FanDuel NBA Daily Picks and Pivots – March 27
Welcome to the Monday 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 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!
Over the first 126 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.4 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Over the first 126 slates, the average winning GPP score has been 378.4 which would mean we need 6.3x value from our roster in order to win big!
Apologies for the lack of articles over the weekend as for the second weekend in a row I was traveling for a fantasy baseball draft but we are back at it today as he head down the home stretch in the NBA! Sunday’s winning GPP lineup landed just below the season average as 376.8 FanDuel points was enough to take down the $3 Shot on the back of another triple-double from Russell Westbrook.
Monday Night gives us another 7:30 PM EST start time so keep that in mind tonight as we head towards lock and we get an additional half hour to tinker and considering we are missing totals/lines for the half the games as of this writing, we may need all of that extra half hour!
FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Picks
Kyrie Irving ($9,100) and Tony Parker ($4,100) After two days off from NBA DFS I am returning to an ugly slate with a variety of spots I am looking to avoid entirely. The only two teams on this slate that see pace increases are the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks and that is largely a result of their slow pace normally and even today they are only seeing a slight pace boost.
The Cavaliers/Spurs face off tonight and thankfully with this being an 8PM EST game we SHOULD get all the relevant news we need prior to lock at 7:30 PM EST. The Cavs are now tied for first in the Eastern Conference with the Celtics so I expect the Cavaliers to come out ready to make a statement tonight!
Kyrie Irving is one of my favorite plays on the board as I am not willing to pay nearly $13k tonight for Russell Westbrook against the Mavericks and the other $7-$8k options are underwhelming. Meanwhile, Kyrie gets to face off with a Spurs team he dropped 49 FanDuel points in their earlier meeting this season!
On the other side of the ball here, I am looking towards Tony Parker for only $4,100 as I think on this slate a stack of this TNT Primetime contest is firmly in play. As of this writing, this game has the highest combined team total on the slate (212) and we know we can attack the Cavs at PG as Kyrie has the second worst individual defensive rating of any PG on the slate!
Parker may seem like an underwhelming play but he has actually exceeded 6x value in two of his last four games so he has surprising GPP upside and on this slate there are not a ton of great value plays so I think stacking him with Kryie as your point guard core gives you a nice start on the rest of the field!
FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks
J.R. Smith ($3,500) and Danny Green ($3,600) Shooting guard is typically a spot I look to punt and tonight the position is UGLY which leads me back down that path. I am not willing to pay nearly $10k for DeMar Derozan who is simply looking gassed as the only offensive option right now on Toronto so rather than pay for some $4-$5k “value” guys in mediocre spots, I would rather target the two starting SG’s as part of a Cavs/Spurs game stack and save a ton of salary!
Smith is back starting for the Cavs and has now played 30+ minutes in each of his last two games! While the shot attempts have been slow to return, with only 11 shot attempts in two games, we all know that Smith is capable of lighting it up at any time and in GPP play, he is the exact kind of volatile punt play I love to use! From a DvP perspective SG is the best place to attack the Spurs as they rank 14th in DvP against the position so there is some additional merit to using Smith as a one of play if you simply need a punt tonight!
UPDATE: Kyle Korver has been ruled OUT for tonight and Iman Shumpert is questionable which means Smith is going to be locked into major minutes tonight at minimum price!
Danny Green on the other side of this game is another player who should play close to 30 minutes (especially in this game) and like Tony Parker has flashed surprising 6x upside, exceeding that mark in two of his last six games. On this slate, I want to allocate my salary in other spots so I am happy to double punt this position and look to eek out value from Smith/Green and hope this game stays close and high scoring through-out!
FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks
LeBron James ($10,900) and Kawhi Leonard ($9,100) I think most people will look at the Small Forward spot tonight and debate which of these two high-end players to roster (I would choose Kawhi if forced to only play one) but I think the better approach is to lock in both and save salary elsewhere.
The Small Forward position on this slate is brutal with guys like Carmelo Anthony and Gordon Hayward questionable to play it really leaves us these two studs to pay up for tonight! While I do not love the idea of playing anyone against Kawhi’s defense, the fact that the Cavs are scuffling and are now tied for first place AND this being a national TV game, I am simply going with my gut that LeBron puts on one of those vintage performances.
Kawhi on the other hand, absolutely dominated in this spot earlier this season, dropping 54 FanDuel points on the back of 46 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. The price point simply feels too low and I expect Kawhi will be the highest owned player on this slate as a result.
Rather than choose which SF to roster in this game, I love the idea of stacking them both with Kyrie Irving to make a mini-game stack here in one of the best basketball games of the night!
FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks
Kristaps Porzingis ($6,700), Tobias Harris ($5,400) and Andre Drummond ($7,600) Moving away from the Cavs/Spurs, I am looking to get heavy exposure to the Detroit Pistons tonight as they sit just one game out of the Eastern Conference playoffs right now and I am going to look to target the teams with the most to play for as we head down the NBA stretch!
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Harris and Drummond are both in elite spots tonight, facing a Knicks team that has struggled to defend the interior all season long! Harris has destroyed this match-up all season with FanDuel point outing of 33, 40 and 48 which puts him at a 6x floor based off his current price. The 48 point outing happened just a few games ago and the fact that we have line of sight into 8-9x value here makes Tobias a no-brainer play for me at power forward.
Drummond has not had the consistent level of success against this Knicks team but is coming off a 48 point outing of his own when these two teams played back on March 11th! In that game, Drummond put up 24 points, 15 rebounds and should continue to face an under-sized Knicks team that will be without their top interior defender in Joakim Noah.
On the other side of this game, I love the correlation play we can get with Kristaps Porzingis who with Carmelo Anthony on the bench is becoming the go to player on the NY side of the ball. When these two teams played on March 11, Porzingis put up 43.2 FanDuel points which would exceed 6.4x value at this price point!
On this slate, I think stacking the earlier games is a safer strategy but I also find myself gravitating towards these games as the price points and expected performance allows us a high upside stack that fits perfectly within the salary structure tonight!
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!