FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – February 25
Welcome to the Saturday FanDuel NBA edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best core lineup for tonight’s seven game slate which kicks off at 7:00PM EST!
As a reminder, the concept behind FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots 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!
Friday Night’s slate saw the scores spike back up from our season norms as the winning GPP lineup on FanDuel ended up with 398.4 FD points. Over the first 97 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 379.1 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Friday Night’s slate saw the scores spike back up from our season norms as the winning GPP lineup on FanDuel ended up with 398.4 FD points. Over the first 97 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 379.1 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Picks and Pivots ended up hitting on two of the biggest performers of the night as Dario Saric was simply dominant, dropping 20 points, 11 rebounds and racked up 39.2 FanDuel points at nearly 50% ownership. The other big star of the night was a late addition to our core, DeMar DeRozan who became a must play with the late breaking news that Kyle Lowry would be out, and he responded with 53 FanDuel points for the Raptors.
The biggest miss of the night for Picks and Pivots is a repeat post All-Star Break offender as Nikola Jokic had his second straight sub 20 FD point outing as Mike Malone continues to ruin our lives! We are back at it tonight however and will focus on building our main slate lineup for a solid bounce back evening!
FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Picks
Derrick Rose ($6,400) Looking over this Saturday Night slate, we have some huge blowout concerns with three of the seven games with double-digit spreads including a massive 22 point spread between Golden State and Brooklyn.
The Knicks/Sixers game has the third highest combined team total on the slate and with a 5 point Vegas spread will be the game I look to get most of my exposure to! The big news on the New York side is that Kristaps Porzingis will be out for the foreseeable future due to injury which opens up significant opportunity for the remaining Knicks starters.
With KP off the floor this season, Rose has a 27.2% usage rate and puts up just under a fantasy point per minutes. Rose also has seen success in this match-up already this season, dropping 25 points and 32 FanDuel points against the Sixers in their last meeting. Rose has hit 6x value in two of his last five starts and is primed for another big night in this match-up without KP on the floor!
Dennis Schroder ($6,500) Schroder was suspended for Friday night’s game due to travel delays post All-Star Break but it has already been confirmed that he will be back in the lineup on Saturday night. FanDuel as of this writing still has him as OUT so hopefully that stays up for a while and makes player stay away from him…incorrectly.
Schroder has flourished in this match up against the Magic this season, putting up 35, 39 and 40 FanDuel points in their previous three games against Orlando which puts him at 6x value with this price point. The Magic are ranked 25th in DvP against opposing PG’s on the season and this is a place we look for upside in our GPP lineups without having to break the bank!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
Evan Fournier ($5,500) Heading back to Orlando/Atlanta, I am going to simply plug and play Fournier each night while his price sits below $6k on FanDuel. Tonight he gets to face a Hawks team ranked 26th in DvP to opposing SG’s and also dropped 38 FD points against them in their first match-up this year.
Fournier has double-digit shot attempts in eight straight games and with Serge Ibaka gone, Fournier should continue to see his usage rate rise as one of the key offensive options on this Magic team. Fournier is locked into major minutes, having played at least 34 minutes in five of his last six games, and makes for an elite play at this price point.
Denzell Valentine ($3,500) On Friday night, the Bulls unleashed a new look lineup without Taj Gibson but perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Bulls rotation was that Denzell Valentine played 34 minutes! The impressive Bulls bench player responded with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists for 32.5 FD points which is 9x value at this price point.
I would expect Valentine’s performance will largely fly under the radar going into tonight but the Bulls staff has to have taken notice of his performance and I would expect another night of significant run. Michael Carter Williams and Jerian Grant played only 19 minutes total so it is possible that Valentine will continue to get the majority of the guard minutes off the bench. What was most impressive is that Fred Hoiberg has Valentine on the floor in the final minutes of regulation which bodes well for his continues usage tonight and I am ready to roll him out in GPP play!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Carmelo Anthony ($8,500) As I mentioned earlier with Derrick Rose, this Knicks team is one I am looking to stack with KP out of the lineup and Melo will be a core play for me tonight in all formats. With Porzingis off the floor this season, Melo is an absolute usage monster as he sees a 4% increase and leads the team with a 36% usage rate while putting up over 40 FD points per 36 minutes.
In their earlier meeting this season, Melo put up 39 FanDuel points against the Sixers (with KP on the floor) and tonight should be one of the safest picks on the board with massive GPP upside. The price point here is such that he is easy to fit in with Derrick Rose as part of a 2 man stack in a game with a high team total and close Vegas spread!
Terrence Ross ($3,700) If you are looking for value, Ross may be the best point per dollar play at SF as the new starting SF for the Orlando Magic. In his first game with his new team, Ross played 33 minutes and racked up 13 points, 5 boards and 25.5 FD points which puts him at 6.9x value at this price point.
Looking over this slate, there is very little value I am interested in and with a few big names I want to spend up on (in the next slide), Ross is one of the keys to finding a roster construction that allows you to fit in those studs without sacrificing GPP upside!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Anthony Davis ($10,000) and DeMarcus Cousins ($10,000) Initially I had some concerns about how Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins would co-exist from a fantasy perspective, but after watching them in their first game, I can safely safe I am ready to stack them up tonight.
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- Inside the Clubhouse: What I’m hearing as the MLB Trade Deadline nears
- Yankees: Luis Severino has blunt assessment of another miserable outing
In their first game against Houston, The Brow put up 29/9 and 46.3 FanDuel points while Boogie dropped 27/14 and a massive 68.3 FD points! To think that these two players can put up over 114 FanDuel points by themselves which would be 5.7x value at this price point makes them an intriguing high upside stack on this slate.
Tonight they face a Dallas Mavericks team that has absolutely NOBODY that is capable of slowing them down and we saw Karl-Anthony Towns drop 26 and 18 on them on Friday Night. The Mavericks on a back to back with Dirk Nowitzki at Center trying to stop these two? Oh baby – sign me up!
Dario Saric ($5,700) So let me get this straight. Saric who was 50% owned on Friday night with his new role as the starting PF for the Sixers, drops 20/11 and 39.2 FanDuel points and sees his price drop $500? If we thought Saric was chalky on Friday, we may see 100% ownership tonight and frankly, I do not intend to play the fade game!
This Knicks/Sixers game is one I intend to stack and Saric is the perfect correlation play off Melo and Rose. The Knicks are 29th in DvP to opposing PF’s and I expect Saric to put up another monster line at a price that frankly seems absurd.
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking lineup news and roster updates!