Daily Fantasy Basketball: Hawks’ SF DeMarre Carroll is Wednesday’s top play

Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports

HIGH FIVE/low five

Daily Fantasy can be quite the grind!  Let us do the grinding for you with “High Five/Low Five”.  Each day, we help put you in the money by presenting you with FIVE of the “top-tier” plays, as well as a quick list of FIVE “value plays”.  Atlanta Hawks’ SF DeMarre Carroll flies high as Wednesday’s top Daily Fantasy Basketball play.

Let’s rip it up.

HIGH FIVE:

Point Guard: John Wall, WAS ($8,700): Wall is just the third highest priced PG, but has as good of a chance as anyone to be the top scorer by night’s end.  Wall faces the Phoenix Suns who rank in the league’s bottom third vs. PGs both on the season and recently, in what Vegas expects will be a competitive game.  Add in that it’s a home game for Wall, where he has performed better this year, and that it has a decent over/under of 210 and there’s no reason why Wall shouldn’t be able get 40-45 FPs.

Shooting Guard: Tyreke Evans, ($7,900): Evans has been on a roll lately averaging over 38 FPs across his last six games, including 54.5 last time out vs. the Nets.  Tonight, he’ll get the Los Angeles Clippers who rank just 19th against the SF position that Evans will actually spend most his minutes at.  Look for Evans and the Pelicans to try to get things going early and keep this game competitive after getting embarrassed last game vs. the Clippers.  Value for Evans is 39.5 FPs, and I’m expecting 35-40 with considerable upside if both Brian Roberts and Eric Gordon are declared out.

Eric Bledsoe, PHX ($7,200) could also produce in the 35 FP range for a slight discount in a decent matchup with the Washington Wizards.

Small Forward: DeMarre Carroll: I love Carroll in this spot against the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Word out of Atlanta is that Carroll will move from SF down to SG for this game with Kyle Korver out.  Either way, whether he plays SG or SF, it’s a plus matchup for Carroll, as Minnesota ranks below 25th against both positions.  Value is 29.5 FPs and Carroll has put up just under 29 FPs per game over the last three games without Korver.  Given Carroll’s ability to contribute in a variety of ways, he should be able to put up 30 FPs and could touch 35 or so if he can score the ball tonight.

Power Forward: All four of the top options are available tonight at PF, are in a plus matchup, and should be locks for 45 FPs.  As such, I can’t confidently recommend one over the other, as I think they could/should pay off their salaries.  That said, with value considered, I would rank them as follows: Anthony Davis, NO ($10,900), Blake Griffin, LAC ($10,100), Kevin Love, MIN ($11,600) and Carmelo Anthony, NY ($10,200).

Center: DeAndre Jordan, LAC ($7,900): Not a pick that I’m in love with, but Jordan has averaged nearly 12 points, to go along with 16 rebounds and over four blocks in three games vs. New Orleans this year.  Those numbers translate to better than 39 FPs per game and right around what we would need from Jordan for him to reach value in this game.  I’m thinking 35 FPs is a safe bet.

Mandatory Credit: Andrew Richardson-USA TODAY Sports

low five: 

Point Guard: Shaun Livingston, BKN ($4,700): Livingston’s price is slowly ticking up, but he still represents a great value at $4,700.  He’s scored over 20 FPs in nine straight games and should make it and even 10 in a row tonight.  Not too bad for a player whose value threshold is only 23.5 FPs.

Jarrett Jack, CLE ($5,000) should also be heavily considered.  He offers a similar value to Livingston, while possessing a much higher upside, as evidenced by his 51 FP outburst just two games ago.

Shooting Guard: Rodney Stuckey, DET ($4,300): Stuckey should do well enough to eclipse value against the porous defense of the Cleveland Cavaliers and their 20th ranked defense as 21.5 is the mark he’ll need to hit.

Small Forward: J.R. Smith, NY ($5,400): The Sacramento Kings have played poorly against SGs most of the season.  That, along with an increase in pace, should be all that Smith needs to lay down 25 FPs or so.

Power Forward: Drew Gooden, WAS ($3,500): Miraculously Drew Gooden is still available for the minimum price, despite having averaged 28 FPs over his last five games.  Value for him is just 17.5, there is absolutely zero chance that he doesn’t exceed that.

Center: Gorgui Dieng, MIN ($5,100): It appears that Nikola Pekovic will miss his sixth straight game, which makes Dieng my favorite play at center tonight.  Dieng needs 25.5 FPs for value and that shouldn’t be a problem against the Atlanta Hawks for the young big man who has averaged over 35 FPs across his last five starts.

Thank you and good luck tonight !!!
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