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FanDuel NBA: Picks and Pivots Preseason October 20

By Brian Tulloch

Sep 23, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans Anthony Davis (23) poses for a portrait during media day at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 23, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans Anthony Davis (23) poses for a portrait during media day at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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FanDuel NBA: Picks and Pivots

Welcome to the NBA edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best FanDuel NBA lineup! The purpose of this column is to first identify key building blocks that can be used for any roster construction and then identify pivot points to help differentiate your lineup in hopes of a big payday!

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Typically, many fantasy basketball players will shy away from diving into preseason action but as we inch closer and closer to the regular season tip-off this is a great way to start to get your exposure to the NBA!

Playing Preseason DFS is an entirely different animal as the minutes and roster constructions can fluctuate wildly and its important to keep up on late breaking news before lineups lock. However, one common misconception is that we need to avoid starters and focus on the unknown bench players to take down a pay-day.

If you look over the winning results for the last few days, you will see that the rosters are predominately made up of NBA stars and high-end NBA starters that are playing 20-30 minutes a game. It is critical to keep an eye on lineups as the day goes on as players are consistently getting days off which opens up value not only from the player pool but leaves a good amount of “dead rosters” in large tournaments as they fail to adjust to late breaking news!

Thursday’s Main NBA preseason action kicks off at 7:00PM EST with four games on the main slate and no shortage of superstars to choose from. Without further ado – let’s get into our top picks for the day!

Goran Dragic ($5,600) The departure of Dwayne Wade from the Miami Heat has put Goran Dragic in a position to drive more of the offense for Miami and he has responded well so far this preseason. Dragic is averaging just under 13 points per game and over 6 assists a contest in 25.6 minutes so far this preseason and has double-digit field goal attempts in 2 of his past 3 games. With Hassan Whiteside dealing with a death in the family and unlikely to play Thursday, Dragic will likely be asked to take on an even bigger role for Miami. In the last game without Whiteside, Dragic played 27 minutes, scored 17 points and racked up 4 rebounds, 5 assists and took a team high 13 shot attempts. It would be reasonable to expect a similar output on Thursday and at this price point, Dragic should be able to meet/exceed his value.

***UPDATE: Whiteside WILL play tonight so you can knock Dragic down a bit but he still makes for a great cash game play at PG. With Hassan in the lineup, there are better high upside options elsewhere to target at similar price points including Tim Frazier and Jeremy Lin.

****UPDATE 2: DRAGIC IS OUT – Pivot to Frazier or Lin at the same price point or you can drop down to Payton if you need salary savings as the Magic are expected to give their starters full run tonight!

Rajon Rondo ($7,000) The Bulls will take the court for their final preseason tilt and although we do not yet have confirmation, I am hopeful the Bulls will use this game as an opening night walk through with extended minutes much like the Warriors did on Wednesday Night(which made us DFS folks VERY happy and profitable).

Rondo has been wildly inconsistent with his shot this season, shooting 9 for 14 in one game and then 1 for 7 in the next. However his ability to rack up stats across categories has not wavered as he has put up 7 assists and 5.3 boards per game. This is what makes Rondo such an intriguing DFS play as if he is able to deliver on the offensive end, his ceiling increases drastically and that is exactly what we want for GPP purposes!

Nicolas Batum ($6,100) Batum has been slow to produce so far this preseason but his pedigree tells us that this is a player woefully under priced and on a night where SG is tough to fill, locking in one of the best pure talents may not only build you a safe floor but help you differentiate yourself as players look to spend down rather than take the most expensive option.

Batum has only averaged 10 points per game this preseason which is driven by his 35% FG% which is 10% below is career average! The sample size is too small for me to worry about that and if he can get back to delivering on par with his career numbers there is ample scoring upside here. However, similar to Rondo, the reason you roster Batum in DFS is his ability to produce across the board statistically. Last season, Batum averaged 6.1 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1 steal per game and if we can get a full complement of minutes from the Hornets tonight, this is the kind of production we may end up with!

Evan Fournier ($4,800) Fournier is one of my favorite value plays on the night as his salary allows you to easily spend up elsewhere without comprising minutes/production. Buddy Hield sits just $200 higher and was 40% owned in tournaments on Tuesday and with E’Twaun Moore likely back on Thursday, that will cut into Hield’s time and I am hopeful the masses stay in New Orleans and allow us to lock in the Magic SG under the radar!

Fournier is averaging 27 minutes a contest, is averaging a team high 11.8 shot attempts per game and is averaging a team high 16.8 points per game. This is a no-brainer play for me at this price point and I will utilize him across all formats on Thursday!

Jimmy Butler ($7,400) Let me break down SF for you tonight – you have Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony over $7k each and then no other SF priced above $5k. My hope is that gamers take the traditional approach of one high-priced player and one low-priced to average out the salary at the position but I am happy to lock in both high-priced SF on Thursday.

Butler has been resting often in the preseason playing only two games but with this being the final exhibition contest, hopefully we get confirmation early that the Bulls will give their starters regular season run which would further cement Butler as a must play. Butler has averaged a respectable 15 points per game in over 25 minutes a contest and with extended run would make for a great play at a brutal SF position.

Carmelo Anthony ($7,300) Melo was a late scratch on Wednesday for rest purposes but with this being the last game before the regular season and the fact it is against the crosstown rival Nets, we should expect Melo back in the lineup as a key component to the Knicks offensive attack. Melo’s stat line looks very similar to Butler’s in that he is averaging 15 points in 25 minutes a game, but similar to Butler, there is no SF on this slate with as high a floor or as much upside as Melo so I am happy to lock him in with the salary savings I get at the guard positions.

Anthony Davis ($8,300) I will be honest, I flew right past Davis when building my initial roster as I heard the news he was out 10-15 days and did not expect he would be on my radar for some time. However the news is now that Davis is probable for Thursday’s game and we have OBVIOUS injury risk, there is no player on this slate who has the upside of The Brow and I am happy to lock him in if we can get confirmation he is playing! Davis is the one player I will be most interested to see how the rest of the industry talks about today as I would expect many to take an injury “wait and see approach” and if so, we could get one of the best players in the NBA at lower than expected ownership AND a reasonable price point.

Serge Ibaka ($7,000) If you have not been paying attention to the preseason action, make sure you highlight Ibaka as a great target for your upcoming fantasy basketball drafts as his role in this Magic offense makes him a great mid-round target. Ibaka is averaging 16.5 points per game, 8.8 rebounds and 1 block so far this preseason and I expect his increased usage in the Orlando offense to deliver big time fantasy point totals this season.

Dwight Howard ($6,500) Without Whiteside in play, the center position is going to essentially boil down to Nikola Vucevic, Brook Lopez and Howard. Of the three I like Howard the most as he has put together a solid exhibition season, averaging 14.3 points, 8.8 boards, 2 blocks and 1.3 steals a game over only 23.3 minutes. Any sort of uptick in minutes tonight and Howard becomes a slam dunk play but he is proving his effectiveness even in limited minutes at a solid price point.

***UPDATE: Whiteside WILL play tonight for the Heat! He makes for the top pick tonight at Center.

Next: Is James Harden the top Fantasy Basketball Pick?

Best of luck tonight – make sure you follow our Twitter feed as the day goes on as we will share the late breaking injury and lineup news prior to lock to help you build your best rosters! We will see you back here on Friday for the FINAL preseason games of the NBA season!