Welcome to the FanDuel NBA edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best FanDuel NBA 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 78 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 372.3 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 nine 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
Eric Bledsoe ($8,300) After a hugely disappointing Friday night for Picks and Pivots where we stacked the Houston-Golden State game, we are back today with a more traditional balanced approach. Looking over this slate, one of the best games of the night takes place between the Knicks and Suns as they have the highest combined team total on the slate and only a 5 point Vegas spread!
These two teams faced off earlier this season and Bledsoe went off for 31 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds for 51.2 FanDuel points. Bledsoe comes into this game with three games of 46+ FanDuel points in his last five contests and is simply too cheap relative to his upside tonight!
Raymond Felton ($4,600) It will not be long before FanDuel adjusts the prices for the Clippers back-court, but for now with Chris Paul on the sidelines we can continue to lock in the LA starting back-court for bargain prices. Both Felton and Austin Rivers are firmly in play tonight but I like Felton the most from a point per dollar perspective.
Felton played 34 minutes against Minnesota and racked up 10 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds for 30.8 FanDuel points which would exceed 6.6x value at this price point. Tonight the Clippers take on a Denver team that is giving up the second most fantasy points to opposing PG’s on the season. This is a spot to target with confidence and utilize the significant savings to build an elite roster!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
Devin Booker ($6,500) All season long we have been able to target SG’s against the Knicks as they are ranked 28th in DvP against the position and tonight is no different. Booker is one of my favorite GPP plays as he has elite upside and comes into this game with 37+ FanDuel points in four of his last five games and has hit 6x value in three of his last five.
Will Barton ($5,700) The Nuggets have a variety of injuries that are opening up significant usage/minutes for the few remaining healthy bodies left on the court! With Gary Harris already ruled out for this game, we can expect Will Barton to remain in the starting lineup and he becomes one of the best GPP plays at the SG position due to his immense scoring upside!
Barton has played 35+ minutes in his last two games as the starting SG and has averaged 37+ FanDuel points which would exceed 6.5x value at this price point. Earlier this season, Barton lit up the Clippers for 23 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists and 41 FanDuel points and we could see a similar line for Will the Thrill tonight!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Wilson Chandler ($5,700) This pick hinges on the availability of Danilo Gallinari who is questionable for this game and if he misses this contest, I would expect Chandler to get all the run he can handle at SF tonight!
The other injury to watch here is the status of Darrell Arthur who is also questionable for this game and if he AND Gallo are out, Chandler should see a massive usage increase! In fact, with Harris, Gallinari and Arthur off the floor this season, Chandler leads the Nuggets with 27.5% usage(a 3.1% increase) and puts up 1.05 fantasy points per minute which is 13% higher than his season average.
If both players are ruled out, Chandler is a lock for 35-40 minutes and would be primed for a monster fantasy day!
Joe Ingles ($3,700) The Jazz-Dallas game was one I avoided like the plague last night (which ended up being the spot to target for GPP play) but tonight they get to face a Pacers team that I am looking to attack!
Assuming Rodney Hood is out again for this game (likely), Ingles would continue to start for the Jazz and comes into this game off a 23.9 and 25.6 FanDuel performances in his last two games. With back to back 6x games, a guaranteed 30+ minutes and a match-up with an Indiana team that is ranked 20th in DvP versus opposing SG’s, this is a great spot to target Ingles again.
If you need a pivot off Ingles, take a look at Brooklyn’s rookie Caris LeVert ($4,100) who begun to play a major role for the Nets recently and is responding with great fantasy production! LeVert has now played 23+ minutes in each of his last two games and has eclipsed 6x value in both those contests including a 33 point outing on Friday against the Pelicans!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Nikola Jokic ($9,900) Coming into this season, Jokic was a popular sleeper target and although he was a bit inconsistent to start the year he has become an elite DFS force recently with nightly monster performances!
Jokic comes into tonight’s game with three straight 50+ FanDuel point performances and gets to take on a Clippers team without Blake Griffin to slow him down! Although we have four other studs priced above him tonight, Jokic will be the one guy I pay up for and will be in 100% of my lineups tonight!
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Kristaps Porzingis ($7,200) We already mentioned the Suns-Knicks game as the top scoring game of the night and the Knicks have the highest team total on the main slate so we have to ensure we get exposure here. The price on Porzingis is WAY too cheap and he is going to be a lock and load play for me tonight with massive profit still left in this salary.
KP returned from injury last game out and played 29 minutes so we should feel confident in firing him up tonight as he will likely rejoin the starting lineup. In the last match-up against the Suns, KP put up 34 points, 8 rebounds and 53.6 FanDuel points. Anytime you can target a player with 50+ point upside at only $7k, we need to simply take the free square and move on!
Rudy Gobert ($7,800) One thing I try to do when writing these articles each day is to point out players that have had recent performances you may have overlooked. Looking at the winning lineups last night on FanDuel, you will see that Gobert was the key to a GPP take down as he posted a monster 27 point/25 rebound 61 FanDuel performance against Dallas!
There is always merit to fading players like this who are coming off a massive game as we see players rush to roster them, but Gobert typically goes overlooked and the match-up here tonight against an Indiana team that is 21st in DvP against Centers sets up well for continued dominance.
Gobert now has 47+ FanDuel points in three straight games and even with a slight uptick in ownership, still makes for an elite play. Center is always a spot where we can get guys for a bit lower ownership percentage on FanDuel as we can only play one (so ownership is spread out), and with players like DeMarcus Cousins, Hassan Whiteside and DeAndre Jordan on this slate, Gobert may be a sneaky target!
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter all day for the late breaking lineup news and roster updates!