FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – March 11
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 nine 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 Main slate saw winning GPP scores drop to only 355 as Bradley Beal was really the only player to post a monster night! Over the first 111 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.6 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Over the first 111 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.6 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Friday Night’s Picks and Pivots main lineup dropped 284.5 and finished above the cash line in all multipliers and GPP’s on the back of our boy Bradley Beal who was featured in our column and proceeded to drop 59 FanDuel points on the Kings! The late news that Nikola Jokic would play ended up hurting our Mason Plumlee center value but overall the lineup was solid and helped us turn a profit on the night!
Saturday’s NBA action has an early three game slate but I will spend my bankroll on the larger main slate tonight which has some very intriguing plays to choose from!
FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Picks
Shaun Livingston ($3,500) Let’s start with the big news tonight as the Warriors and Spurs battle in a showdown of the two best teams in the Western Conference and we can…ummm, load up on value? The Warriors decided that everyone needs a day off and Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala will all be watching this one from the bench along with Kawhi Leonard on the Spurs side.
I never thought the Warriors bench would become a core in DFS but it is March in the NBA and here we are. With all the Warriors value on the slate, you can easily stack a group of $3k-$4k players and pay up for whichever studs you want. I expect this will be a popular strategy tonight but I see no reason to get cute and I would try to differentiate in other spots!
Livingston is a minimum price play who will step into the starter’s role for Stephen Curry and should see all the minutes he can handle. Within this roster build you will notice I have $500 left over and one of the reasons is I think we can pivot off Livingston within the same build and grab some value on the other side of this match-up.
Tony Parker ($4,100) is listed as questionable but would make for a great value play if he is able to suit up for the Spurs with Kawhi Leonard out. If Parker is out as well, Patty Mills ($3,800) and Dejounte Murray ($3,500) would make for interesting punt plays as well as they both see usage rates near 26-28% and put up just under a fantasy point per minute with Parker and Kawhi off the floor.
The summary here is, use the value in the Golden State/San Antonio game and you can mix and match which players you want to use within the same overall core/roster build!
Damian Lillard ($8,700) Portland and Washington have the highest combined team total on the main slate (226) which is 10 points higher than any other game on the slate so this is a spot I intend to stack within my roster build tonight.
Portland has the highest team total on the main slate and with Damian Lillard priced below $9k, this is a lock and load spot for me. Lillard has been a usage monster over the last two weeks, putting up a 33% usage rate while hoisting 20+ shot attempts in five of his last seven games!
As my friend Bruce Lamb pointed out today in his FanDuel NBA article, the Wizards are playing their 5th game in 7 days so this is a great time to attack the Wizards defensively and I will be rolling Dame out as a core play in all formats tonight in the highest scoring game of the slate!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
Bradley Beal ($7,600) If I am locking in Damian Lillard on the Portland side of this match-up, I want to ensure I have correlation plays on the Washington side and I will happily take a $3,000 discount from John Wall to lock in Friday Night’s stud, Bradley Beal.
Beal is killing it lately, with 20+ shot attempts in four of his last five games and averaging over 42 FanDuel points per game which would exceed 5.5x value at this price point. The Wizards have the second highest team total on the slate and with this game having only a two point Vegas spread, we need to have exposure to both sides of this game and stacking Lillard/Beal gives me elite GPP upside for two players under $9k tonight!
Ian Clark ($3,500) Heading back to Golden State value town with Ian Clark who should see a ton of run tonight at both guard positions. Looking at the RotoGrinders Court IQ tool, no player on the Warriors has a higher usage when the death lineup is off the floor than Clark who sees a 10% usage increase, leading the team with a 31% usage rate while putting up over 31 fantasy points per 36 minutes of action. Clark is going to be one of the best value plays on this slate and opens up a world of salary flexibility tonight which I will happily take advantage of!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
LeBron James ($11,400) Thank you Golden State value for making LeBron’s salary a non-issue on this slate! The King is absolutely rolling right now with three straight games of 60+ FanDuel points and I see no reason with this much value to even entertain fading him tonight!
There is no line yet out on this game and my hope is that is simply related to Nikola Vucevic but it would not shock me if the Cavs opted to sit Kyrie/LeBron in this spot so keep an eye on our Twitter feed leading up to lock to make sure there are no late scratches here!
Assuming LeBron plays, he needs to be in your lineup tonight as he is coming off a monster triple-double and is likely to be the highest scoring player on this slate. Do not over think this one – use the salary savings from Golden State and lock in King James in all formats tonight!
Matt Barnes ($4,200) One of the highest priced Warriors player, Matt Barnes, will be another popular play tonight but with 4 guys already sitting out, the Warriors are going to lean on guys like Barnes for 30+minutes of run tonight. The fact that Kawhi Leonard is out makes this a match-up we can look to attack and we have seen the upside that Barnes has this season when he gets a full complement of minutes as he put up 30 or more FanDuel points in each of his last five games (prior to joining GS) when he played 30 or more minutes!
FanDuel NBA: Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Nikola Jokic ($10,100) Welcome back Joker! Picks and Pivots readers know I am a card carrying member of the Jokic DFS fan club and with Jokic back on the floor for the Nuggets, I am locking him into all lineups tonight against the Kings!
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Jokic has put up at least 44 FanDuel points in each of his last four games and has five straight double-doubles and with his illness presumably behind him, he has the ability to put up a monster game against an under-whelming Kings front court. Take advantage on FanDuel of the PF eligibility for Jokic and simply lock him into a LeBron/Lillard/Beal core and watch as he puts up another monster all around DFS night!
David West ($3,500) The last member of the Golden State Bargain Stack! I cannot remember the last time I actually rostered West but with all the sidelined players on Golden State, I expect West to get 25+ minutes of run tonight as the Warriors will be down to 8-9 healthy bodies against the Spurs. Do not overlook the revenge game narrative with West as he spent all of last year with the Spurs and now has the chance to give the Warriors additional breathing room for the #1 seed!
Jusuf Nurkic ($6,800) Unlike Mike Malone, I am smart enough to realize that you can roster Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic in the same front court. Portland seems to have pulled the fleece job of the year by acquiring Jusuf Nurkic from Denver as the big fella has been a DFS force in Portland.
Nurkic had his official DFS coming out party last game with 28 points, 20 rebounds, 8 assists and 6 blocks for 77 FanDuel points and yet his price is still under $7k. Take. The. Free. Square.
I think there is merit to playing the fade in large field GPP’s IF you are multi-entering, but if you are a single entry player or loading up on cash games, than Nurkic is a lock and load play tonight!
Stay tuned to our Twitter account leading up to lock as I will post final lineups closer to tip-off when we have final roster confirmations in Golden State!
Best of luck tonight in your FanDuel NBA contests tonight and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR on Twitter all day for the late breaking lineup news and roster updates!