FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots – Saturday October 28

PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 20: Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers walks onto the court as a fan holds up a sign prior to the game against the Boston Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center on October 20, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 20: Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers walks onto the court as a fan holds up a sign prior to the game against the Boston Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center on October 20, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
FanDuel NBA
PHILADELPHIA, PA – OCTOBER 20: Joel Embiid FanDuel NBA

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!

Friday’s winning GPP line-up racked up 372.5 FanDuel points in a well-balanced line-up that included stars like Karl Anthony Towns (66.8 FD points), Kevin Durant (58.2), Kyle Lowry (46) and DeMar Derozan (42.5) while mixing in some mid-tier values like Ryan Anderson (35.7), Paul Millsap (32.7) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (39.6).

Over the first eleven NBA regular season slates it has taken 373 FanDuel points on average to take down a GPP which means on a $60,000 salary cap, we need 6.2x per player to take down a big time tournament in FanDuel NBA!

Over the first ten NBA regular season slates it has taken 373 FanDuel points on average to take down a GPP which means on a $60,000 salary cap, we need 6.2x per player to take down a big time tournament in FanDuel NBA!

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
PORTLAND, OR – OCTOBER 24: Damian Lillard

FanDuel NBA – Top Point Guard Plays:

Damian Lillard ($9,300) No team on tonight’s slate has a higher projected point total or projected pace than the Portland Trail Blazers who take on the Phoenix Suns in a home match-up. Last season, in this match-up, Lillard put up 40+ in every single one of their four meetings and he dropped 52.5 FD points against them Opening Night, albeit without C.J. McCollum on the floor.

I have noticed recently a trend in roster builds where the higher priced point guards are consistently under-owned as we were able to grab a guy like Dame in his last start for 10% ownership as most builds are living in the mid-range. We saw the same thing with Kyrie Irving ($8,900) who went for 45 FanDuel points at 9% ownership so paying up at both point guard spots may be a viable option tonight in tournaments.

Rucky Rubio ($8,000) is the fourth highest priced PG on this slate and one I expect will get a bit over-looked at this price point but targeting the Jazz tonight against the Lakers tonight is one of my favorite early looks. The Jazz see the biggest point/pace boost on the slate as their projected point total of 106.5 is over 12 points higher than their season average so targeting Rubio in a fast paced match-up like this against the Lakers 20th ranked PG defense could be an under-owned option at this position.

If you are looking to save a little salary tonight, Dennis Smith Jr. ($6,500) will take on a Philadelphia team that has given up no fewer than 30 FanDuel points to each point guard they have faced this season and DSJ has put up double-digit shot attempts in each of his games while ranking among the team leaders in usage and fantasy points per minute!

FanDuel NBA
PHOENIX, AZ – OCTOBER 20: Devin Booker

FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks:

Devin Booker ($7,000): If you plan on locking in Damian Lillard tonight then I would bring it back with Devin Booker on the other side in the hopes this game stays close and the two highest usage plays are the ones that prop up the scoring! With Eric Bledsoe no longer a part of this team’s plans, Booker is the lone wolf left standing and we have seen him put up a 30% usage rate in the last week while averaging a fantasy point per minute. Lillard and McCollum have two of the worst individual defensive ratings at their position so this is a spot Booker could thrive in and the price point is reasonable enough where you could bank significant profitability if he has one of his monster outings.

Rodney Hood ($5,300): As I mentioned earlier, the Jazz have the biggest point/pace boost on the slate against the Lakers and Hood’s return to the starting line-up gives us a great GPP SG option. Hood returned to the court against the Suns, playing 35 minutes, jacking up 16 shots, scoring 22 points and 23 FanDuel points. Keep in mind, Hood is a scoring dependent SG who will have to deal with one of the best on ball defenders in Kentavious Caldwell Pope so I would not make Hood a core play but rather someone you use as a last man in kind of play.

If you are looking for value, keep an eye on the Bulls today for two key pieces of injury news. Kris Dunn ($4,500) is due back soon from injury and could immediately challenge Jerian Grant for the starting PG role and his SG eligibility/price combination would make him an elite value play. Paul Zipser also remains questionable and we saw David Nwaba ($4,000) come off the bench for 23 minutes, posting 15 points, 11 rebounds and 27 FanDuel points!

