FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots – Preseason Thursday October 5

Welcome to the Thursday edition of FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots, a fantasy basketball column focused on helping you find the best core lineup for this slate of DFS action!

For those of you finding us for the first time, 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!

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Wednesday night’s slate was not nearly as high scoring as the previous night but it still took 282 FanDuel points to take down a GPP with Darren Collison at less than 5% ownership dropping 41.1 FanDuel points for the biggest DFS night! Over the first five preseason slates, it has taken 263 FanDuel points to take down a GPP which means we are roughly shooting for 4.4x value at this point in the season which once the regular season kicks off will ratchet up to 5-6x value!

Picks and Pivots is not a simple “best plays” column but rather it focuses on slate strategy and roster construction to help give you insight into how I will look to play this slate! The goal of this article is to dig through the slate, highlight our top plays and give you a sample line-up as an example of what our core roster build could look like using the analysis we lay out in the coming pages!

As always, we will look to update our picks and final lineup thought  prior to lock on our twitter account @FantasyCPR so make sure to give us a follow for all the late breaking lineup news.

Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s slate!

FanDuel NBA – Top Guard Plays

The first and most important note on this slate – WE HAVE REAL FANDUEL PRICING! With pricing a factor for the first time it will be important to build your line-ups with price in mind when considering the overall slate!

The one thing that jumps out to me on this slate is that the talent level (and pricing) for the forwards are extremely low which means we have the ability to pay up in our backcourt and that is exactly the approach I think you should take by locking in Kyle Lowry ($8,100) and Damian Lillard ($8,800).

Lowry sat out yesterday’s Hawaii preseason affair due to rest and although it is pure speculation at this point (will keep an eye on the beat reporters), this seems like the perfect spot to do the same for DeMar DeRozan and let Lowry run the show for the Raptors. Lowry was extremely efficient in his first preseason game with 17 points in only 16 minutes of action and if we can get 20+ minutes from Lowry tonight with a potential bump in usage if Toronto sits some guys like DeRozan (who played 24 minutes yesterday) then he becomes a must play.

Lillard is coming of a 21 minute, 18 point performance in his first game action of the season while putting up 13 field goal attempts even though the pre-game notes hinted at a minutes restriction for the franchise star. Lillard and C.J. McCollum ($7,200) were the clear stars of the show with 13 and 14 shot attempts respectively with both players logging over 20+ minutes and if we get similar run they make for a great core to build around in your back court. Portland kept most of the regulars between 16-22 minutes against the Suns and Terry Stotts said he would keep most of them to 24 or fewer minutes against the Raptors.

D’Angelo Russell ($6,600) is going to be a Picks and Pivots staple for me this season and watching the first Nets preseason game did nothing but confirm the fantasy output I expect from him this season. The Nets newest addition played 20 minutes with a team high 14 shot attempts and racked up 19 points in the process and was the absolute center of the Nets offensive attack. In a high paced offense like Brooklyn will run, Russell is a lock and load plat at a weak shooting guard position each and every slate he is on!

UPDATE: The Mavericks have announced that all the veterans will not make the trip for this game in Orlando meaning Dirk Nowitzki, J.J. Barea, Harrison Barnes, Wesley Mathews, Nerlens Noel and Devin Harris will be sidelined. The Mavericks projected starting line-up will include Dennis Smith Jr. and Seth Curry who both make great high upside GPP plays with the increased usage and expected run tonight!

FanDuel NBA – Top Forwards and Center Plays

Hassan Whiteside ($9,200) is the highest priced player on the slate and with enough value plays at the forward positions, I think locking him in with the high-priced back court is the core build in all formats. On the surface a match-up with the Nets should be one that Whiteside dominates but it is worth noting that he did not put up more than 28 FD points in any game against the Nets last season. The biggest reason for that in my opinion was Brook Lopez, who played away from the basket and drew Whiteside away from the paint but Lopez is now in Los Angeles so this is a spot we should attack against Timofey Mozgov. Whiteside faced Mozgov only once last season and not shockingly, he dominated, with 23 points 13 rebounds and 41 FanDuel points, so this is the perfect match-up to exploit against Brooklyn!

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson ($5,200) is a player that should thrive in the Nets up-tempo offense especially now with players like Russell and Jeremy Lin sharing the back-court and he delivered in the first game action with 13 points while racking up 2 steals as well!  Justise Winslow ($4,600) came off the bench for Miami in their first game and put up 6 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal in 23 minutes, reminding us of the all-around nature of his fantasy game and he should thrive in this up-tempo spot against the Nets.

C.J. Miles ($4,400) is battling Norman Powell for the starting small-forward spot in Toronto and with Powell nursing an ankle injury, we could see Miles draw another start tonight! Miles is a shooter and one who is simply not shy about chucking up shots as evidenced by his near 7 three points attempts per game so far this pre-season. If the shot is falling, Miles has the ability to be a GPP difference maker and with the opportunity cost so low at SF tonight, I love his upside.

Caleb Swanigan ($3,000) is a player that one of my twitter followers but on my radar last game and I watched him fill up the box score off the Portland bench with 18 points and 6 rebounds in only 17 minutes of action! Swanigan is a great GPP play at PF tonight and he opens up enough salary for you to pay up across the rest of your rosters!

FanDuel NBA– Sample Line-Up and Slate Overview

Please Note: This is NOT an optimized line-up, it is simply illustrative to show the type of roster build we can have using the logic previously laid out in Picks and Pivots. My actual line-up may differ from the line-up shown here. 

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PG: Damian Lillard ($8,800)

PG: Kyle Lowry ($8,100)

SG: C.J. McCollum ($7,200)

SG: D’Angelo Russell ($6,600)

SF: Justise Winslow ($4,600)

SF: C.J. Miles ($4,400)

PF: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson ($5,200)

PF: Caleb Swanigan ($3,000)

C: Hassan Whiteside ($9,200)

Slate Overview: Tonight is the first night that salary matters on FanDuel but with such a weak SF/PF crop it is easy to pay up for stars at Center and across your back-court without having to sacrifice much upside. I will continue to keep building around a core of starters that play 20-25 minutes and will look for 1-2 bench plays (like Winslow or Swanigan) as GPP differentiator’s which has been a successfull strategy so far this preseason!

Next: DraftKings NFL Week 5 GPP Plays

Best of luck in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the latest NBA, NFL, NHL and EPL DFS content and analysis!