FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots – Preseason Wednesday October 11

Welcome to the Wednesday’s 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!

Tuesday’s winning GPP line-up put up over 370 FanDuel points, the highest such total we have seen so far in the preseason and with only three more days left in the preseason it may wind up the highest scoring slate we see! Rudy Gobert (54.6) and Paul George (52.2) put up monster nights and the value SG plays on the night including Will Barton and Justin Holiday, both dropped 45+ FanDuel points which elevated the cash line and winning scores across contest to levels that flirted with regular season DFS totlas!

Over the first twelve preseason slates, it has taken 285.3 FanDuel points to take down a GPP which means we are roughly shooting for 4.8x value

Over the first twelve preseason slates, it has taken 285.3 FanDuel points to take down a GPP which means we are roughly shooting for 4.8x 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:

Tonight we have a five game NBA slate and one of the final night’s of preseason NBA DFS as the final contests are all on Friday with the regular season kicking off on Tuesday. If you have not been playing preseason DFS then I would tell you that this is the perfect time to start as you can get a significant edge getting familiar with rotations and key players to watch ahead of the regular season when the rest of the world “starts paying attention” and meanwhile you have been on top of your DFS game for weeks!

Looking over this slate, it has a very similar look and feel to Tuesday night’s in that we have a significant amount of value already available to us that makes paying up for a handful of stars a relatively easy endeavor. Point Guard is the one position I will likely look to pay up at both spots with elite salary saving options at the forward positions so locking in top plays like John Wall ($10,000) and Damian Lillard ($8,800) give you the ability to lock in two of the highest usage players in the NBA with elite scoring upside.

Lillard in particular has been a beast this preseason, averaging 20.8 points per game which is the 5th highest mark in the NBA so far! Jusuf Nurkic has already been ruled out of this game with a concussion so Portland will need to rely on its guards even more in this game so locking in Dame and his 25-30 minutes a night will be a priority for me!

James Harden ($11,000) is the most expensive player on the slate but he reminded us why that is the case with a 60+ FanDuel point game his last time on the court. I think it would be unreasonable to expect another 37 minutes tonight, especially if Chris Paul is back in the line-up, but remember that Harden is averaging 18 shot attempts per game (highest mark in the NBA so far) and a whopping 13 three-point shot attempts (also the highest mark by a WIDE margin). The usage is always going to be there for The Beard and with so much salary to play with on this slate, I see no reason to avoid paying up for Harden.

D’Angelo Russell ($6,600) continues to be my preseason go to at SG and frankly I do not expect that trend to stop any time soon. The more I watch the Nets this preseason, the more I am convinced they are going to surprise people this year and Russell will be at the forefront of their fast paced offensive attack all year-long! Russell is putting up a team high 14 shot attempt per game so far this preseason while racking up over 4 assists and 2 steals per game. The Nets-Sixers game is one of my favorite spots to target on this slate as the fast paced and likely sometimes sloppy play, should result in a plethora of steals and transition baskets which suits Russell perfectly!

FanDuel NBA – Top Forward and Center Plays:

You may be looking at the four guard plays and thinking, ok Mr. Fantasy “Expert”, you are leaving me only $4,700 per player to fill our four forward spots and Center – what kind of scrub squad are you leaving me with? Fear not – the value at SF and PF tonight is plentiful and I think rolling with a stars/scrubs approach is a valid strategy on this slate!

With Nicolas Batum out with an injury, Jeremy Lamb now out with a groin injury and Kemba Walker leaving last game after getting hit in the face, the Hornets are going to be down to their third/fourth offensive options tonight which gives us a great chance for some value plays! Although I do like Malik Monk, his SG eligibility takes him our of consideration considering I am prioritizing Harden/Russell, but that does not mean I will take the same approach on SF Dwayne Bacon ($3,000) who stepped in last game after the injuries to Lamb/Walker and proceeded to put up 17 shot attempts in 30 minutes while adding 8 boards to his stat sheet. It will be interesting to see if Monk/Bacon draws the start tonight at SG and if Kemba Walker remains out it would open up even more usage for the Hornets bench guards!

For the same reason I love Bacon (mmmm Bacon), Dwight Howard ($6,600) makes for a great play as the last man left standing for the Hornets who has had a surprisingly solid preseason so far whole averaging 12 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals/blocks a piece which gives him substantial upside at this price point!

Kelly Olynk ($4,100) looks like he has taken over the starting PF position for the Miami Heat and responded with a monster game in his last outing with 13 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Olynk’s offensive game as a stretch four looks to be a perfect fit in this offense and his ability to tack up steals/blocks in FanDuel’s new scoring gives him even further upside at a near minimum price point.

With Jusuf Nurkic out tonight, I am interested to see if Caleb Swanigan ($3,000) gets the start for Portland, as the team leader in rebounds with 7.5 per game would stand to be in for a heavy workload as one of the few true inside presences for the Trail Blazers. The rookie big man has limited offensive upside but his ability to rack up boards and the fact that Portland will be short-handed up front could give him a path to 30 minutes tonight which would be a lock and load play for me!

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: John Wall ($10,000)

SG: James Harden ($11,000)

SG: D’Angelo Russell ($6,600)

SF: Robert Covgngton ($6,400)

SF: Dwayne Bacon ($3,000)

PF: Kelly Olynyl ($4,100)

PF: Caleb Swanigan ($3,000)

C: Dwight Howard ($6,600)

Slate Overview: We will keep an eye on the news for starting line-ups tonight with a specific eye on Charlotte and Portland, but be prepared to react as we wind down the preseason and we could see some of the stars get a night off for “rest.” With so much value already on our radar, I think paying up for 2-3 studs is the right approach and we can fill in with elite value plays to round out our squad. Enjoy the last few nights of preseason DFS – it’s almost time for the regular season NBA!

Next: College Football Picks Against the Spread

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