Welcome to the Saturday 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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Friday Night’s winning GPP line-up put up 263 FanDuel points utilizing the late game Suns-Jazz hammer to grab some big time DFS performances at extremely low ownership! Rodney Hood at 4% ownership dropped 30 FanDuel points and his Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert put up 32.9 FanDuel points at a center position dominated ownership wise by DeMarcus Cousins!
Over the first seven preseason slates, it has taken 262 FanDuel points to take down a GPP which means we are roughly shooting for 4.3x 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 today’s slate!
FanDuel NBA – Two Game Overnight Slate
We have a bit of an odd two-game slate tonight with one game at 7PM EST and another at 7AM EST on Sunday morning as the Wolves and Warriors tangle in Shanghai for the second game in a row! Rather than go position by position on a slate like this, I will approach it more from an overall slate strategy perspective and give you my ideal roster build. Keep in mind as well – we have LATE SWAP for the first time in NBA DFS so make sure you watch line-ups for the 7AM game as you still have time ro react!
Timberwolves versus Warriors: Even though this is the second game on the slate, this is the game I am going to zero in on from a roster build perspective – specifically utilizing the Timberwolves starters.
Unlike any other team on the slate, the Timberwolves are playing their final preseason game tonight and will not see the court again until their regular season debut on October 18 which is 10 days away! Although I have seen nothing official (but will monitor on my Twitter account @2lockSports), I would expect this is a game where the Wolves starters get regular season run as they have yet to have any starter approach 30 minutes in a game this preseason so this is their last chance to get in regular season shape!
If we are starting with the Wolves then we simply lock in Karl Anthony Towns ($10,000) and move on as KAT is averaging 15 points and 7 boards per game over 23 MPG so far this preseason! Jeff Teague ($7,300) has actually lead the team in field goal attempts per game with 12.5 but it has been Shabazz Muhammed ($3,100) who has led the team in points per game with 16 and makes for a great salary saving option as a key bench scorer for the Wolves second unit.
Jimmy Butler ($8,700) is the guy I am most interesting to watch in this game as he has frankly been an afterthought so far for the Wolves this preseason, averaging 13 points per game on only 6 shot attempts a contest. At some point the Wolves need to let him get more involved in the offense and in this final preseason game it would seem the perfect time to let him be the key point of the Timberwolves offense.
On the Warriors side of the ball, the starters all played 24-25 minutes in their last game and I am fine utilizing either Stephen Curry ($9,700) or Kevin Durant ($9,800) as a correlation play with a Minnesota stack but would limit my exposure outside of those two!
Magic versus Heat: With both of these teams having three more preseason games, I am not sure we see any real up-tick in minutes for the starters here so 20-25 minutes seems like a best case scenario which makes them better secondary options to fill out your roster rather than core plays. With a weak pool of players at SG and PF, I am going to use this game to mix and match those four roster spots with a variety of options from both squads.
Jason Richardson ($5,100) and Dion Waiters ($5,200) make for an intriguing SG stack at a weak position as Richardson leads the team in minutes per game at 25 and although Waiters has struggled with his shot so far (4 for 16), we know this is a player that is not afraid to shoot and will continue to be a focal point of the Heat offensive attack. Kelly Olynyk ($4,100) is second on the team in minutes per game (24) and allows you some stability and salary relief at a weak power forward position! Aaron Gordon ($6,300) feels a bit overpriced here but this is a guy who is coming off a 17 point, 10 rebound performance in only 20 minutes of action which shows you the kind of upside he has on any given night.
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: Stephen Curry ($9,700)
PG: Jeff Teague ($7,300)
SG: Dion Waiters ($5,200)
SG: Josh Richardson ($5,100)
SF: Jimmy BUtler ($8,700)
SF: Shabazz Muhammed ($3,100)
PF: Aaron Gordon ($6,300)
PF: Kelly Olynyk ($4,100)
C: Karl Anthony Towns ($10,000)
Slate Overview: This is a wacky slate but one that I think can be profitable if we keep our focus and attention on the Timberwolves starters minutes. If we get confirmation of a regular season minute look for Minnesota then I simply think you stack four Wolves in every line-up, get correlation with Curry/KD on the Warriors side and use the Heat/Magic game to simply fill out your SG/PF spots. Remember we have late swap on this slate so for you night owls/early risers – make sure to double-check line-ups before tip-off at 7AM EST Sunday Morning!
Next: FanDuel NFL Picks and Pivots for Week 5
Best of luck in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the latest DFS news and analysis across NBA, NFL, NHl and EPL!