NBA Fastbreak Review
The worlds of fantasy and collecting have never collided as magnificently as this
NBA Fastbreak is about to become a huge hit.
The brilliant folks at Dapper Labs, who invented the wildly successful collectible platform NBA Top Shot, have done it again.
NBA Fastbreak is a daily fantasy sports platform where you compete with digital assets (NFTs) from your collection of player moments on NBA Top Shot.
Collectors select three-to-five players every day for 16 days. Each day has a different stat category and target score that your team must collectively reach in order to get the win. Plus, there is a daily reward for the collector who has the top score in his/her group.
This is sports meets sci-fi and it creates a mind-blowing experience.
You will need to set up an account in order to play and the link to get started is: nbatopshot.com/fastbreak
How does NBA Fastbreak compare with other fantasy basketball games?
Honestly, it really doesn’t compare with any of the fantasy games I have played because of how unique it is. The hook of NBA Fastbreak is the creativity and ingenuity of its format.
Instead of rostering and starting players that you drafted, traded for or added off the waiver wire, you are playing fantasy sports with digital assets from your NBA Top shot collection. The fantasy and collectible worlds have never married as beautifully as this before.
I have been collecting cards and memorabilia since the 1970s, and playing fantasy sports since 1986, and this platform takes both hobbies to the next level. To my knowledge and experience, nobody else is doing fantasy or DFS or collecting like this and it’s time for the world to know about it.
I have a balance with two of the popular parlay betting formats and I have fun with the over/under decision making that is involved. However, sharp bettors know that trying to consistently hit parlays is not a sustainable money making model. NBA Fastbreak also requires you to bundle your picks for one common goal, but you don’t need several planets to align to win the parlay, you just need your three-to-five player stack to collectively hit the target score.
Bettors are tasked with picking a group of players for DFS contests on DraftKings, but you are competing against a huge number of people to have the most fantasy points instead of trying to get your best five-man combination to reach a specific target score. I am an experienced player/bettor and I take way more losses than wins on DraftKings because the odds are so long. I prefer NBA Fastbreak because the win is far more attainable than trying to win the lottery on DK.
I am in dozens of fantasy and dynasty leagues for the NFL, NBA, MLB and college football on a variety of platforms: Yahoo, ESPN, CBS Sports, GuillotineLeagues.com, My Fantasy League, RT Sports and Fantrax.
Compared to the traditional platforms, NBA Fastbreak is like entering a portal into another dimension in terms of look, playing style and utilization of digital assets. The black background on NBA Top Shot, blue background on NBA Fastbreak and slick technology that connects them creates an atmosphere where it’s like fantasy and collecting in outer space.
Most of the fantasy basketball leagues I play are head-to-head, while other fantasy players like competing in a rotisserie format. In HTH leagues, you typically play an opponent from Monday to Sunday and get the satisfaction of winning once per week (if you win). In roto leagues–which I despise–you get the satisfaction of winning once per season!
With NBA Fastbreak, you have the potential to get the satisfaction of winning every single night.
What are the best features of NBA Fastbreak?
I am a big fan of changing the target score for each daily game based on a different statistical category. That format brings all types of NBA players into play and rewards collectors for knowing the entire league, not just the superstars.
Early in the test run, we picked five players to hit 120 points, 50 field goals, 20+ assists and 20+ rebounds, 20 free throws made, 12 offensive rebounds and 45 rebounds. As the test run continued, the stat targets became more exotic, including five players to hit 50 rebounds and three double-doubles, 30 three-point attempts and 20 free throws attempts, and 50 points in the paint. That variety creates an enjoyable roller coaster ride and really challenges your basketball brain.
NBA Fastbreak is two games for the price of one.
You play to reach the target score and the daily win that will eventually lead to more packs of digital assets by hitting pre-determined win totals. For example, if you accumulate four daily wins, then you win an NBA Top Shot Rip Pack.
You are simultaneously competing against a group of collectors to be the daily leader for the reward, which could be a rare and valuable NBA Top Shot NFT. You're competing against yourself and the world in the same game. Pretty cool.
NBA Fastbreak has a very important strategic twist, as you can only use a player once during the 16-day competition. As such, it’s critical to have a large collection of digital assets from which to choose. To build your collection and create more options for winning NBA Fastbreak, you can buy packs or individual player moments on the NBA Top Shot marketplace.
