FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – December 27
Welcome to the FanDuel NBA edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best NBA FanDuel lineup!
The purpose of this FanDuel NBA 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 57 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 371.2 a night which means we have needed 6.2x value to win big!
Tuesday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 7:30PM 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!
FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Picks
Russell Westbrook ($13,000) Well it finally happened, Westbrook has hit the $13k mark on FanDuel! The price may seem insane but for as long as Victor Oladipo is out, Westbrook is putting on a nightly one-man DFS show that makes him a must play on any slate!
The Tuesday slate is only four games so locking in the top star is a must for my roster construction. Over the last five games, Westbrook has eclipsed 60 FanDuel points in each contest and has topped to 70 FD point mark in two of those games! Although the match-up against Miami may seem tough as they have the 2nd highest DvP mark against PG’s, they actually have one of the worst DRPM ratings at the position and with Westbrook’s near 50% usage rate, he should continue to rack up video games numbers each night!
Isaiah Thomas ($7,900) Overall this slate has some really tough positions to sort through but point guard is the one position that is loaded with options and I believe paying up at both spots is the best route for our roster build!
IT4 gets to take on a Memphis team he just dropped 44/6/3 against for a whopping 61.4 FanDuel points so this is a spot we can target a high upside play for under $8k! If you are looking for a pivot to get some salary savings you can drop down $600 to Goran Dragic ($7,300) and stack the OKC-Miami PG’s. Playing PG’s against Westbrook has been a profitable strategy all year as they are ranked 24th in DvP against opposing PG’s.
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
James Harden ($11,400) Initially when looking over this slate, my reaction was to decide between Russell Westbrook OR James Harden and I expect most will start their roster build the same way. The strategy would be to play one of these high-end stars and build mid-level talent around them but the issue I see is that the mid-level talent on this slate is VERY underwhelming so can we lock in the two best players on this slate and find the value around them?
Harden gets to face a Dallas Mavericks team that he just dropped 52.8 FanDuel points against on the back of a near triple-double (18 points, 9 rebounds and 16 assists). Patrick Beverley left Monday night’s game with an injury and if he was forced to miss tonight’s game it would thrust Harden back into the PG role that he flourished in earlier this season.
The question you will have to ask yourself is, would you rather drop down at SG and lock in a player like Gordon Hayward or do you go full on stars/scrubs and build around the top two players on this slate!
Nick Young ($4,500) I hope you enjoyed reading about the high-priced players we intend to target because after locking in Westbrook/Harden and IT4 we are now officially in the bargain bin!
I love playing Nick Young in DFS GPP’s as his scoring upside is elite and his price is always reasonable due to the Lakers crowded back-court. What I love about Swaggy P is the minutes seem very secure as you can see over his last five games – 30, 28, 36, 27 and 38. Young has exceeded 5x value in four of his last five games and makes for a great mid-range play on this short slate!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Luol Deng ($5,000) What in world has gotten into Luol Deng? The man is playing out of his mind right now with back to back double/doubles and a 38.4 FanDuel performance against the Clippers on Christmas Day.
Deng is locked into major minutes, playing 30+ in each of his last five games and has not dipped below 25 FD points during that span making him a safe cash game play at 5x value with clear GPP upside. Deng will be a staple in every single one of my lineups today!
Jerami Grant ($3,500) When sifting through the bargain bin, the single most important number I am looking for is minutes played and this is where Grant stand out for me as a solid value target! Grant has played 28+ minutes in four of his last five games and with Victor Oladipo out against tonight, Grant should continue to see material run for OKC.
Grant has hit 5x value in three of his last five games so the floor is relatively safe if you are looking for a punt play that won’t sink your roster!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Enes Kanter ($5,500) If you thought Small Forward was ugly, welcome to the dumpster fire that is Power Forward! If you are anything like me, filling out the SF/PF position will be the hardest part of your roster build but I think we have some mid-range options that are easy to build around.
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Kanter is in the midst of one of his best stretches of the season as he has exceeded 29 FanDuel points in each of his last three games while averaging 18 points and 8 rebounds.
JaMychal Green ($4,900) Green is a relatively safe play at an ugly position as he is locked in to guaranteed minutes, having played between 27-32 minutes in each of his last five games. Boston has struggled all year to contain opposing big men and in this match-up just a few days ago, Green was able to rack up 7 points, 12 rebounds and 25+ FanDuel points!
Montrezl Harrell ($4,300) The center position is actually very strong tonight and although I do like the centers in the $7-8k range, I will look to save salary with the Rockets starting center so I can pay up for Harden/Westbrook. Harrell continues to start at center for the Rockets with Clint Capela out and has eclipsed 6x value in two of his last three games.
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter all day for the latest lineup news and roster updates!