FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots – Preseason Monday October 9
Welcome to the Monday 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!
Sunday saw three separate slates go final with winning GPP scores ranging from 282.8 on the afternoon slate to 334.5 on the night slate with some massive individual performances. The Saturday overnight slate was driven by a 67.2 FanDuel point outing by Stephen Curry as the Warriors/Timberwolves played a pace up shoot-out and the Sunday afternoon slate was similarly dominated by a point guard as Damian Lillard dropped 46 FD points. The night slate however was where the points came rolling in as the Pelicans starters got regular season run and the core three of DeMarcus Cousins (49.3), Jrue Holiday (41.5) and Anthony Davis (67) came up with monster scores.
Over the first ten preseason slates, it has taken 275.1 FanDuel points to take down a GPP which means we are roughly shooting for 4.6x value
Over the first ten preseason slates, it has taken 275.1 FanDuel points to take down a GPP which means we are roughly shooting for 4.6x 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 – Top Guard Plays:
We have an eight game slate that is absolutely loaded tonight and with only a few more games to go until the regular season kicks off we need to keep an eye on news for which teams will ramp up minutes and which will start to get their bench/fringe players more run!
Point Guard is perhaps the most loaded position on this slate and with so many top-tier options, I recommend paying up for both spots at PG when building your roster! Damian Lillard ($8,800) continues to be an offensive force, averaging 15.3 shot attempts per game which is the second most of any PG in the pre-season while putting up 23 points per game which is the highest mark of any PG thus far! The sheer usage for Dame (7 three-point attempts per game and 6 FT attempts per game) make him a scary fade and as long as he gets minutes in the 25+ range he should be one of the best plays on the board.
Dennis Schroder ($7,500) received a late rest day on Friday but is expected back tonight as the PG averaging the most shot attempts per game (16) and will continue to be a usage monster in this fast paced Hawks offense.
Injury notes: It appears that Reggie Jackson will be back on the floor tonight which hurts the value of Ish Smith and while Markelle Fultz is likely to return to the court, fellow rookie De’Aron Fox is looking like he will get the night off after injuring his back!
James Harden ($11,000) may be the most expensive player on the slate but with enough value plays across the league tonight, I see no reason to avoid the best player available at a weak SG position. Harden put up 16 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks in his first preseason game, giving you 45 FanDuel points which makes him largely unfadeable.
The Pacers are expected to rest four of their starters tonight – Thaddeus Young, Myles Turner, Bojan Bogdanovic and Victor Oladipo which means that Indiana will have a TON of usage to go around. Even with the starters available, it has been Lance Stephenson ($3,300) leading the team in minutes (26.5) while putting up 13 shot attempts per game and makes for an elite bargain option on a slate where he should dominate usage!
FanDuel NBA – Top Forward and Center Plays:
With the injury to Nicolas Batum, it is now confirmed that Jeremy Lamb ($3,500) will enter the Hornets starting line-up and he makes for my favorite value play on this slate at a price that is simply thousands too low for his new role. Last season when Batum was off the floor, Lamb was second on the team in usage (26.4%) while putting up a fantasy point per minute of production. Locking in Lamb and the aforementioned Stephenson afford you massive salary flexibility tonight, specifically giving you the ability to pay up for Harden and BOTh point guard positions!
The second small forward spot to me is one you simply “fill-in” with a solid mid-range option like Robert Covington ($6,400) or Tobias Harris ($5,600) who will continue to see minutes in the mid 20’s and provide you a safe floor to build around.
Power Forward is another position I think you live in the mid-range and avoid someone like Kristaps Porzingis ($8,000) who is having his minutes monitored. Ben Simmons ($5,600) has already flashed is well-rounded fantasy game by averaging 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals per game but he has been widely inefficient and will have to contend with Dario Saric returning to the court tonight. I am inclined to roll with the Sixers PF regardless tonight as they will continue to rest Joel Embiid and will be without PF/C Richaun Holmes for the next few weeks!
One team I have not touched on this preseason but will be at the core of my roster builds tonight is the Utah Jazz, who without Gordon Hayward on the floor have some intriguing new plays to target. Last season, without Hayward on the floor we saw SG Rodney Hood ($4,300) dominate the usage at 32.2% which was an 8% increase over his regular numbers. Rudy Gobert ($8,100) was at the center (get it?) of many GPP winning line-ups in his first game as he racked up 32.9 FanDuel points on the back of 9 points/12 boards and will face the same Phoenix team again tonight, making him a great Center play at only $8k!
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: Dennis Schroder ($7,500)
SG: James Harden ($11,000)
SG: Lance Stephenson ($3,300)
SF: Tobias Harris ($5,400)
SF: Jeremy Lamb ($3,500)
PF: Derrick Favors ($5,800)
PF: Ben Simmons ($5,600)
C: Rudy Gobert ($8,100)
Slate Overview: There are a few over-arching themes that will drive my roster build tonight – first, we have some elite value plays we can build around that allow you to then lock in James Harden and two top-tier point guard which give you an immediate high upside core! Power Forward is the one spot on the floor (in addition to the second Small Forward spot) I feel relatively blah about so those are good spots to differentiate your build and take some shots with different players if you are building multiple line-ups! Good luck tonight all and as always – keep an eye on my twitter feed @2LockSports – for all the latest roster news as it breaks!
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Best of luck in your FanDuel NBA contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the late breaking line-up news and roster updates!