FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – January 26
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 80 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 372.9 a night which means we have needed 6.2x value to win big!
Thursday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 8:00PM EST with four 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 ($9,700) Hard to believe the price is almost at $10k on Bledsoe, but his recent performance warrants the price hike and I think tonight is a great night to go back to the Suns Point Guard!
The Suns and Nuggets have a massive combined team total of 229 which is 17 points higher than the next closest game on this slate so you will want to stack your exposure to this game on a short four game slate. The Suns see a pace increase and are expected to score 5 points higher than their season average all while Bledsoe faces off against a Nuggets team that is 29th in DvP to opposing PG’s.
In the last meeting between these two teams in November, Bledsoe dropped 35 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 56.2 FanDuel points on the Nuggets! Fire him up again tonight on a short slate!
George Hill ($6,000) It is not often we go out of our way to target the Jazz in DFS play but tonight they get to face off with a Lakers team that is giving up the second most fantasy points allowed as a team this season.
The Jazz are expected to score 9 points more than their season average and Hill gets an elite match-up against a Lakers team that is 27th in DvP to opposing PG’s. In his only match-up against the Lakers earlier this season, Hill was able to drop 32.1 FanDuel points against the Lakers and at this price point, he is an easy plug and play in all formats with safe 5x value and the clear upside for GPP play!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
Devin Booker ($7,200) Just like his back court teammate, Booker’s price has started to spike on FanDuel but on this slate I am comfortable paying the freight to stack these two against the Nuggets. With the highest game total on the board and facing a Nuggets team that is 29th in DvP to opposing SG’s, Booker should be a great play here tonight!
In two previous match-ups with Denver this season, Booker is averaging 35 FanDuel points per contest. The price may be a bit too high to expect 6x value here but on a short slate sometimes its best to look for raw points and Booker is someone I will aggressively target in GPP play as a result of this match-up and his elite scoring upside.
Seth Curry ($4,100) With Wesley Matthews out with an injury, Seth Curry stepped into the starting lineup for Dallas on Wednesday and put up 32 FanDuel points against the Knicks which would exceed 7.8x value at this price point!
With Matthews ruled out again and Deron Williams failing to make the trip, Curry should get all the run he can handle in a pace up game against Russell Westbrook and the Thunder! Curry is one of the top value plays on the board and on FanDuel where we need to roster two shooting guards, he makes for an elite play tonight!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Wilson Chandler ($5,100) Heading back to the Denver/Phoenix game, both of the Nuggets SF’s are in play tonight but Chandler stands out as my favorite play as his price tag is lower than Danilo Gallinari‘s and Chandler’s skill set is better suited for this type of fast paced game!
In the two previous match-ups this season with the Suns, Chandler has put up 42.6 and 50.7 FanDuel points and at only $5.1k is an absolutely lock for me in GPP play with that kind of upside! Gallinari is the safer cash game play and I am fine utilizing him as a pivot off Chandler if you want to get exposure to both, but within this roster construction, I am happy to take the savings and target the better point per dollar play!
P.J. Tucker ($4,500) Stacking this game up! Tucker is never going to be the sexiest pick, but the man is a steady DFS producer and makes for a great correlation play with Chandler at SF. Tucker has three straight games with 30+ minutes and has at least 24 FanDuel points in each of those games which would exceed 5.3x value at this price point.
In their last match-up this season, Tucker racked up 21 points, 8 rebounds and 34 FanDuel points so the upside is clearly there as well for Tucker who is coming off a similar 34 point game against Minesota in his last contest!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Nikola Jokic ($10,400) If there is one player on this slate I am making a point to pay up for, it is Nikola Jokic and at $10.4k I am hoping the price tag scares many others away! Jokic has officially broken out this season and comes into tonight’s game with 50+ FD points in four of his last six games!
The Nuggets have the highest team total on the board, see the biggest increase in pace and are expected to score over 8 points more than their season average. Lock in the Joker tonight in all formats as a core play and do not look back!
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Derrick Favors ($4,700) Favors is going to be a popular value play on this slate as his match-up against a Lakers team that is dead last in DvP to opposing PF’s will entice many, including me! Favors is not someone I typically look to roster as he is only playing 25 minutes a game most nights, but on this slate if we can get his usual 25 minutes/25 FanDuel points that would exceed 5.3x value at this price point and allow us to spend up at the other key positions on this slate!
Rudy Gobert ($8,300) You know who is not good at defending opposing big men? The Lakers. Do you know who is really good at rebounding/blocking shots and dominating teams with soft interiors? Rudy Gobert!
Gobert has put up a double-double in all three of the previous match-ups between these two teams this season and I expect him to flirt with another 46.9 FanDuel point performance which is what he had in his best game against the Lakers earlier this season. The upside is immense for Gobert in this match-up and the price point allows for us to still target players like Jokic/Bledsoe using the value we have found in Curry/Favors tonight!
Bets of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking news and roster updates!