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 62 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 371.7 a night which means we have needed 6.2x value to win big!
Sunday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 6:00PM 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
Kyle Lowry ($9,100) Happy New Year to all our readers! Today’s slate is a tricky one to navigate as we write this article early in the day and we have a significant amount of injury news that could alter the slate as we get closer to lock.
We also have a unique slate in that we have no player higher than $9,100 in salary on FanDuel so the truly “elite” plays are few and far between on this slate.
The Raptors get an elite match-up with a Lakers team that is giving up the second most fantasy points of any team on the season and with a 8.5 point spread, we have a decent chance that the Raptors stars will get full run tonight!
I am looking to attack this slate with a balanced approach of high floor plays and Lowry is the perfect player to build around. Lowry has at least 39.5 FanDuel points in each of his last five games and should be able to easily hit that mark again tonight against a Lakers team that is 23rd in DvP to opposing PG’s.
Reggie Jackson ($6,100) The price point on R-Jax is slowly creeping up but I believe we can still get solid value at just above $6k as Jackson has played at least 30 minutes in four straight games.
The match-up against Miami on paper is not a strong one but if Goran Dragic sits out again with back spasms, the match-up would improve for Jackson who is coming off one of his best games of the year when he dropped 20 points, 8 assists and 34 FanDuel points.
I believe tonight will have lower scores than usual so shooting for 6x may not be necessary and looking to build a solid roster with 30-40 point raw scorers should be enough to keep you above the cash line!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
C.J. McCollum ($7,500) With Damian Lillard unlikely to play tonight, McCollum should continue to run the point for Portland in a game against Minnesota that has strong game stack possibilities.
McCollum is dominating the usage with Lillard out and has averaged 35.3 FanDuel points in the three games that he has missed. With the shift to PG, McCollum also gets the advantage of matching up with Ricky Rubio as the Wolves are 22nd in DvP to opposing PG’s.
Josh Richardson ($5,500) The Goran Dragic injury will be one of the key items to watch as we approach lock, but regardless of his status you can safely lock in Richardson who has been a DFS stud in recent games!
Richardson is locked into major minutes with at least 30 minutes in nine straight games and has exceeded 30 FanDuel points in each of his last three contests. With Dragic out, Richardson will shift to PG for Miami and we saw the kind of upside he has as he dropped 47.2 FanDuel points against the Celtics last game.
Richardson is a solid play even if Dragic suits up but becomes a must play for me at this price if Dragic is out again!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Andrew Wiggins ($6,900) Minnesota is going to be my favorite team to target as they get an elite match-up against Portland and with all five starters locked into major minutes we get the added benefit of playing time security on a short slate!
Portland is 27th in DvP to opposing SF’s on the season and has at least 30 FanDuel points in nine of his last ten games. Wiggins should be able to hit that mark easily again tonight and makes for a solid mid-range play with 40-50 point upside as he showed last game out when he dropped 47 FanDuel points against the Bucks.
Justise Winslow ($5,100) After two down games shooting the basketball, Winslow rebounded with a solid all around game against Boston with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists for 31.8 FanDuel points.
Winslow is locked into major minute for the Heat and makes for one of the safest mid-range plays on the board as he has at least 20 FanDuel points in seven of his last eight games.
UPDATE: Winslow has been ruled OUT for tonight
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Gorgui Dieng ($5,600) No team has given up more fantasy points to opposing PF’s this season than Portland and I expect the big front line of Minnesota to get whatever they want in this match-up.
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Dieng is priced very reasonably here for a player who is locked into 30+ minutes in a match-up like this. Dieng has at least 30 FanDuel points in two of his last three games and should eb able to exploit a match-up with an under sized Portland team!
Jon Leuer ($5,100) Since entering the starting line-up, Leuer has been a very steady performer for Detroit with at least 20 FanDuel points in each of his last eight games including three 30+ FanDuel point outings.
Leuer has played at least 28 minutes in each of his last five outings and on a night where we need to build some security into our line-ups, Leuer makes for a safe mid-range play that will likely be over looked!
Karl-Anthony Towns ($9,100) The top play on the board tonight for me is Karl-Anthony Towns as he gets a match-up with a Portland team that is giving up the third most fantasy points to opposing Centers.
In this match-up last year, Towns went for 45+ in three straight games and realistically I think that is his floor tonight. Towns has the highest ceiling in my opinion and should be the one piece you lock into your line-ups in every single format tonight!
Best of luck in your FanDuel NBA contests today and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR Twitter for the late breaking roster updates and lineup news!
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