NBA Fanduel Top 5 Plays 2/24
After taking an extra day off, I’m ready to get back into the NBA FanDuel swing. It was a well needed break, but since I’m not good at DFS golf, I’m looking forward to the NBA this weekend. The 2nd half of the NBA season can be a bit tricky. We will see a continued trend of guys being late scratches, but we also have to learn the way some teams are using rotations because of additions or subtraction to their teams.
We had a decent trade deadline this weekend, with the biggest move being Boggie Cousins going to New Orleans to team up with Anthony Davis. I’m really interested to see how those usage rates work out over there. A few other developments caught my attention as well. Deron Williams is out in Dallas and Yogi will take over as the full-time starter. The Mavericks also added Nerlens Noel which should really improve their front court. There were some other moves made by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who picked up Gibson and McDermott from Chicago.
Tonight we have a very nice 10 game slate to play with. There are some very high totals on this slate. The Denver Nuggets are a whopping 10 point favorite at home over the Brooklyn Nets with a total of 231. The next highest total is the Los Angeles Lakers at Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are also a 10 point favorite with a total of 221. There are three other games with totals over 215, so we should have a fun night in DFS. Like always I will tell you who I’m paying up for and who I’m fading in GPP’s, who my cash game lock is, who I’m taking a flier on and my top overall player on the slate. So let’s get to it and see who I’m paying up for.
NBA FanDuel: Top Spend and GPP Fade
Russell Westbrook – $12,700
I know his price is outrageous, but he is the only guy on the slate tonight that I think can score 70 FDP’s (Fanduel Points), so I’m willing to pay up for that upside in GPP’s. He has scored over 60 FDP’s in 5 of his last 7 games, and in two of those he scored over 70. On the season the Lakers give up the 4th most FDP’s to opposing point guards so the match-up is great. Also add in OKC traded away Cameron Payne (PG) and Anthony Morrow (SG) who shared some of the ball handling duties when Westbrook rested during games. I think we may see Westbrook play a few more minutes in this one because of that. There are plenty of guys on the cheap that you can use tonight to help make Westbrook fit nicely. Don’t hesitate to plug him in your GPP’s.
Karl-Anthony Towns – $10,400
I think the center position is loaded tonight, and in this match-up I’m willing to pass on Towns. The Mavericks give up the 5th fewest FDP’s to opposing centers. They play slow which leads to less possessions, which obviously leads to less scoring. This game has a total of 203 which is one of the lowest totals of the night. Over his last 6 games, he has only scored over 50 FDP’s twice, which he would need to score to bring value to this price. I think Whiteside or Gasol are much better options if you spend up at center, if you don’t like either of those two, there are plenty of mid to low-priced guys you can definitely use. Now let’s see who I’m locking into my cash games.
NBA FanDuel: Cash Game Lock and GPP Flier
Dario Saric – $6,200
The 76ers finally made some moves that cleared some space on their front court. They were a little on the heavy side with big men, and they traded Ersan Ilyasova and Nerlens Noel, which leaves Saric as one of the only healthy big men they have left. He has been playing very well of late, scoring an average of 37.3 FDP’s over his last 4 games. That kind of production goes great with this price. He will get a full run of minutes tonight and with Embiid out he will be counted on to score, and is said to be featured more in the offense moving forward. He will be popular tonight but in cash games that is ok. He is almost a must play for me in cash games, and will be a good play in GPP’s as well.
Brandon Ingram – $3,600
I’m rolling the dice here for 2 reasons. There were rumors floating around that the Lakers were not willing to give up Ingram as part of a deal to get Cousins. We don’t know the truth to that, but we do know the Lakers shook up their front office over the weekend. The second thing that happened is more relevant to Ingram, Lou Williams was traded to the Houston Rockets. I really like Lou, and I think the Rockets are going to be a great fit for him. That leaves an obvious minutes and scoring void that has to be made up by someone. I think the Lakers are going to get Ingram more involved with scoring which will definitely provide plenty of upside at this price. I won’t have him in every GPP lineup tonight, but he is one of my favorite guys I’m taking a chance on. Now it’s time for tonight’s PayMaker.
NBA FanDuel: Top PayMaker
Nikola Jokic – $10,900
I’m not sure how many people got burned by Jokic last night, but I’m sure there are plenty that did. The Nuggets lost by 16 to the Sacramento Kings who were playing their first game since trading away their best player. Jokic played just 26 minutes and scored a lowly 18 FDP’s. He was a major disappointment to those who rostered him and he likely killed all lineups he was in.
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I love rostering guys coming off horrible performances like that, especially when they have an outstanding match-up like Jokic does tonight. The Nets give up the 3rd most FDP’s to centers, and they give up the most FDP’s to opposing power forwards. Dream match-up, coming off a horrible game, playing up in pace with a total of 232….sure….I’ll take that. Get him in your lineups, he’s due.
I really like the way this slate looks. You have plenty of options to spend up on at just about every position which should make for a lot of variance with lineup construction. We don’t have a lot of guys over $11k, but plenty are in that $9,500-$10,900 range, which is going to make things interesting tonight. We also have plenty of teams with new pieces playing with new rotations, which are something that really needs to be paid attention to.
By default, there are a ton of cheap guys that should get a full workload who could easily pay off their price. I’m going to play a little less than normal tonight and will have about 70% of what I play in cash games tonight, and 30% in GPP’s. Good Luck tonight!
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