FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – January 24
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!
Tuesday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 7:00PM EST with six 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
Isaiah Thomas ($9,300) Although we have a smaller slate tonight, we have a ton of great games to target from a DFS perspective and the one position that is absolutely LOADED is PG and I will recommend you spend up at this spot today.
The Celtics and Wizards have the highest combined team total (219) on the board and with a 1 point Vegas spread, this is a game we want to have exposure to. These two teams have matched up twice already this season and in those games IT4 has averaged 44.5 FanDuel points on the back of 30.5 points, 7.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game. Thomas comes into this game with 40+ FanDuel points in each of his last five games and should be a lock for another big game tonight!
Eric Bledsoe ($9,300) Listen if you want to play John Wall or Kyle Lowry (without DeMar DeRozan) I cannot fault you as point guard is a just chock full of options tonight, but Bledsoe may be my favorite DFS point guard right now. Bledsoe comes into tonight averaged over 51 FanDuel points per game over his last four games and takes on a Minnesota team he is averaging 41 FD points against this season.
Over their previous two match-ups, Bledsoe has managed to put up 25 points, 6 assists 3.5 rebounds and over 2 steals per game against Minnesota. Whether Ricky Rubio or Kris Dunn gets the start here, I expect Bledsoe to absolutely dominate again!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
J.J. Redick ($4,700) and Jamal Crawford ($4,200) The Clippers guards have been a popular spot for value recently and with Blake Griffin expected back tonight, I expect most will start to jump ship but we can expect Griffin to be eased back in which should allow the Clippers guards to operate in a smaller lineup against an Embiid-less Sixers team!
Redick just continues to put up shots for the Clippers as he now has double-digit shot attempts in his last 10 games and has hit 5x value in 8 of his last 10 games. If you are looking for a “safe” play that also allows you salary relief than Redick is the perfect option tonight and will be a great way to help you pay up at PG.
Crawford on the other hand is more of a GPP flier but the man has put up a whopping 47 shot attempts on his last three games! Although the accuracy has not been there, Crawford has put up at least 20 FanDuel points in each of his last three games and with the volume of shots he is taking, has massive GPP upside if he can get his shot to fall!
If you are looking for a pivot, Dejounte Murray ($3,800) should get overlooked after a dud last night but with Tony Parker out again tonight, Murray could be an overlooked elite GPP option. Over the previous two games Maurray was averaging 26.4 FD points which would exceed 7x value at this bargain price point!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Otto Porter ($6,300) We want to ensure we get some Wizards exposure to this Boston/Washington match-up and based off the early season match-ups, Porter may be the best target here! Porter is averaging 54 FanDuel points per game against the Celtics this season which was driven by a massive 68.8 FanDuel point outing in this first game this season.
In that game, Porter put up 34 points and 14 rebounds for a massive line, but even in their second match-up was able to follow it up with 39.2 FanDuel points off 20 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. The upside is clearly here for Porter in this spot and although it would be foolish to expect another 60 point outing, the 35-40 point mark is clearly something we can look for here and at this price point, would be a great return on our investment.
Joe Ingles ($4,200) As long as this man continues to start and get minutes, I will keep using him at SF! Ingles gets a fantastic match-up tonight against a Nuggets team that is 29th in DvP to opposing SG’s and has hit 6x value in three of his last four games. Ingles will play enough minutes to solidify your floor at this spot and can deliver the 5-6x value you need while allowing you to pay up at other key spots!
If you are looking for another cheap pivot, take a look at Jeff Green ($3,800) of the Orlando Magic. Green has double digit shot attempts in each of his last three games and has put up 12.5 FGA in the last two games with Evan Fournier and Jodie Meeks out. With Meeks already ruled out and Forunier doubtful, Green is a great GPP option. The former Georgetown standout flashed a 35.4 FD performance just one game ago against Milwaukee and I have no issue with firing him up again on this slate!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Ersan Illyasova ($6,000) With Joel Embiid out tonight, we can look towards the rest of the Sixers front court to soak up all that usage and Ersan comes into tonight’s game with back to back 30+ FD point outings. With Blake Griffin coming back tonight, this could be a spot where Ersan takes advantage of the rust and is able to pull Griffin away from the hoop for open looks.
With Joel Embiid off the floor this season, Ilyasova averages nearly a fantasy point per minute and will be one of the core plays for my roster tonight at the PF position!
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Gorgui Dieng ($5,400) Dieng has performed well against the Suns this season, putting up over 30 FanDuel points per game against the Suns this year. The Suns are ranked 20th in DvP to opposing PF’s and I expect Dieng to be able to deliver another 30 point game here tonight.
What I love about the Dieng/Ersan pairing is that they are locked into major minutes and realistically get me a path to 30-35 FD points each while allowing me exposure to three studs to shoot for GPP upside.
Karl-Anthony Towns ($10,500) The stud I am most looking to pay up for tonight is Towns, who comes into tonight’s game with 50+ FanDuel points in five of his last seven games. In their match-ups earlier this season, KAT has averaged 45 FanDuel points against the Suns and if you can find a way to pair him with two elite PG’s, you have the makings of a massive FanDuel score tonight!
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR Twitter for all the late breaking roster news and updates!