The Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons meet in what was once a great rivalry. Both teams are young so a new rivalry could begin as the season moves on.
The Detroit Pistons will be the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first test of the preseason.
Cleveland won its preseason opener 120-89 over San Lorenzo de Almagro, which competes in Liga Nacional de Basquet league in Argentina. Not a whole lot can be learned from the first preseason game for daily fantasy sports purposes, especially considering 17 players received minutes.
Will former Michigan coach John Beilein allow his starters to play more in Detroit? We’ll see. He did play four key rotational players 20 minutes or more, including Tristan Thompson (26 minutes), Cedi Osman (21), Jordan Clarkson (20) and Larry Nance Jr. (20).
If you’re new to DFS, we recommend taking a look at our guide before jumping in. It will catch you up on scoring on DraftKings and FanDuel and will provide a few strategy tips and lingo.
At the time of this column, there have been no injury updates or speculation on what player’s minutes may look like for Friday’s 6 p.m. tip-off. Generally, coaches meet with the media 90 minutes before tip-off and have lineups set 30 minutes before tip-off. Be sure to follow @FantasyLabsNBA on Twitter, which will update all of the latest news in real time (turning notifcations on is helpful).
With this being the Pistons’ third preseason game, expect to see similar minutes the starters received. Dwane Casey only played 15 players in a 124-117 win over the Mavericks on Wednesday, and three of those players – Tim Frazier, Khyri Thomas and Sekou Doumbouya – played three minutes or less.
What has been mentioned by Casey is that the Pistons plan to continue to tweak bench rotations, saying it will be ‘fluid.’ Expect Derrick Rose and Luke Kennard, who combined to score 37 points off the bench and lead the Pistons to a comeback win Wednesday, to get plenty of minutes again.
Reggie Jackson, Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond played between 24 and 27 minutes on Wednesday and should be in line for a similar workload on Friday. It’s not a full load but they are working their way into possibly being good plays.
Without further ado, let’s get to the top picks and values for each position.