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NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks for Thursday, June 17 | Kevin Durant

Eric MacPherson
·4 min read

Thursday, June 17, has the Bucks facing elimination and the Nets breathing a little easier after a hard-fought Game 5 victory inspired by the return of a limited James Harden and an epic postseason performance from Kevin Durant. Let’s look at the Nets and Bucks player pool and discuss the top NBA DFS picks for DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo lineups. Don’t forget to head over to the Awesemo NBA DFS home page for more great written daily fantasy basketball content, including the FREE NBA Deep Dive — the most in-depth article in the industry.

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NBA DFS Picks: Building Blocks, Thursday, June 17th

Yahoo Play of the Day — Kevin Durant: Milwaukee Bucks at Brooklyn Nets

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 53.64 | DraftKings: 56.18

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 90.0% | FanDuel 74.6% | DraftKings 71.7%

  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $51 | FanDuel $16,000 | DraftKings $12,400

With a playoff performance for the ages, Durant played all 48 minutes of Game 5 leading the Nets to victory. In doing so, Durant became the first player in the history of the league to have at least 45 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a postseason game. All told, he had 49 points, 17 rebounds, 10 assists, three steals and two blocks for 96.4 Yahoo fantasy points. While that is unlikely to happen again, even with Harden back, Durant should produce something in the mid-50s with attainable 60-fantasy-point upside.

Khris Middleton: Milwaukee Bucks at Brooklyn Nets

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 41.49 | DraftKings: 43.74

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 65.5% | FanDuel 29.4% | DraftKings 53.1%

  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $29 | FanDuel $13,500 | DraftKings $9,400

Khris Middleton will be doing his best to fill in the gaps between the skillsets of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday while serving as the second scoring option. In this elimination game he is likely to play 44 or 46 minutes unless the outcome is secured by either team, and even then it is hard to think he will see the bench.

Giannis Antetokounmpo: Milwaukee Bucks at Brooklyn Nets

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Point Projections: Yahoo and FanDuel: 61.01 | DraftKings: 63.44

  • Awesemo’s Preliminary Rostered Projections: Yahoo 90.0% | FanDuel 96.6% | DraftKings 82.6%

  • DFS Salary: Yahoo $54 | FanDuel $15,000 | DraftKings $12,000

The main question is, will Giannis Antetokounmpo or Durant land in the highest multiplier slot? This is essentially a coin flip, as they have both been amazing for most of this series. The argument for Giannis is that he is going to see his fair share of field-goal attempts and has higher rebounding and blocks/steals upside than Durant. In Durant’s favor, he will likely play every minute of the game and be asked to do everything once more, as it is difficult to envision much improvement with Harden’s hamstring after he gutted through 45.6 minutes only 48 hours ago. This decision will be based on everyone’s own risk/reward tolerance and expectations.

Yahoo Daily Fantasy Basketball Discount Dandies

Brooklyn Nets

  1. Jeff Green, $14: Now that he is back from his foot injury, Green has supplanted Bruce Brown and Nicolas Claxton in the rotation as a wing and de facto co-center with Durant and Blake Griffin.

  2. Blake Griffin, $14: While it is not sexy and there isn’t much upside, Griffin should once again flirt with 20 fantasy points in his 24 or 28 minutes with the incredibly condensed Nets rotation.

  3. Landry Shamet, $10: Shamet cannot be counted on for the 27.5 minutes he saw in Game 5, which was a postseason high, but it looks like he got a bump with Harden back and Mike James riding the pine for most of the game. Outside of six seconds from Claxton, Shamet and Green were the only reserves to see action after the first quarter.

Milwaukee Bucks

  1. Pat Connaughton, $11: Connaughton had nearly double the minutes of all the other reserves combined, with Bryn Forbes coming in second with 13. Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Elijah Bryant combined for just four.

  2. P.J. Tucker, $10: After his 13-point outburst in Game 4, Tucker was back to a bagel in the scoring column on Tuesday. The minutes will be there, but he needs to have some rebounds bounce his way or luck into a couple of steals because there is a chance he will not take a single shot.

  3. Bryn Forbes, $10: Forbes should continue to get 12 or 15 minutes mostly as a replacement for Tucker when the Bucks are looking for some offense.

Final Thoughts on the Thursday, June 17 NBA DFS Slate

Have realistic expectations on the single-game slates, and while the giant tournaments are fun, the smaller-field contests can be lucrative with fewer lineup duplications. Keep in mind that salaries and scoring formats differ across the various fantasy sites, and a slam-dunk play on Yahoo may be a below-average NBA DFS pick on DraftKings or FanDuel.

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