Welcome to a new weekly fantasy basketball column we'll be doing at Sactown Royalty this year in partnership with FanDuel. To start, we'll be taking a look at Week 3 for the Kings.
FanDuel's basketball scoring system is as follows:
Point = 1pt, Rebound = 1.2pts, Assist = 1.5pts, Block = 2pts, Steal = 2pts, Turnover = -1pt
Starts
Darren Collison at Dallas (11/11/14)
The Mavericks are a very good team that improved a lot this summer. They have a three man Point Guard rotation of Jameer Nelson, Devin Harris and J.J. Barea, all good offensive players but none being known for their defense. Collison should be able to break down the defense and get to his favorite spot for mid-range jumpers.
Monta Ellis vs. Kings (11/11/14)
Ben McLemore has improved a lot as a defender, but Monta Ellis is a very crafty player and I could see him taking advantage of young Ben. Ellis can score in a multitude of ways, both inside and outside, and he's one of the quicker players with the ball in the entire league.
Sits
DeMarcus Cousins at Memphis (11/13/14)
Cousins is a beast of a player and off to the best start of his career, but Memphis has a solid defense and Marc Gasol in particular has hurt Cousins in the past. Cousins is not likely to make his high cap value up in this game, even if he still has a good game.
Rudy Gay at Oklahoma City (11/9/14)
Gay is questionable to play against the Thunder in the first place, as he's dealing with a stomach virus that probably helped contribute to his 5/22 performance against Phoenix on Friday. Even if Rudy does play, I'm not optimistic he'll have the best game as he'd still be recovering from his illness.
Gambles
Ramon Sessions at Dallas (11/11/14)
Just like with Collison, Sessions faces a weak batch of defenders. However unlike Collison, Sessions relies on getting to the rim and the Mavericks have a couple of very good rim protectors in Tyson Chandler and Brandan Wright. That combined with Sessions' early season struggles make this a risky pick.
Nik Stauskas vs. San Antonio (11/15/14)
I don't know why I picked San Antonio specifically, but I feel like Nik is going to need some time to get in a rhythm and he showed a little bit of that Friday in Phoeniz. Hopefully he continues to progress as the week goes on and by the time Saturday rolls along, combined with coming back home, he'll have a good game off the bench.
Disclosure: Even though this is a sponsored post with affiliate links, all of the opinions in this post are my own. And as an FYI, FanDuel gave me some cash to play its daily fantasy games.