FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – March 9
Welcome to the Thursday FanDuel NBA edition of Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best core lineup for tonight’s five game slate which kicks off at 7:30PM 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!
Wednesday Night’s main slate saw winning GPP scores hit at 391.3 in the FanDuel $1 Million Legendary GPP which is just over our season long average. Over the first 109 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.7 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Over the first 109 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.7 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Wednesday Night’s Picks and Pivots lineup was built for the large field GPP’s as our roster build was centered around Anthony Davis who was projected for under 10% ownership and we were able to roster him for 8.8%! The problem is that Anthony Davis is injury prone and after only 17 minutes on the court, he left the game for good and with it, went any chance of us cashing out. Let’s chalk that one up to charity and move on!
Tonight we get a solid five game slate to sort through, so let’s get to the picks and try to rebound in a big way!
FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Picks
Let’s start with the very first roster decision you have to make tonight, are you paying $13,300 for Russell Westbrook against the Spurs? I am as big a fan of Russell Westbrook from a DFS perspective as anyone who reads this column knows, but this feels like the perfect spot to jump off Westbrook after a string of insane performances. With Victor Oladipo back on the court, the 50% usage rate that Westbrook was sporting will tick back down and Westbrook takes on a Spurs team that held him to only 51 FanDuel points in their earlier season meeting. The price point and match-up tell me that this is a night we fade Westbrook, hold our breath and hope for the best!
Kyrie Irving ($9,400) If I am not paying up for Westbrook then I am going to look towards the Cavaliers stars tonight as my high-priced anchors as they get a road match-up against the Detroit Pistons who are on the second night of a back to back.
With Kevin Love off the floor, Kyrie leads the team with a 36.4% usage rate and is putting up nearly 50 FanDuel points per 36 minutes of action. Irving is playing massive minutes every night for Cleveland and has hit 6x value in two of his last five games in the process. Tonight he faces off against Reggie Jackson who has the worst individual defensive rating of any PG on the slate and this is a spot where Kyrie could/should explode for a monster DFS outing.
D’Angelo Russell ($6,700) The Lakers head to Phoenix tonight for the best DFS game of the evening as this one has the highest combined team total (230) on the slate and is 9 points higher than any other game. The Lakers and Suns are two of the three highest projected scoring teams on the slate and this is a game I am stacking heavily around the a core of Cavaliers stars.
The Lakers see the biggest pace increase on the slate and are projected to score 8 points higher than their season average tonight. Russell is the point guard I want in this game as Eric Bledsoe/Tyler Ullis are sharing the PG minutes in Phoenix, meanwhile Russell is finally being unleashed, having played 30+ minutes in each of his last four games.
These two teams squared off just a few weeks ago and Russell dropped 33.8 FanDuel points in that outing, which would put him right at 5x value at this price point. Russell has hit 5x in four of his last seven games so his price point is certainly fair and he sits at an awkward spot salary wise as he is the only player priced in the $6k-$7k range tonight which may lead him to be overlooked.
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
Devin Booker ($6,400) The Suns have the highest projected team total on the slate and are expected to score over 10 points higher than their season average which considering their already fast paced approach, this is a spot we HAVE to target in DFS tonight.
The interesting thing about Booker’s price (and everyone not named Eric Bledsoe) is that you can stack every single player from this game for under $7k which makes it a perfect stacking spot, allowing you to still build around 1-2 high-priced players!
Booker has been a very volatile DFS target, which explains his depressed price, and against the Lakers has two games under 30 FD points but one massive 51 point outing as well! What I like about Booker tonight is that we saw his usage and involvement in the Suns offensive spike back up against Washington as after 5 straight games with only 10-11 field goal attempts, he shot 18 times on Tuesday while racking up 33 FanDuel points.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($5,100) Game log watchers are going to look at KCP and see a player mired in a brutal cold streak and simply move on, but KCP has shown already this year that in this match-up he is capable of big time fantasy scores.
The Cavaliers are 29th in DvP to opposing SG’s on the season and KCP put up 33 FanDuel points against them in their last outing the day after Christmas. KCP is a GPP only play but one with massive upside as he is capable of dropping 30-40 point outings on the back of single digit duds. With this game expected to be close and the Pistons seeing a slight pace/score boost, this is the kind of contest KCP can excel in and I am going to have GPP exposure to him tonight as a correlation play off Kyrie/LeBron.
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
LeBron James ($11,200) The beauty of the Lakers-Suns stack is that I have plenty of salary left to afford a guy like LeBron and with Westbrook facing off against the Spurs, I would expect The King to be the highest scoring DFS player on this slate!
LeBron is simply on fire lately, having put up 58+ FanDuel points in three straight games and has seen his usage spike to 38% over the last week while putting up an absurd 1.6 fantasy points per minute!
James only played in one of the two earlier meetings against Detroit and only logged 28 minutes in a Cavs blow-out at home, but with this game having a 6 point spread on the road, I would expect King James to get his full amount of run and deliver another massive DFS outing!
Brandon Ingram ($4,000) FanDuel’s algorithm always intrigues me as there are certain players that just never seem to get a price adjustment and Ingram is one of those guys. Ingram is logging major minutes each and every night, having played 35+ in five of his last six games and has been right at 6x value in four of his last six games!
Ingram struggled in this match-up the last time out, but that was when the Suns still had P.J. Tucker on the floor and T.J. Warren is actually one of the worst individual defenders at SF on this slate, so the match-up is much more appealing. In the two earlier match-ups against the Suns, Ingram put up 20 FanDuel points per game which gives him a solid 5x floor with easy 6-7x upside at this price point in the biggest pace up game on the slate!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Julius Randle ($6,900) Of all the players in this Suns-Lakers game, the very first one I locked into my roster on this slate was Julius Randle, who has shown his massive DFS ceiling in recent games as he is coming off a triple-double against Dallas and a 64 FD point performance against Charlotte.
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Randle has been solid in the previous three match-ups against the Suns with 29-31 FD points in those games, but the Suns are ranked 25th in DvP to opposing PF’s and without Tyson Chandler inside anymore, this could be another night Randle explodes for a big time score!
Marquese Chriss ($4,400) Chriss and Ingram are two players I seemingly always find a way to roster in GPP’s as their prices rarely move outside of this $4k-$4.5k range and with their immense talent and expanded run, it makes them hard to pass up!
Chriss is a volatile DFS asset but has hit 6x value in three of his last eight games including a 15 point, 8 rebound 33 FanDuel point outing against the Lakers just a few weeks back! The Lakers are dead last in DvP to opposing PF’s so considering the match-up and price point, it makes passing on Chriss a tough proposition!
Alan Williams ($5,900) The final member of our roster build and Suns/Lakers stack, we head to the Big Sauce and lock in Alan Williams who continues to post monster numbers night after night. Williams has double-doubles now in four straight games, averaging 33 FanDuel points per game (5.6x value) during that stretch. The Lakers are dead last in DvP to opposing Centers on the season and I would expect another 30 minutes and double-double upside tonight for the talented Suns big man!
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR all day on Twitter and Facebook for late breaking lineup news and roster updates!