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 81 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 373.2 a night which means we have needed 6.2x value to win big!
Friday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 7:00PM EST with ten 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 ($7,200) The Pacers-Kings game is going to be one of my favorite games to target on this Friday night slate as it has a 212 total, 4 point Vegas spread and both teams are projected to score more points than their season average.
In their match-up earlier this season, Teague dominated the Kings as he dropped 22 points, 11 assists and 7 rebounds for 47.9 FanDuel points which would exceed 6.6x value at this price point. Teague is coming off an almost identical 47 point performance in his last game out against Minnesota and with the Kings being ranked 23rd in DvP to opposing PG’s, this is an ideal spot to target the Pacers PG again tonight!
Elfrid Payton ($6,500) Payton let everyone down in his last start but this is a spot in GPP’s I am looking to fire him back up in FanDuel NBA contests. The Magic will likely continue to be without the services of Evan Fournier, Jodie Meeks and DJ Augustin tonight which means Payton will have all the run he can handle against the Celtics back-court.
Without all those players on the floor, Payton sees a usage increase to 24.1% which is second the Magic while averaging a fantasy point per minute. The match-up here against the Celtics is ideal as well as they rank 24th in DvP and Isaiah Thomas has the worst individual defensive rating of any PG in the NBA!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guards
Dwyane Wade ($7,900) The price has gotten to a point with Wade that most will likely overlook him, but with the Bulls struggling to find a consistent ball-handler, Wade has stepped in and excelled as the Bulls primary PG.
Over the last three games, Wade is averaging 50.3 FanDuel points per game with no lower than 47 FD points in any one contest. Tonight, Wade and the Bulls welcome his old team, the Miami Heat to Chicago and this feels like a narrative game we will want to target. Not only does Wade get to face his old squad, but the Bulls are in disarray right now, embroiled in controversy due to the comments made by Rajon Rondo.
So let’s see, Wade is putting up 50 points per game recently, gets to face his old team and takes the court after Rajon Rondo called out the Bulls veterans. Yeah, I am going to have some serious D Wade exposure tonight!
Dion Waiters ($6,200) I cannot believe I am seriously considering rostering Dion Waiters at $6.2k but after three straight 40+ FanDuel performances, how can we not continue to ride this hot streak?
Waiters continues to dominate the offensive usage for the Miami Heat, having now put up 19 shots per game over his last three contests. With Miami still likely without Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson AND with Hassan Whiteside questionable for this game, we could be looking at a massive Waiters outing!
The sample size is small however with all three of those guys off the floor this season, Waiters has a team high 34.7% usage rate which is a 7% increase on his season average. Additionally, Waiters is averaging a ridiculous 1.46 fantasy points per minute so we have the potential here for a 50+ point game for the Heat guard!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Paul George ($7,300) PG-13 comes into tonight’s game playing some of his best basketball on the season as he has averaged 44 FanDuel points per game which would exceed 6x value at this price point.
With Rudy Gay out for the year, the Kings are incredibly vulnerable at the wing now defensively and with George scoring 32 actual points per game in his last two contests, we are starting to see the elite scoring upside return for the Pacers SF. At $7.3k I believe there is significant profit to be had on the price point and will be using him across my lineups tonight as I believe he has a safe cash game floor with GPP upside!
Jeff Green ($3,900) With Evan Fournier and Jodie Meeks out last game, Jeff Green stepped in as the starting SG for the Magic and played 34 minutes while racking up 23 FanDuel points which would put him right at 6x value tonight!
Meeks has already been ruled out and Fournier sat out practice on Thursday which sets Green up again to play major minutes at a sub $4k price point! Green has hit 6x value in two of his last three games and makes for one of the best point per dollar plays on the slate while allowing you salary savings to pay up at other positions!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Terrence Jones ($5,700) Typically Terrence Jones only appears on our radar when Anthony Davis is on the shelf, but the Pelicans finally realized that Jones should be a permanent member of the starting rotation and was inserted into the starting lineup alongside The Brow in their last game against OKC.
Jones disappointed in that game as he was only able to rack up 22 FanDuel points in 27 minutes and tonight he gets to face the San Antonio Spurs so I expect most will completely jump ship. To me this is a perfect GPP opportunity for a few reasons – First, Jones put up a whopping 17 shot attempts in that game and simply could not get his shot to fall. If Jones sees similar usage in the Pelicans offense and gets that amount of volume in terms of FGA, he has the ability to put up massive numbers as we saw in his 60 points outing against the Cavs just two games ago.
More from FanSided
- Bills: 3 2023 roster holes that could cost Josh Allen a Super Bowl
- Colts RB Jonathan Taylor shoots down rumors of troubling injury
- MLB Rumors: Favorite to trade for Justin Verlander emerges and it’s not the Astros
- NY Mets should disband franchise if nightmare Justin Verlander report becomes reality
- First-time PGA Tour victory couldn’t happen to a nicer guy such as Lee Hodges at 3M Open
Secondly, Anthony Davis continues to nurse injuries and although he is likely to play tonight, we could see a similar scenario where he is forced to leave early which puts TJ in position to be the Pelicans primary scoring option. With AD back and a match-up against the Spurs on a full Friday Night slate, Jones could go severely under owned and has the GPP upside I am looking for in tournaments!
JaMychal Green ($4,700) This pick is contingent on Green returning to the lineup, but all signs point towards that scenario tonight and he should step right back into 30+ minutes against Portland tonight!
Portland is 25th in DvP against opposing PF’s this season and in their last match-up Green racked up 18 rebounds and 30 FanDuel points against the Trail Blazers which would exceed 6x value at this price point. The Memphis-Portland game is the only late contest so I always love having a late night option in my lineups and Green will likely be an overlooked play that has tremendous upside in this spot!
The other PF combo I am looking at tonight is 100% injury dependent but makes for an interesting pivot within the same roster construction. If Joel Embiid is ruled out (currently questionable), Nerlens Noel ($4,600) on FanDuel is a no brainer play again! With Embiid and Jahlil Okafor off the court in the last two games, Noel has put up 34 and 45 FanDuel points and would be a must play tonight if Embiid/Okafor are out again!
The other pivot here would be to look towards James Johnson ($5,600) if Hassan Whiteside is ruled out. If Whiteside is ruled out, Johnson would be forced to log even heavier minutes against the Bulls tonight and earlier this season when Whiteside was forced to miss three games. Johnson responded with 32-34 points per night which would put him right at our 6x value target!
DeMarcus Cousins ($10,700) Of all the stars on tonight’s slate, the one player I am most looking to pay up on this slate is Boogie Cousins! Cousins comes into tonight’s game with at least 50 FanDuel points in five of his last six games and 60+ in two of his last three contests.
In the last match-up with Indiana, Boogie dropped a 25 points, 12 rebound, 10 assist triple-double for 53.4 FanDuel points and should be able to approach those totals again tonight. The upside here is massive and the price savings off someone like James Harden is significant enough where it can alter the roster construction you choose to go with!
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter all day for late breaking roster updates and lineup news!