FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – February 8
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 89 slates, we have seen the average winning GPP score at 378.9 a night which means we have needed 6.3x value to win big!
Wednesday’s Main FanDuel NBA action kicks off at 7:00PM EST with twelve 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
Dennis Schroder ($6,200) After a short slate on Tuesday Night, the NBA returns in a big way on Wednesday which gives you a phenomenal 11 game slate to pick from! Looking over this slate initially, there are a TON of great mid-range plays so I am largely looking at balanced roster constructions, especially at the PG position where the $6k-$7k range is loaded with GPP plays!
The Atlanta-Denver game is going to likely be my favorite game to target as we have the second highest combined team total (220) on the slate and only a four point spread. The Hawks see a significant pace boost in this spot and have the third highest projected team total with the expectation they will score over 8 points more than their season average(second highest boost on the slate).
The best place to attack Denver is in the back-court as they rank 29th in DvP to opposing PG’s and Schroder already has shown he can dominate this team once this season. In the only other match-up this season, right before Christmas Day, Schroder dropped 27 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists for 40.7 FanDuel points which would exceed 6.5x value at this price point! I have no issue going back to the well here with Schroder as I intend to stack this game tonight and want to get the best possible Atlanta exposure!
D’Angelo Russell ($6,200) Russell burned us in his last game when he only played 20 minutes and dropped 15 FanDuel points in a beat down of the Knicks. I am willing to chalk this one up to game flow and expect Russell to get back to the trend he was showing prior to this game!
In his three previous games, Russell has played 30+ minutes a night and was averaging over 42 FanDuel points per game so I am happy to jump back on when most will likely look elsewhere! Russell gets to face off with a Pistons team that is ranked 25th in DvP and will be defended by Reggie Jackson who has one of the worst individual defensive ratings of any PG on the slate!
If you find yourself with the extra salary, the one player I would look to pivot up to is Mike Conley ($7,500) who gets to face a Phoenix team he dropped 60 FanDuel points on earlier this year and with Memphis projected to score the 5th most points(when is the last time we said that?) in a massive pace up spot, Conly could pay off his mid-range price in a big time way!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
Dwyane Wade ($8,000) We touched on D-Wade in our Monday Picks and Pivots and he responded in a big time way with 48.7 FanDuel points and I am willing to go back to the well here tonight. With Jimmy Butler off the floor (and questionable for tonight), Wade becomes essentially a must play for me even at this inflated price tag as he sees a massive 8% usage bump and leads the bulls with an over 40% usage rate!
Wade is putting up incredible numbers lately with 40+ FanDuel points in five of his last eight games and gets put into a huge pace up spot tonight against the Golden State Warriors. The Bulls have not faced Golden state this year but while playing for Miami last season, Wade put up 46.1 and 46.9 FanDuel points against the Warriors last year so this is a match-up against Klay Thompson he has had clear success with in the past.
Tim Hardaway Jr. ($5,600) Heading back to Atlanta, I intend on fully stacking the Hawks back court against Denver tonight as the Nuggets are giving up the most fantasy points per game to opposing SG’s on the season.
With Thabo Sefolosha still not able to practice and questionable for tonight, expect THJ to remain in the starting lineup for the Hawks tonight in a prime spot! Hardaway has put up 33+ FanDuel points (6x value) in three of his last five games and this is a match-up where he should excel as the projected scoring bump and pace increase should allow Hardaway to pour in points tonight!
If you are looking for a pivot in the same range, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($5,300) is in a fantastic spot against the Lakers tonight as the Pistons have the second highest implied total on the slate and see a massive 11 point increase in their season scoring average so we want some Detroit exposure here! KCP missed this game earlier this season but typically thrives in these pace up match-ups against turnover prone teams and his GPP upside is evident based off his 50 burger he dropped against New Orleans just four games ago!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Wilson Chandler ($6,000) With Danillo Gallinari out for the next 10 days or so, we can continue to roll out Chandler each night from a DFS perspective. Chandler has played exceptionally well in the three games he has started without Gallo on the floor, playing over 40+ minutes and racking up 35 and 47 FanDuel points in two of those three games!
The Hawks are ranked 20th in DvP to opposing SF’s and with Gallo off the floor this season, Chandler has actually led the Nuggets in usage with over 26% and has put up a fantasy point per minute in that time. Chandler’s price is way too low in my opinion relative to his role and he will be a core play for me tonight, especially as I look to stack this game!
Matt Barnes ($5,300) The big news on this slate is that DeMarcus Cousins will miss this game against Boston as a result of a technical foul suspension which opens up an insane amount of usage for the Kings who will be without Boogie and Rudy Gay!
FanDuel has done a nice job of bumping up Barnes price as we were able to get him for less than $4k just 48 hours ago, but I think with Boogie off the floor this is a spot we can feel free to fire up Barnes again!
Barnes has played 30+ minutes in each of his last four games and has back to back 34 FanDuel point outings which puts him right at 6x value with this price point. Fire him up again tonight with confidence for an undermanned Kings team!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Nikola Jokic ($9,800) After back to back foul plagued duds from The Joker, we see his price drop under $10k and I am ALL IN TONIGHT. Jokic had a run of 50+ FanDuel points in six of his previous eight games before these two contests and I am simply willing to chalk it up to foul trouble and go back to the well tonight against Atlanta as I expect the ownership will be well lower than it should be against due to his recent struggles and tougher match-up against the Hawks interior.
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Willie Cauley-Stein ($4,600) This pick is going to be lineup dependent as WCS may enter the starting lineup tonight with Boogie sitting on the sidelines! The Celtics have been exploitable all season long inside and WCS would make for an elite value play if he enters the starting lineup tonight! This news and the status of Jimmy Butler are the two biggest pieces of news I will be watching tonight as we head towards lock as they have massive roster implications from a DFS perspective!
Andre Drummond ($8,300) I mentioned earlier the amazing spot the Pistons are in tonight against the Lakers and boy oh boy is Drummond in a fantastic spot to dominate tonight! Drummond faces off against a Lakers team that is 29th in DvP to opposing Centers on the season.
When these two teams faced off earlier this season, Drummond put down 15 points, 17 boards and 44 FanDuel points which is exactly the kind of performance I expect again tonight and he will be a core play for me in GPP lineups!
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR Twitter for all the late breaking lineup news and roster updates!