shoot well to hit value at this price. 

We mentioned that we are lacking strong plays under $4,000 tonight, with the single option being Austin Rivers. Although Rivers is not a great per minute DFS producer, he gives us a ton of valuable extra salary tonight. We are going to need to roster a few studs here, so taking some cheap plays is going to be necessary. Rivers is the cheapest viable play on the slate, and at least he plays a ton of minutes. We expect Rivers to continue playing mid 30’s in minutes, which is good for anyone at this price. Rivers scored 20 FPTS last game, which is around what we expect him to go for tonight. Rivers shot poorly last game and can certainly be in for more FPTS, but at this price we just need about 20 from him to work in our lineup.

We have a ton of great spend-up options tonight, and it is going to be difficult deciding who we must leave out tonight. One priority for us here is going to be Jimmy Butler. Butler has some of the best upside on the slate, and we are getting a lot of saving in rostering him compared to other stars. Butler is only $8,500 here, which is too cheap for the role he is seeing in the playoffs. Butler played 46 minutes last game and he shot the ball 22 times. Butler only shot 18 percent from the field last game, and he still ended up scoring 47 FPTS. Butler was one of the best producers in the entire NBA last playoffs, and it looks his minutes and usage will be as good this year. We do not expect to see many opportunities moving forward to roster Butler under $9,000, as he is a completely different player in the playoffs.

Michael Porter Jr has been questionably priced down to $7,000 for tonight, despite his scoring 39.75 FPTS in a huge role last game. Porter played 37 minutes last game and put up 21 shot attempts. The Nuggets are missing some key scorers right now, so we expect Porter continues to see massive usage. Porter has been fantastic for the last few months of the season, as he has become the clear second option for Denver. Porter has a ton of upside and we have not seen him this cheap in a long time. This price really makes no sense, and Porter must have a poor performance to disappoint us.

Jusuf Nurkic – C ($6,700 DK)We have a bunch of guys with questionable price tags for tonight, but none of them compare to this situation with Nurkic. Nurkic crushed his $7,100 price tag last, yet for some reason he has gotten even cheaper. Nurkic played 33 minutes last game and he went for 42 FPTS. We love Nurkic going into the playoffs, as we expect he continues to play massive minutes against the Nuggets. Nurkic’s price should be moving the opposite direction here, as we expect to see him price around $8,000 very soon. Nurkic has a ton of upside and we are not paying for it all, this price tag makes Nurkic an easy play and the decision is almost made for us here.

Damian Lillard– G ($9,500 DK) Lillard is our favorite superstar to roster tonight, as he has as good upside as anyone, but he is significantly cheaper than other top end plays. Lillard played 40 minutes last game and shot the ball 25 times. We expect this role to hold up throughout the playoffs, and we also expect to see some monster games from Lillard. Lillard scored 59 FPTS last time around and he could go for even more on a better shooting night. The savings on Lillard compared to other stars allows us to play much better plays elsewhere, as opposed to very unexciting punts.

Trevor Ariza – F ($4,800 DK) Ariza is a play we are getting to mainly for the minutes tonight. Ariza played over 38 minutes last game, and he is too cheap if that is the kind of floor time he is to see moving forward. Ariza gives the Heat some great defense and we expect him to play massive run again tonight. He went for 29 FPTS last game and could go for similar or even more FPTS here. We do not have many great plays at the very bottom of the slate, so we are looking for slightly more expensive value plays like Ariza. We only have one playoff game to consider as of now, so we are high on guys who saw a lot of floor time last game.

Duncan Robinson – Util ($4,700 DK) We love getting to Robinson here as he is underpriced for the role he is taking in the playoffs. Robinson started last game and played over 36 minutes. We expect Robinson to continue playing huge minutes as that is what Miami did with him in the playoffs last year. Robinson scored 32 FPTS last game, which is what we are hoping to see at this price. Robinson does have a low floor as he needs to hit his three’s to be productive, but he is cheap for the amounts of minutes we expect him to play.

Here’s a balanced lineup For DFS Basketball 5/24/21 (using FanDuel Values)

Tyler Herro – SG (5,100 FD) Herro is a risky option here as he did not play very many minutes last game. However, we expect Herro to play more minutes moving forward and he is cheap here. Herro shot terribly last game which likely contributed to the lack of floor time. If he shoots a bit better he will likely play a lot more minutes and could easily crush this price tag.

Robert Covington – PF (4,600 FD) Covington looks like a solid value play on both sites tonight, as he is giving us a lot of minutes at a low price. We saw Covington play 34 minutes last game and we expect him to see similar run tonight.  Covington was not great last time around, but he has upside for a fairly good performance given all the time on the floor.

Go win your lineup and tell us how you did. Twitter (@FantasyDFSX) is a good place for that.