FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – January 3
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 64 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 372.2 a night which means we have needed 6.2x value to win big!
Tuesday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 7:00PM EST with eight 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
Jeff Teague ($7,900)/ Reggie Jackson ($6,100) Looking over the Tuesday night NBA slate my initial reaction is to build a balanced roster construction as we only have one player priced over $10k on the night.
The Pacers-Pistons game is one of my favorite spots to target on this slate and I like the idea of stacking the two point guards in this game against each other. These two teams squared off just a few weeks ago and in that game Teague racked up 41.6 FanDuel points while Jackson was able to put up 36.6 FD points.
Taking a step back, with similar production that would get us nearly 80 FanDuel points from our PG spots which at these price points would exceed 5.6x value and help us build a strong foundation for our line-ups.
Teague continues to play great basketball, exceeding 40 FanDuel points in six of his last nine contests and faces a Detroit team that is 22nd in DvP to opposing PG’s. Jackson on the other hand is rounding into form, with back to back 34+ FanDuel point outings and has now played 30+ minutes in five straight games.
UPDATE: Teague tweaked his ankle last night and was able to play through it however he is now questionable for tonight’s game. Keep an eye on the news throughout the day for Teague’s status.
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
Josh Richardson ($5,900) The big early news on this slate is that the Heat will be without Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow in this match-up against the Suns which should mean that Josh Richardson will continue to get all the run he can handle! The price is creeping up to where the value may be capped but the Suns present one of the most favorable match-ups on the board and the Heat will see a substantial pace boost in this one.
Richardson has played 30+ minutes in each of his last ten games and with the recent injuries for Miami has seen, Richardson has increased his fantasy production while averaging 35+ FanDuel points over his last four games. Goran Dragic is a game time decision in this one and if forced to miss would push Richardson to PG, but in either scenario gets to face a Suns back-court ranked in the bottom 5 in DvP to opposing guards!
Gary Harris ($4,700) The Nuggets-Kings game should be full of fantasy value and considering the Kings struggles to defend opposing SG’s on the year, this is a great spot for Harris tonight! The Kings are ranked 25th in DvP to opposing SG’s and Harris comes into this game with at least 20 FanDuel points in six of his last eight games.
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Paul George ($7,800) It has not been often this season that I have rostered PG-13 as even though the price point is deflated, the elite level production is not something we have seen all too often. When these two team met a few weeks back however, George had one of his best games when he dropped 26 points, 7 rebounds and 43.4 FanDuel points against the Pistons.
The minutes continue to be in the mid to high 30’s for George each night and he has been a consistent 30+ FD point scorer with the ability to hit for 40-50 on any given night. On a night with very few stars I am looking to pay up for, I like the idea of dropping down to a player like George who has a depressed price and the ability to be the highest raw point scorer at his position!
Andrew Wiggins ($6,900) The Minnesota-Philadelphia game is a great spot to target and my favorite player in this game is Andrew Wiggins who absolutely went off in the previous meeting between these two teams!
In the last meeting between these two teams, Wiggins poured in 35 points, 10 rebounds and 51 FanDuel points against a Sixers team that is 20th in DvP to opposing SF’s.
Wiggins and George provide an incredibly safe floor due to their high minutes on the court and have both flashed 40+ point upside in these exact same match-ups which makes them a great pairing at SF tonight!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Nikola Jokic ($7,200) Jokic continues to be one of the best PF plays each and every night on FanDuel and although he has been a volatile player all season, we have seen his high ceiling each night in recent games as he has between 37 and 46 FD points over his last three contests.
More from FanSided
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- Inside the Clubhouse: What I’m hearing as the MLB Trade Deadline nears
- Yankees: Luis Severino has blunt assessment of another miserable outing
The match-up with Boogie Cousins may scare some away due to the risk of foul trouble, but on a night with very few clear-cut top end plays, I am looking to roster as many $7-$8k range players with high ceilings and I believe Jokic is one of the best on the board!
Tobias Harris ($6,000) If you read Picks and Pivots often you will know I have been touting Harris each night over the last week or so as his move to the bench has actually increased his fantasy scoring output.
Harris has 32 or more FanDuel points in four of his last five games and should continue to see increased usage and production as the leader of the Pistons second unit!
Rudy Gobert ($7,500) Gobert was in this spot yesterday in a dream spot against the Nets and I am looking to head back to the well tonight as the Jazz take on the Celtics. If you have been playing DFS with some level of consistency this season, you will have seen that the Celtics can be exploited by opposing big men as we saw players like Marc Gasol put up 50+ FanDuel points against them just a few days ago.
The Celtics are 23rd in DvP to opposing Centers on the season and I suspect most will overlook Gobert just one night after he was insanely popular and we can roster him at a reduced ownership percentage with similar high upside!
UPDATE: The more the day unfolds, we are looking like we could have a ton of value on this slate which puts DeMarcus Cousins in play with the salary we will likely have left over. If Rudy Gay is ruled out, Boogie would become an elite option in all formats and worthy of his hefty price tag!
Good 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!