The NBA has eight games on Saturday, but one is early, leaving seven games for tonight’s main DFS fantasy basketball contests. Get your team in the game with FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks.
The NBA has a bit of a split schedule on Saturday, with the Hornets playing in Sacramento at 5:00 p.m. ET, two hours before any other game tips. While FanDuel does have some “early” game options featuring this game, the majority of the games begin at 7:00 p.m. ET and will thus be the main focus of this article. Though for those interested in the early game options, the Kings have a lot of really intriguing players with value guys that are free to step up into the production that once went to DeMarcus Cousins.
The main action tips at 7:00 p.m. ET, with the Hawks at the Magic. A half hour later, the 76ers are at the Knicks. At 8:00 p.m. ET, the Pacers are at the Heat followed by the Pelicans at the Mavericks and the Bulls at the Cavaliers at 8:30 p.m. ET. At 9:00 p.m. ET, the Timberwolves are in Houston and the late game is the Nets at the Warriors at 10:30 p.m. ET.
As far as storylines, the 76ers are led by two mid-priced forwards that are playing like superstars and they face a Knicks team in disarray with Kristaps Porzingis on the shelf. The Pelicans get a second try at playing together after getting blasted by 30 points in their debut against the Rockets.
If Nerlens Noel plays for the Mavericks on Saturday, we could get three former UK big men on the court at the same time with Noel, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James get to lock horns again in Cleveland, and the high-scoring Karl-Anthony Towns/Andrew Wiggins combo gets to try their hand against James Harden and the potent Rockets offense. Finally, the Warriors have a home game against the Nets in what looks like a blowout, but sometimes planning for the blowout backfires so that game still has to be taken at least somewhat seriously.
My favorite plays of the day can be found on the following slides in FanSided’s FanDuel daily picks. Each day in order to offer a variety of price points at each position, you can find two slides for each position — one for high-salary options and one for high-value options. Each pick is ranked on a scale of 1-5 stars to indicate my confidence in the pick. The final slide of this post has more detail on what each level means, but the short version is that more stars means more confidence in the selection on a points-per-dollar basis.
Important note: every day the goal of this post is not to give you a copy-and-paste lineup. Instead, each selection is given while highlighting the factors you need to consider when building a customized lineup for yourself. If you want to see an example lineup, you can find it on the final slide of the post, but I suggest you adjust your lineup to fit your personal taste.
To keep up with all of FanSided’s DFS NBA coverage head over to the fantasy basketball hub where each day you can find a post like this tailored for FanDuel as well as one specifically designed for usage on DraftKings. In this post, all salary and “fantasy points” references are to FanDuel scoring system and salaries. If you have any additional questions or thoughts or are looking for updates as we approach tipoff, follow @FanSidedFantasy on Twitter or you can follow my account @ProfessorDrz or find me on my home turf of The Hoops Lab.
Let’s take a look at your best options for both studs and value players at each position.