FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – December 31
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 61 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 370.7 a night which means we have needed 6.2x value to win big!
Saturday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 7:00PM EST with five 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
George Hill ($6,600) Welcome back Mr. Hill! Hill finally returned to the court for the Jazz and put up 45.6 FanDuel points in 29 minutes against Philadelphia. The Jazz get a juicy match-up tonight against the Phoenix Suns as they see the largest pace increase on the slate and are expected to score 10 points more than their season average.
The Suns are giving up the third most fantasy points to opposing teams on the season and are ranked in the bottom five DvP in four of the five starting positions! The Jazz are my favorite team to stack tonight and with Hill’s price depressed due to early season injury, there is significant profit to be had at this mid-range salary!
Malcolm Brogdon ($3,900) With Matthew Dellavedova already ruled out tonight, Brogdon will step back into the starting line-up for the Bucks and makes for a top value play against the Bulls.
Brogdon got the start on Friday night and was able to put up 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 21.8 FanDuel points over 33 minutes and we should continue to see him get that kind of run again tonight. At this price point, to get a player with that many guaranteed minutes on a short slate, I would simply lock him in and use the salary savings at our next position!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
James Harden ($11,300) The Rockets have the highest team total on the slate and take on a Knicks team that is giving up the fourth most fantasy points to opposing SG’s on the season. This has all the makings of a monster fantasy night for The Beard who is coming off a massive triple-double on Friday night where he racked up 66 FanDuel points.
Giannis Antetokounmpo ($10,500) Giannis continues to perform at an elite level with 10 straight games over 40 FanDuel points with five of those ten going for 50+. The Bucks get a match-up against a Bulls team that The Greak Freek has already handled this season, putting up 54.9 and 57.3 FanDuel points against them.
From a roster construction perspective, Shooting Guard is a great spot to pay up at tonight as I believe the Point Guard position has elite value options we should look to utilize that SG frankly cannot match. Often times we will see players utilize a high price-low price pairing at each position as they build their roster and I am simply using a variation of that strategy by going with high-priced SG’s and balancing them with low price PG’s.
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Carmelo Anthony ($7,800) The Knicks-Rockets game has the highest combined team total on the slate and I would look to get some exposure to the Knicks side of this game to stack with Harden and others.
The Rockets are ranked 23rd in DvP to opposing SF’s on the season and Melo has 40+ FanDuel points in three of his last five games. The Small Forward position is arguably the hardest position to fill on this slate so I would recommend paying up for at least one spot within your roster construction!
Michael Beasley ($3,600) If you are looking for a value play at SF, do not be afraid to roster Beasley at near stone minimum price on FanDuel. In his last three games since returning from injury, Beasley has hit 6x value in two of his last three games and allows you the salary relief to fit in the top dollar studs on this slate!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Kristaps Porzingis ($7,700) It is not often I will look to stack both Melo and KP but I believe tonight is one of those instances where we should get maximum exposure to the Knicks stars as a correlation play against James Harden and the Rockets.
More from FanSided
- 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
- Jaylen Brown signs richest contract in NBA history without a left hand
In this match-up last season, Porzingis was able to dominate the Rockets putting up two games with 20+ points, 13+ rebounds and 41 and 54 FanDuel points. With Clint Capela out, the Rockets will have no answer for KP inside and I expect he will be one of the top raw point options on the board.
Nikola Mirotic ($4,400) From a value perspective, I would expect most to look toward Derrick Favors at only $4,800 which should leave Mirotic largely ignored. Mirotic has exceeded 6x value in three of his last five games and has played at least 25 minutes in each of his last four games.
Montrezl Harrell ($4,200) The Knicks are giving up the second most fantasy points to opposing Centers on the season and Harrell is one of the best pure value plays on the board. Since taking over as the starting center for the Rockets, Harrell had his best game of the season in his last start against the Clippers putting up 29 points and 41.1 FanDuel points.
Next: College Bowl Season previews
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests! Stay tuned to Fantasy CPR Twitter all day for late breaking line-up news and roster updates. Happy New Year!