Griffin Wong dives into Tuesday’s two-game NBA Opening Night slate to find three players who need to be in your fantasy lineups.
After a four-month wait, the NBA returns tonight with opening night of the 2025-26 regular season. Just four teams will be in action — the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who will receive their championship rings prior to their 7:35 p.m. ET game against the Houston Rockets, as well as the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers — so it’ll be a small but mighty slate.
In honor of opening night, DraftKings is offering a featured DFS contest with an increased prize pool. $750,000 will be up for grabs tonight in the main contest, with $200,000 going to first place. Here are three players who I think should be in your lineups for tonight’s contest.
Set your DraftKings fantasy basketball lineups here: NBA $750K Opening Tip Off [$200K to 1st]
PG Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors, $11,000
Though Dončić is the most expensive player on a slate that also features reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ($10,300), he’s worth the splurge, since I’m a little bit worried about Gilgeous-Alexander getting slowed down by Amen Thompson ($7,900). Without LeBron James ($9,500), Los Angeles is pretty thin and will have to rely on Dončić for most of its isolation scoring and playmaking responsibility. In five games as a Laker without James last season, Dončić posted a sky-high 39.1% usage rate, which would’ve easily led the league last season, and he averaged 63.2 FPTS per game across that span, nearly nine points higher than his season average.
Golden State did have the league’s best defense after trading for Jimmy Butler ($8,000) and, overall, held opposing point guards to the fifth-fewest FPTS, but I just don’t trust any defense against Dončić, whose bad games are more driven by bad shooting luck than anything to do with the defense. He was effective against virtually every Warriors defender not named Draymond Green ($5,700) last season, and he went against Green infrequently. Plus, Golden State was a poor rebounding team in last season’s playoffs and got worse in that department over the summer by replacing Kevon Looney with Al Horford ($5,500). The Warriors also foul a lot, and Dončić has been an excellent free throw shooter throughout his stint in Los Angeles.
C Alperen Şengün, Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder, $9,200
If there’s any player who’s set to benefit from Fred VanVleet’s torn ACL, it’s Şengün, who’d be expected to take a leap regardless at the age of 23. He certainly looked like a player ready to take the next step during Türkiye’s run to the final of the EuroBasket tournament, averaging 21.6 points, 10.1 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 1.1 blocks, and 1.0 steals per game, numbers that no player in the NBA reached last season. Of course, the situations are a bit different — Türkiye’s roster isn’t exactly as deep as the Rockets’, and posting numbers against the Estonian national team isn’t the same as posting numbers against the Thunder — but Şengün’s performance should give Udoka the confidence to trust Şengün as a jumbo initiator.
Houston is going with a jumbo lineup for tonight’s contest, starting Şengün alongside Thompson, Kevin Durant ($9,700), Jabari Smith Jr. ($5,200), and Steven Adams ($4,200). This massive five-man unit should dominate the glass against a team whose rebounding prowess was its only weakness; throughout its championship run, Oklahoma City allowed the second-most rebounds among the 16 playoff participants and also got blocked at the fifth-highest rate. The Şengün-Adams pairing was dominant in the Rockets’ series against the Golden State Warriors, thrashing them by 18.2 points per 100 possessions in 93 minutes on the court, and he also paired well with both Smith and Thompson.
PF/C Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston Rockets, $7,600
The slender Holmgren might have a difficult time against the brick walls that are Şengün and Adams, especially if the sore shoulder that dogged him towards the end of the preseason isn’t 100% healed, but with a Houston lineup devoid of shooting beside Durant, it should take plenty of shots in the restricted area, where Holmgren is one of the league’s most dominant forces. Last season, opponents shot 18.1 percentage points worse within six feet when guarded by Holmgren, easily the best mark among the 50 players to play in at least 30 games and defend at least five such shots per game. The Rockets attempted the league’s fifth-most shots within five feet last season and should be even more paint-centric without VanVleet and Jalen Green. They were also the team’s third-most blocked team last year.
He should also have increased opportunity on offense, as Jalen Williams ($8,500) is set to miss tonight’s game as he continues to recover from offseason wrist surgery. Holmgren played five games last season without Williams and averaged 18.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.0 blocks per game, posing a usage rate higher than his 21.9% season average in four of the five games and seeing an uptick in both points and rebounds per game. He had a solid all-around performance in his lone preseason action, finishing with nine points, six rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block in just 19 minutes of play.