FanDuel NBA
PHILADELPHIA, PA – OCTOBER 20: Jaylen Brown

FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Plays:

Jaylen Brown ($6,000) has seen his price level-off a bit into this mid-range which gives us the perfect chance to roster a player locked into 30+ minutes who takes double-digit shots each game. Miami will be without Hassan Whiteside again today so I love the upside a thrasher like Brown has in this spot with no elite rim protection on the other side. The Heat are actually ranked 29th in DvP versus opposing SF’s this season so this is a sneaky good spot for Brown and the Celtics who will likely be over-looked with the perceived “tough defensive match-up” that the Heat brand brings with it.

On the other side of this game, Josh Richardson ($5,900) will take on a Celtics team ranked dead last in DvP to opposing SF’s this season and he is another player locked into major minutes at a mid-range price point. Richardson has played 33+ minutes in each game this season and is averaging a fantasy point per minute of production with Whiteside off the floor which gives us a solid path to 5x value with upside for more considering his ability to contribute across categories.

Denzel Valentine ($4,600) was a popular value play in his last game as he got the start at SF for the Bulls with Paul Zipser sidelined and he delivered with 33.3 FanDuel points, crushing value at this bargain price point. He may be popular again today if he gets the start but remember this is a player with a career 0.6 FD point/minute output who will have to deal with the defense of Paul George on the other side!

Update: With news that Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade are now questionable, we could see Point LeBron again tonight and after back to back 60 burgers, he is the one stud I would make room for tonight if those guys are in fact ruled out!

FanDuel NBA
FanDuel NBA

FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Plays:

Power Forward is a position where we may want to spend up on this slate as the two top options Blake Griffin ($9,700) and Ben Simmons ($9,200) seem like 40-50 point locks every night but the price points are inflated enough to where you question whether they have the 50-60 point upside you need in GPP’s.

Ryan Anderson ($4,400) was a popular play on Friday night as the Houston PF is locked into 30+ minutes and an expanded offensive role with Trevor Ariza out and he delivered with 36 FD points on the back of 21 actual points. Although the spot against Memphis is not ideal (he had only 15 FD points in this exact spot three games ago), the value is very real and he makes for a great salary play we can count on for minutes tonight.

Al-Farouq Aminu ($5,800) is a GPP only play but one with massive upside who has put up two games this season of 40+ FanDuel points which would put him at near 7x value at this price point. The fast paced nature of this meeting with the Suns suits him perfectly and we saw he has a relatively safe floor of 25 FanDuel points when they took on Phoenix earlier this season.

Center is LOADED tonight and I could make a case for value plays like Al Horford ($7,500) or Jusuf Nurkic ($7,000) who feel massively under-priced but I think tonight is a night we Trust the Process and roll out Joel Embiid ($8,600) against a Mavericks team that frankly has NOBODY that can slow him down. Nerlens Noel? Come on now. Embiid has put up 38.5 FD points per game this season while not playing more than 28 minutes in any contests so the upside here is massive and the match-up is one he should dominate!

FanDuel NBA
PHILADELPHIA, PA – OCTOBER 20: Joel Embiid

FanDuel NBA – Sample GPP 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.  

More from FanSided

PG: Damian Lillard ($9,300)

PG: Kyrie Irving ($8,900)

SG: Devin Booker ($7,000)

SG: David Nwaba ($4,000)

SF: Jaylen Brown ($6,000)

SF: Josh Richardson ($5,900)

PF: Al Farouq Aminu ($5,800)

PF: Ryan Anderson ($4,400)

C: Joel Embiid ($8,600)

Slate Overview: This is an interesting slate in that we do not have any overwhelming game totals/team totals so I do not think there is a must have spot or stud you simply NEED to have to win. I will say that if LeBron is running point again, he becomes a priority play for me. Keep an eye on the news as always and best of luck!

Next: FanDuel NFL plays for Week 8

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