OWS Fam! This week we have an original OWS sub who has been very successful in NBA DFS notching a $60k payout this season! Discman (Zeyad408 on DK and FD) can be found in the DraftKings and FanDuel lobbies. He’s also very active in the OWS community, especially in Discord! Discman’s thoughts seem to really align with JM’s and he gave some great tips for every DFS player, no matter their skill level. Discman let me in on how one missed free throw netted him $60k! Enjoy!
1.Let the OWS Fam know a little bit about you! What brought you to OWS? Besides DFS, what else do you do with your free time?
I started out playing DFS when fanduel/draftkings were first introduced. I used Rotogrinders as my main source of research during my early days and came across JMToWin’s articles there. Out of all the professionals on Rotogrinders, I always agreed upon the words he was saying and felt he was the best analyst there was on that site. When he decided to branch out to OWS, I immediately jumped on that wagon. My free time consists of playing a lot of video games like Apex, WoW,, Dota 2, etc.
2.What sports do you play? What’s your favorite and most profitable?
I mainly stick to NFL and NBA, however I sometimes dabble in golf/mma/mlb lightly. NBA has been my most profitable as far as consistency year over year, while NFL has been a rollercoaster every year.
3.You’ve had some massive scores in NFL and NBA! Anyone stand out or any crazy sweat stories?
The craziest story I had was winning $60k due to Marcus Smart missing the final free throw of the game. I remember I had Kelly Olynyk at around 1-5% ownership and it was in a 2-3 game slate. I sort of predicted the starting center would get in foul trouble and played the backup center. If Marcus Smart had hit that free throw, I believe I would have dropped to $1-2k, instead of the $60k.
4.What’s your NBA process like? Do you play everyday?
I’m very much a “wing it” type of DFS player. I don’t really use projections / optimizers. I’m a huge fan of getting on the train before it gets rolling and jumping off any train that’s been rolling. So if someone’s been “hot”, I generally don’t like to continue playing them, and vice versa if they have been “cold”. I don’t play on the weekends much at all in NBA, but most weekdays, I will.
5.Any tips or tricks when utilizing an optimizer for NBA? Do you use one set of projections or are you combining different sets?
I’m not the best person to ask about optimizers/projections, as I do not use them at all. I will only hand build my lineups. I like being able to look at the overview of each lineup and ask myself “can this lineup get 1st” as I only play tournaments.
6.What’s the most important piece of NBA DFS advice you would give a beginner?
The biggest tactic I noticed that helped me the most was actually watching every game. There are things you see in the actual game that will never show up on a box score. The more I watched the better I performed. You see things like who does X player love to pass to and who does he never pass to. Also, things like seeing 0/5 from the 3 point line on the box score. In the game you might catch things like was he just off that night? Was he double teamed? Was the defense just really strong? You can also catch minor injuries and factor that in if they play the next game.
One more major tip for beginners: Try to predict the actual game flow. Will this play fast? Oh, I think Harden will get Bradley Beal in foul trouble, so I’ll play Westbrook along with Bertans as they would both soak up usage with Beal in foul trouble. Predicting things like this can really help your game.
7.If you could meet one DFS player in person to discuss DFS/Gambling/Life, who and why?
It would have to either be JMToWin (although he’s very mono-toned, sorry) or CubsFan. JM mentioned CubsFan is all about taking major risks with out of the world plays that no one will ever do. I love that style and do that in DFS all the time, so I would find him really interesting to talk with.
I wanted to watch more basketball and Discman solidified my thinking that time spent doing this will definitely help. Last week I was able to watch 5 games and this upcoming week I want to increase that by a few games. I played two showdowns, one main slate, and one short slate. I had the most success in showdowns.
I will continue to spend more time watching more basketball and playing showdowns and small slates to get more familiar with certain teams. I’ve found that I’m more confident when I play the later, small slates just based on me being in a later time zone and not feeling so rushed on making lineups.
