With the NBA season coming up, I wanted to implement a simple knapsack algorithm using python to optimize NBA lineups used for DraftKings. In daily fantasy sports, you are allotted a salary cap and the main objective is to create a lineup that will score the most fantasy points while staying at/below a salary cap, which is a great representation of the knapsack algorithm.
To get started, clone this repo and change directories:
git clone https://github.com/eexwhyzee/NBA_knapsack.git
cd NBA_knapsack/
To use the optimizer, you must have an account with DraftKings, and download the CSV file containing the player point projections along with their value.
Once you have the CSV file on your local machine, you can run the optimizer using terminal:
python nba_lineup_knapsack.py -csv PATH_TO_CSV
where PATH_TO_CSV is the file path location of the CSV file downloaded from DraftKings.
The output will be displated on your terminal, and it will contain an optimized lineup based on point projections given the salary cap constraint.
- Automatically download CSV files from Draftkings using Selenium.
- Implement player points projections using advanced analytics (USG%) and possibly player/team matchup data.