NBA FanDuel Daily Picks and Pivots – December 1
Welcome to the NBA FanDuel edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best NBA FanDuel lineup!
The purpose of this NBA FanDuel Picks 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!
For those of you that are new to Picks and Pivots, we will go through the season tracking trends in this space by looking at the winning GPP lineups each day.
One of the most basic questions when starting out the NBA season is how many points should I be targeting for tournament entries? A good rule of thumb is that you want your players to exceed 6x their salary so on a $60k team salary you are looking for 360+ points. If you spread that out over a roster of 9 players, that is an average of 40 points per player.
A good rule of thumb is that you want your players to exceed 6x their salary so on a $60k team salary you are looking for 360+ points. If you spread that out over a roster of 9 players, that is an average of 40 points per player.
Now it is unreasonable to expect every player to hit that target, especially when you are utilizing value plays but remember that is the average you need over the course of your roster!
To start the year, I would simply build your roster with the simple 6x rule in mine and do the math quickly. Can I see player X hitting 6x their salary? For example, LeBron James is priced at $9,600 so in order to return value he would need to exceed 57 points.
This is not a hard and fast rule, but as we go through the season I will track the trends each night to understand the target multiplier we should use as our baseline.
Over the first 32 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 372.6 a night which means we have needed 6.21x value to win big!
Thursday’s Main NBA FanDuel action kicks off at 7:00PM EST with six 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!
NBA FanDuel – Top Point Guard Picks
Before we get into today’s slate, just a reminder that Wednesday Night’s NBA FanDuel contests will not be “completed” until there is an official resolution on the mess that was the Kings-Sixers game. The FanDuel terms state that if the game is played on Thursday those scores would count towards your team totals but if it is played later than that you get a big fat 0 for those players. That whole situation was a mess for DFS players as a full day of research gets thrown out the window and you have to mad scramble the last 15 minutes before lock to change your teams. Anyways enough bitterness – on to the daily picks for today!
Andrew Harrison ($3,900) In his first night as the starting point guard for Memphis due to Mike Conley‘s injury, Harrison came through with a career night against Toronto as he racked up 21 points, 4 assists and 3 steals for 33.4 FanDuel points which exceeds 8.5x value at this price point.
The Memphis-Orlando game has the lowest team total (187) on the slate so this is not a spot we should have too much exposure to, but there is tremendous value in the Memphis back-court and FanDuel has not yet adjusted Harrison’s price with his expanded role.
Matthew Dellavedova ($4,100) The Bucks-Nets game has the second highest team total on this slate (218) and with a 4.5 point spread this is going to be one of my favorite games to target. The Nets have given up the most fantasy points to opposing PG’s this season (over 3 points more than any other team) which puts Delly in a great spot to crush value tonight.
These two teams met earlier this season and Dellavedova had his best fantasy outing of the season as he racked up 14 points, 9 assists and 3 steals for 36.1 FanDuel points which would exceed 8.8x value at this price point.
The Harrison-Dellavedova double point is obviously risky, but you have two starting point guards locked into guaranteed minutes and if they can replicate their performances as noted above you are looking at 8x value from your starting PG’s which would give you a significant advantage over the field!
NBA FanDuel – Top Shooting Guard Picks
James Harden ($11,300) Tonight we have a short six game slate and one game stands head and shoulders above the rest as one we want to get exposure to. The Rockets – Warriors have a massive 229.5 Vegas combined team total so we want to maximize our exposure to this game and it starts with the stars!
All season long the story line has been about Russell Westbrook and his massive stat lines but in Houston, The Beard has been putting up similarly impressive numbers as he has averaged 28.7 points, 11.9 assists and 7.9 rebounds per game.
Last season, Harden averaged over 45 FanDuel points per game against the Warriors and any time you can target a superstar going up against another superstar (or in this case, a team of them), they tend to elevate their game and I want as much exposure to Harden tonight as I can get!
Giannis Antetokounmpo ($10,300) Although we have an elite game with some of the top stars in the NBA in Golden State, Giannis may end the night as the top fantasy scorer in an equally high scoring Bucks-Nets match-up. The Nets give up the most fantasy points per game as a team and frankly they do not have a single player that has the ability to slow down the Greek Freak!
Giannis may actually go a bit overlooked tonight as players look to spend up for the stars in Golden State, but there is enough value already on this slate that you can reasonably look to lock him in while still getting star exposure to that game. Giannis has one of the safest floors of any superstar on this slate due to his ability to produce across categories and similarly has one of the highest ceilings. I love the idea of paying up for Giannis and Harden on this slate and locking down the massive upside at a tough SG spot!
NBA FanDuel – Top Small Forward Picks
Kevin Durant ($10,200) Heading back to Golden State, Durant is the top pick to target from the Warriors in this shootout with the Rockets. Durant is coming off back to back double-doubles and is one of the safest plays to target as he is consistently a high 40/low 50 FanDuel point performer. On a short slate, I want exposure to as many stars as I can get and with the high total in this game I want to maximize my exposure by grabbing the two biggest stars on the court!
Aaron Gordon ($4,000) If we want to employ a Stars/Scrub approach on this slate we are going to need to take some value chances and Gordon is the definition of a GPP flier! The talented wing from the Magic has been a tremendous disappointment this season but Frank Vogel remains committed to him as the starting SF.
The production has not been there for Gordon but the opportunity certainly has as he has at least 9 shot attempts in each of his last four games. The Grizzlies are undermanned across the board right now and we saw what opposing SF’s could do against Memphis as DeMarre Carroll scored 17 points (including 3 three pointers) on Wednesday night. Gordon has one of the highest ceilings of any player in this price point but understand the floor is also very low so this is a GPP flier only!
NBA FanDuel – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Ryan Anderson ($4,400) Power Forward is another great spot to pay down on this slate and Anderson is a top value target that gives us additional exposure to the highest scoring game on the slate. In what will be an up tempo, fast paced game, this should suit Anderson’s game perfectly and he should be relied on heavily to knock down transition 3’s to try to keep pace with the high scoring Warriors. I love Anderson as a GPP play tonight who has the potential to crush value at just over $4k on FanDuel.
More from FanSided
- 3 reasons the Blazers should trade Damian Lillard to the Heat and 2 reasons they shouldn’t
- LeBron James, Giannis, Damian Lillard all want that Mbappé money
- Is this Alex Morgan’s last Women’s World Cup with the USWNT?
- 3 reasons the NY Giants won Saquon Barkley contract negotiations
- MLB rumors: Nolan Arenado suitor, Tim Anderson landing spots, Mets reliever not enjoying trade talk
JaMychal Green ($4,400) At the same price point we can get another player locked into major minutes as Green is playing a major role for the Grizzlies without Zach Randolph, Chandler Parson, James Ennis and now Mike Conley. Green had a nice bounce back game on Wednesday as he played 34 minutes and racked up 16 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals for 34.4 FanDuel points which would exceed 7.8x value at this price point.
Brook Lopez ($7,300) Heading back to the Nets-Bucks game, we want to build a correlation play by getting exposure to the Nets side of this match-up along with the Bucks players we have already locked in!
The Bucks give up the 4th most fantasy points to opposing Centers on the season and BroLo is coming off a beast 47.6 FanDuel point outing in his last game against the Clippers. In what is expected to be a close high-scoring game, building a mini-stack within your roster while still stacking the Warriors-Rockets should help set you apart tonight!
Best of luck tonight in NBA FanDuel and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter as we share all the late breaking roster and lineup news. Let’s hope that no arenas have leaky floors tonight and ruin our evening!