The Best FanDuel and DraftKings Lineups of All Time
It’s no secret that the world of daily fantasy sports is blowing up. Many of the larger sites offer multiple sports -- even MMA now! -- and there are hundreds of sites dedicated to helping you win at these daily fantasy contests.
Here at numberFire, we have tons of offerings for DFS players, be it strategy articles, customizable lineups and projections, and "perfect lineups" that analyze the optimal, highest-scoring lineups from the previous day.
Sometimes I personally get so wrapped up in projections and numbers that I forget how fun daily fantasy can be. So let’s remember that just for an article. There will be plenty telling you which NBA DFS guys to play -- let’s just have fun for a second.
Thanks to the great StatMuse beta site, we can search for the best fantasy performances in their database -- which for our fantasy-sake looks like it is restricted to the last 40 years or so. That means we can build an all-time DFS lineup for whatever site (we’ll do FanDuel and DraftKings).
Quickly, a couple rules: A player can only be in the lineup once (Olajuwon has the second AND third-highest scores, but we’re only using the first), a player’s position is what Basketball-Reference.com defines their position for that given season, and I’m building the lineups like I would on any DFS day (if Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Vince Carter are the three highest scores, they’d go into the SG, G, and Utility spot on DraftKings, respectively).
So without further ado…
The All-Time FanDuel Lineup
| Player | Year | Pts | R | A | S | B | FP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG | Allen Iverson | 2005 | 60 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 82.8 |
| PG | Micheal Ray Richardson | 1985 | 38 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 82.7 |
| SG | Michael Jordan | 1990 | 69 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 107.6 |
| SG | Kobe Bryant | 2006 | 81 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 96.2 |
| SF | LeBron James | 2010 | 43 | 13 | 15 | 2 | 4 | 90.1 |
| SF | Larry Bird | 1992 | 49 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 88.8 |
| PF | Chris Webber | 2001 | 51 | 26 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 95.7 |
| PF | Karl Malone | 1990 | 61 | 18 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 89.6 |
| C | Hakeem Olajuwon | 1987 | 38 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 101.4 |
| Total | 490 | 127 | 65 | 40 | 22 | 834.9 |
The All-Time DraftKings Lineup
| Player | Year | Pts | R | A | S | B | 3 | FP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PG | Micheal Ray Richardson | 1985 | 38 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 89.3 |
| SG | Michael Jordan | 1990 | 69 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 112.0 |
| SF | Larry Bird | 1992 | 49 | 14 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 97.5 |
| PF | Chris Webber | 2001 | 51 | 26 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 100.5 |
| C | Hakeem Olajuwon | 1987 | 38 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 0 | 108.8 |
| G | Kobe Bryant | 2006 | 81 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 101.5 |
| F | LeBron James | 2010 | 43 | 13 | 15 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 97.3 |
| Util | Shaquille O'Neal | 1993 | 24 | 28 | 3 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 98.5 |
| Total | 393 | 133 | 60 | 33 | 36 | 12 | 805.4 |
Some of these lines are just ridiculous. We all remember Kobe’s 81-point extravaganza back in 2006, but for some reason I forgot LeBron's crazy triple-double in 2006, where he went for 43 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists, 2 steals, and 4 blocks. Just vintage LeBron.
And look at that Hakeem line from 1987: 38 points, 17 rebounds, 6 assists, 7 steals, and 12 blocks. I’m not even sure if that’s legal. What’s even crazier about Hakeem is that he a bunch of the top lines but aren’t showing up because I made the one-per-player restriction. I wasn’t around during the Hakeem years, but looking back at these makes me want to go find some video of him.
Chris Webber’s 2001 game in which he somehow dropped 51 points and TWENTY-SIX rebounds is hard to even fathom. Same with fresh-out-of-college Shaq in 1993 with a line of 24 points, 28 rebounds, and 15 blocks. I’m definitely about to YouTube that monster -- I mean, 28 rebounds and 15 blocks in an NBA game? Silly.
There were some other great lines from over the years, but these were the best of the best. Drop a comment in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter with your favorite daily line that didn’t make the cut!
