FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – February 26
Welcome to the Sunday FanDuel NBA edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best core lineup for tonight’s six game slate which kicks off at 5:00PM 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!
Saturday Night’s slate saw the scores spike back up from our season norms as the winning GPP lineup on FanDuel ended up with 399.4 FD points. Over the first 98 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 379.3 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Over the first 98 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 379.3 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Picks and Pivots ended up hitting on both lineups Saturday Night with scores of 334.8 and 325.7 respectively, putting us above the cash line in all contests! The news throughout the day led us to believe that LeBron James may miss Saturday’s game which put Kyrie Irving in line for a massive workload. When the news broke prior to lock, we adjusted all our lineups to make sure Kyrie was in and he responded in a big way with 55.3 FanDuel points. The Terrence Ross core value play paid off big time with 37.8 FD points (10x value) and allowed our big man stack of Dario Saric (40).5, Boogie Cousins (38) and Anthony Davis (59.8) to flourish!
We are back at it today with the 5PM EST Main Slate and are looking to employ a Stars and Scrubs approach to help us get to a big time pay-day!
FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Picks
Russell Westbrook ($12,800) I mentioned in the open that this has the look of a Stars/Scrubs slate and the biggest reason for that is the Oklahoma City-New Orleans match-up which features three of the NBA’s biggest stars!
OKC has the second highest projected team total on the main slate and the big news here to keep an eye on is the status of Victor Oladipo who missed Friday Night’s game with a back injury. With Oladipo off the court, the Thunder become even more of a one man show, with Westbrook sporting a 45% usage rate and putting up 62 FanDuel points per 36 minutes of action!
New Orleans is ranked 29th in DvP to opposing PG’s and this feels like a game where Westbrook goes into full on beast mode to prove to Anthony Davis–DeMarcus Cousins that he can take them both on and win! I want 100% exposure to Russ today!
Corey Joseph ($4,200) On Friday Night we got the late breaking news that Kyle Lowry would miss the Raptors game with a hand injury and we now have learned he will be out indefinetly with a wrist injury. Corey Joseph is the perfect player to utilize in a Stars/Scrubs approach tonight as we can lock in a dirt cheap starting player that is guaranteed to play major minutes and he will be the clear pairing with Westbrook within this roster construction!
On Friday night with Lowry off the court, Joseph logged 36 minutes and dropped 26.2 FanDuel points which would exceed 6.2x value at this price point. Joseph faces off against a Damian Lillard tonight who has one of the worst individual defensive ratings of any PG on this slate and with his guaranteed minutes, he is a plug and play option for me at only $700 above the minimum!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
DeMar DeRozan ($8,600) With Kyle Lowry off the floor, DeRozan becomes simply a must play each and every night at this price point as he becomes the Alpha Dog in the Toronto lineup. With Lowry off the floor, DeRozan sees a 7% usage bump and has a massive Westbrook-like 43.4% usage rate while putting up nearly 50 FD points per 36 minutes of action.
On Friday night, DeRozan exploded for 43 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 53.5 FanDuel points and gets to take on a Portland team that is ranked 22nd in DvP to opposing SG’s. On this slate, I am looking to stack Joseph/DeRozan in all formats tonight as they should dominate the usage for Toronto in a slight pace up game for them against Portland.
Alex Abrines ($3,600) The biggest challenge when building a Stars/Scrubs lineup is finding the punt play value that allows us to build around the no-brainer studs. Corey Joseph is a free square at the PG position but finding that value at SG is a bit tougher, however the Oladipo injury may be the key to finding that player on this slate.
On Friday night, with Olapido out, Alex Abrines slid into the starting SG spot for Oklahoma City, logged 29 minutes and put up 21.4 FanDuel points which puts him right at our target 6x value! The most interesting stat for me is that Abrines had 13 field goal attempts which was the second most on the Thunder behind Westbrook, so the usage is clearly there and Abrines would become an elite punt play if we can get confirmation that Oladipo is out again!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
Chandler Parsons ($3,700) and Vince Carter ($3,600) The Small Forward position is relatively underwhelming on this slate so this is a great place for us to play the punt game within this roster build. Memphis gets one of the best DFS match-ups any team can ask for against the Denver Nuggets as they see the biggest pace increase of any team on the Main Slate and are projected to score 6.3 points more than their season average today.
Parsons and Carter are essentially the exact same play as both players will log minutes in the low to mid 20’s and get an ideal match-up against a Nuggets team that is ranked 29th in DvP to opposing SF’s this season!
Carter has absolutely flourished in this match-up this season, posting 31 and 35 FanDuel points in the two previous outings against Denver which would put him in 9x-10x value territory! In both of those games, the Grizzlies were at full strength so we cannot even point to injuries which accounted for the extra run and the fact that Vinsanity was able to do this in 26 to 30 minutes of action bodes well for his prospects tonight!
Parsons in those two games has put up a more reasonable 15 and 17 points while playing 21 minutes per contest. Parsons flashed his GPP upside just a few games ago against the Suns when he dropped 24 FanDuel points in 24 minutes of action and on this slate possesses the kind of instant offense I am looking for in an up-tempo match-up!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
DeMarcus Cousins ($10,000) and Anthony Davis ($9,900) The big-ticket items from the New Orleans side come into this game at incredibly reasonable price points and we will go back to the well stacking these two Pelicans big men after a successful Saturday Night!
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The Brow was a beast last night, dropping 39 points, 14 rebounds and 59.8 FanDuel points and somehow his price dropped $100! Last night, AD was only 4% owned in the $3 FanDuel large field GPP so it is interesting to see how the Pelicans big men continue to be under-owned as players opt to “feel out” the new dynamic!
Cousins has two straight double-doubles and is averaging over 53 FanDuel points as a member of the Pelicans and at only $10k is in a great spot to hit 5x value tonight with 6x upside. We typically do not want to target Steven Adams but Boogie has performed exceptional in this match-up this season, dropping 53 and 57 FD points against the Thunder in his two previous match-ups as a member of the Kings.
Darrell Arthur ($3,600) The “punt” PF value is arguably the hardest position to fill within this roster build so this is a great spot to mix and match options if you are entering multiple lineups! The one play that stands out for me is Darrell Arthur who is in line for a start at PF if Kenneth Faried misses this game. At this point, Faried is questionable to play which could vault Arthur into the starting lineup for the Nuggets. In the last two games that Faried has missed, Arthur has played 20+ minutes in each of those contests and would make for an ideal punt play on this slate.
Heading into this slate, I was looking for a way to stack Westbrook-Boogie-Brow and build DeRozan/Joseph which only left me $3,625/player for 4 positions but with the SF value in Memphis and the injury to Oladipo, this roster build actually works out relatively easily!
Best if luck in your FanDuel NBA contests tonight and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter for all the late breaking roster news and lineup updates!