FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots – Friday November 10

Welcome to the Friday 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!

Thursday’s winning tournament teams eclipsed 400 FanDuel points on the back of a massive triple double and 80 FD points from James Harden and 45 FanDuel Points from a Cavs Small Forward – no not LeBron James – Jeff Flipping Green! The Toronto/New Orleans game also went off for some big time performances as DeMar DeRozan (48.4) and Serge Ibaka (39.1) put up big time performances at less than 10% ownership!

Over the first 23 NBA regular season slates it has taken 378.0 FanDuel points on average to take down a GPP which means on a $60,000 salary cap, we need 6.3x 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 – Top Point Guard Picks:

When digging into slates the first thing I typically do is trying to isolate the games I want to target and if there are any one-off plays I want to focus on. Tonight there are three games that stand out to me as two of them are likely obvious – Portland/Brooklyn and Orlando/Phoenix – as these two games have the highest implied team totals (both over 220) and the fastest projected pace by a significant margin. Keep it simple tonight and I think if you focus your core build on these two games mentioned above you will have a safe floor with a massively high ceiling!

Damian Lillard ($10,000) will likely be the chalk point guard option with a match-up against Brooklyn but I think a strategic fade here may be a great way to differentiate yourself from the field. Last year in two games against the Nets in the same fast paced environment, Dame failed to top 40 FanDuel points in either game so although it is a scary fade, there is evidence that suggests it is the right move!

Elfrid Payton ($8,100) The Magic/Suns game should be chock full of fantasy goodness and with Payton back from injury this is the PERFECT spot to depoly him. For those of you new to the Elf DFS bandwagon, he is the perfect GPP play as he has massive upside due to his ability to contribute across the board statistically but he also has one of the most tenuois floors a high dollar PG can have. The Magic are expected to play in the highest paced game of the night so these are the kind of crazy game enviornments we want to target Elf in and I plan on having him locked into my lineups tonight!

Kyrie Irving ($9,000): Outside of the two high scoring Vegas totals, this Celtics team is one I plan to target heavily tonight not so much because of totals/pace/match-up but more because of what they do not have. Tonight the Celtics will be without Al Horford and potentially also Jayson Tatum so you are left with a team that played with an 8 man rotation last game and we all know Minutes = Money in DFS!

With Horford/Tatum off the floor, Kyrie has a 35% usage rate this season and with everyone flocking to Lillard for $1,000 more I love the idea of pivoting to Kyrie in a spot that he will be called upon to essentially be the Celtics offense.

FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guards:

C.J. McCollum ($7,300): If you are going to pivot off Lillard at point guard then the clear roster build is to lock in McCollum at SG and hope this is a CJ night for the Portland back court. If you look into the games from last year against Brooklyn, it was McCollum that was the dominant fantasy producer, leading his team in both games with 40 and 48 FanDuel points across the two contests. At this price point, I think McCollum actually has the better point per dollar output and gives you the same upside/match-up as Lillard for nearly $3k less in salary!

Devin Booker ($7,500): With Eric Bledsoe now officially a member of the Bucks, the Suns are officially the Devin Booker show and FanDuel seems content keeping his price in his mid $7k range which means he just becomes an easy plug and play for me each night!

Booker just continues to dominate the usage for Phoenix and his sheer volume of shot attempts gives him a relatively safe floor with massive upside. Booker has gone for 40+ FanDuel points in four of his last seven games and tonight the Suns who play at the second fastest pace in the NBA are actually projected to see a pace BOOST – which just adds to the upside we could see for Booker against a Magic team ranked 20th in DvP to opposing SG’s.

FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Picks:

Small Forward is an interesting position tonight as you have the clear top dog in Giannis at $11.8k versus San Antonio in a spot I expect most (including me) will opt to avoid given the combination of price and match-up but he makes for an intriguing GPP play as his ownership could be the lowest we see all season.

The mid-range/value is loaded at SF so I think this is the best place to focus on tonight as we have a variety of solid options. T.J. Warren ($6,800) and Evan Fournier ($6,800) sit at the same price but should be approached in completely different fashions in my opinion for GPP’s. Fournier is coming off one of his best games of the year with 47 FD points on the back of 5 steals (which I find unlikely he will get again) so while game log watchers flock to him again you could move to Warren who game log watchers will notice has failed to top 28 FD points in three of his last four!

Jaylen Brown ($5,500) just continues to be one of the safest plays at the position as he is locked into 30+ minutes a night for a short-handed Boston squad and he looks to be a cash game lock with his steady 27-30 FD point production each night (5x value). What we have not seen from Brown as much recently is his upside as he has failed to top 30 FanDuel points in all but three games this season but the price has come down to where I think we have profit potential tonight!

Evan Turner ($4,500) feels like the defacto cheap SF option on this slate as the price, guaranteed minutes and match-up with Brooklyn make him an easy plug and play. Turner is locked into 30 minutes a night for Portland and will take on a Nets team ranked 26th in DvP to opposing SF’s on the season. If you want exposure to Portland without breaking the bank – Turner is your guy!

FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Plays:

Aaron Gordon ($7,800): The Suns are ranked 26th in DvP to opposing PF’s and in a massive pace up spot, this is the kind of game environment that AG should absolutely thrive in! We saw earlier this season, in a similar game environment against Brooklyn (the other high paced team we can use as a comparison), Gordon dropped 41 points, 14 rebounds and 59.8 FanDuel points which shows you the kind of upside he has in this spot!

Marcus Morris ($5,200) and Aron Baynes ($4,800): With Al Horford OUT and Jayson Tatum questionable, the Celtics front court gives us the ability to lock in minutes at discounted price points. If Tatum misses this game, it would seem likely that Baynes and Morris represent the starting PF/C combo against a Hornets team that has the size to keep guys like Baynes on the court. Baynes saw his price jump after his 21 point, 8 rebound, 33 FD point outing even at this price point he would be at nearly 7x value with a similar outing tonight.

If you have the salary, Blake Griffin ($8,400) looks to be in a great spot tonight at a bargain price in a match-up against Carmelo Anthony. With DeAndre Jordan getting the Steven Adams treatment, I simply see no way Melo has the ability to slow down Griffin. In 10 career games head to head, Griffin has never scored less than 32 FD points against Melo and has put up 53 or more in three of those ten outings so if you can make room for him tonight, then he is well worth this price!

Center is loaded tonight so if you are looking to pay up then I would opt to utilize Nikola Vucevic ($8,400) who has put up 44+ FanDuel points in both his previous outings against the Suns last season. With so many great options, all below $9k, center is a great spot to mix and match tonight and differentiate your lineups. If you need another value option – do not be afraid to go back to Alex Len ($4,400) with Tyson Chandler questionable for tonight’s game!

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: Kyrie Irving ($9,000)

PG: Elfrid Payton ($8,100)

SG: C.J. McCollum ($7,300)

SG: Devin Booker ($7,500)

SF: Jaylen Brown ($5,500)

SF: Evan Turner ($4,500)

PF: Blake Griffin ($8,400)

PF: Marcus Morris ($5,200)

C: Alex Len ($4,400)

Slate Overview: If you opt to fade the obvious high dollar stud in Damian Lillard tonight then you can build a relatively balanced line-up with elite upside in 4-5 spots so this looks like my preferred route at the moment. Keep an eye on the news and adjust accordingly. Enjoy the night of DFS and let’s get some money!

Next: DraftKings NBA Picks

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