My preferred way of collecting is to search for individual players and purchase one of their moments for $1. On the night when we needed to hit a target score of 12 offensive rebounds, I purchased Jarrett Allen, Daniel Gafford and Isaish Hartenstein moments from the marketplace for $1 each. Allen almost reached the target score by himself with NINE OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS! Fantasy meets collecting for the win.
One of my favorite features is how you select players from your collection for a daily lineup on NBA Fastbreak.
After tapping assemble your lineup, the system populates every player from all teams playing on that day. Players from your collection are in color and if you have already used them in a contest, there is a marker letting you know. Players from outside your collection are in grey so you can pinpoint who to purchase to fill out a particular lineup. Also, the players are listed in order of their stat averages for the categories you need to win that day, which is an extremely helpful tool.
The prize for each daily win is posted in advance for all 16 days of the competition, which creates anticipation and excitement to win those prizes. I most definitely loaded up my lineup when the Wemby NFT was on the line, but lost in heartbreaking fashion 156-152.
Finally, I appreciate the fact that your ability to pick winning fantasy basketball lineups will lead directly to you getting more digital assets on NBA Top Shot. The better player you are, the better your collection will become. That is capitalism at its finest!
That setup creates even more incentive to win, to keep playing and to keep buying more digital assets to power that winning. It’s a genius business model.
Could NBA Fastbreak be even better than it already is?
This game rocks as is, but I have several humble suggestions for the scientists at Dapper Labs to consider.
The traditional fantasy platforms are better than NBA Fastbreak in terms of live scoring and player information. I am not sure if NBA Fastbreak wants to compete with Yahoo and ESPN in terms of player data such as splits, game logs and other metrics that can help collectors win.
I would recommend more rather than less in the area of statistics for a DFS game. To that end, I would add box score access when you click on the games at the NBA Fastbreak home page, as opposed to only showing the time and score. Based on the partnership between NBA Fastbreak and the NBA, it should be feasible to link the NBA.com box scores to the NBA Fastbreak home page.
The NBA Fastbreak experience has the potential to be even better with several improvements to live scoring.
One, I have to refresh my web browser in order to get the leaderboard to update and that happens automatically on other fantasy apps. It would be interesting to see the different collector names moving up and down the leaderboard as their scores update in real time. It would be like watching a race on your phone–and one of the cars is yours!
Two, the leaderboard/live scoring function of NBA Fastbreak displays the collector, their lineup and score. That’s fine, but it’s pretty basic and perhaps a turn off to hardcore fantasy players who are accustomed to more bells and whistles.
I would consider adding these functions: projected score (based on the stat averages for each player), player minutes remaining (PMR) and perhaps even win probability percentage. Other potential live scoring upgrades could be: number of players currently playing and numbers of players yet to play.
Finally, I would like to see two leaderboards.
One, the nightly leaderboard and two, the leaderboard for the entire 16-day competition. You will have daily winners and then a grand prize winner for the overall competition, and the collectors will be able to track their standing on both leaderboards in real time.
In addition to the daily competitions and 16-day competitions, I would recommend a season-long option to add another layer of competition and intrigue for the collectors.
Another possible enhancement would be the option to set all future lineups for a 16-day competition upfront so collectors can set it and forget it. This is one of my favorite wrinkles on the Yahoo fantasy app. During this test run of NBA Fastbreak, we could set a lineup for the current day, but not future days.
Finally, when assembling your daily lineup, I would like to see a running projected score based on the players’ averages so you can gauge if you are on pace to reach the target score for that day.
Final Conclusions
I am a huge fan of both NBA Fastbreak and NBA Top Shot, and I highly recommend them to all fantasy players and collectors around the world. This whole experience has opened up a new digital world to me on the fantasy and collecting fronts, and I am now hooked.
I have thousands of baseball, basketball, football and hockey cards that just sit in boxes or plastic and gather dust. To be able to take my collection with me and then use that collection to compete in a DFS game is absolutely game-changing.
Unfortunately, I have no clue how to begin the process of selling my card collection. With NBA Top Shot, it’s a piece of cake to buy and sell these digital assets from your computer. I have already sold a Kenneth Faried moment with several more up for sale.
Recently, I purchased a Jalen Johnson moment (Common, Oct. 21, 2021, 3-pointer, Base Set, Series 3) for $17.00 and one day later I had 39 offers! I see a future All-Star in Jalen so I am psyched to have such a cool investment in his success.
I will be adding to my NBA Top Shot collection and playing NBA Fastbreak for years to come.