FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots – Sunday December 3

Welcome to the Sunday 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!

Saturday’s split slate winning tournament line-ups scored 330 FanDuel points on the early slate with a mostly balanced roster approach where the Main Slate scored just under 390 on the back of big nights from Giannis Antetokounmpo, Tyreke Evans and Andre Drummond!

Over the first 45 NBA regular season slates it has taken 380.7 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:

Welcome to a four game Sunday Funday Main Slate that is frankly a tad bit ugly and a whole lot of confusing! Of the four games on the slate, three of them have double-digit spreads with significant blow-out risk attached and the fourth game is a low scoring pace down game for both teams. So yeah, good luck figuring this out – see you Monday!

Just kidding – let’s try to figure this out!

As I mentioned, we have three games with double-digit spreads so we have to try to balance the blow-out risk here when building our rosters as if we pick the wrong game/stars to roster we are going to be left watching the cash line pass us by.

The Rockets/Lakers have the highest game total but with the Lakers playing on the tail end of a back to back, flying from the high altitude of Denver back to LA, this could be a spot where they simply get blown off the floor against a fully healthy Rockets team. The Clippers are on a tail end of a back to back against Minnesota after getting blown out by the high-octane offense of the Dallas Mavericks (yikes) which leaves us with Golden State at Miami, the only double-digit spread game where the underdog is not playing on the tail end of a back to back.

As such I think the Warriors stars are the ones we should look to pay up for on this slate, starting with Stephen Curry ($9,900) who despite a hand injury has logged 39 and 33 minutes in his last two games while racking up 40 and 50 FanDuel points in those contests. The match-up with Miami is a pace down spot for the Warriors so under normal circumstances we could try to avoid this spot but as you will quickly find there is no “safe” game to build around and I will simply opt to ride the Warriors on the road against the one underdog who had Saturday off!

Jeff Teague ($6,600): I know I mentioned that the Clippers were traveling from Dallas to Minnesota after getting throttled by the Mavericks yesterday which in theory would take the Timberwolves starters out of consideration but I actually think this is a sneaky team stack to build around today.

If there is one thing we can count on in DFS, it is that Minnesota will play their starters ALOT, with one of the tightest rotations in the entire NBA and that kind of safety minutes wise is actually really intriguing on this four game slate.

Even in games where Minnesota is blowing out the opposition, we have seen their starters still play their normal allotment of minutes. Looking back at the November 29th game against the Pelicans, the Wolves held a 17 point lead going into the fourth quarter – yet the starters played 33+ minutes a piece in that game even with the outcome seemingly in hand.

Teague has returned from an injury, stepped right back into the starting line-up and played 34 minutes against OKC while Tyus Jones managed only 11 minutes despite his recent play. We saw the Mavericks guards absolutely destroy this Clippers back court yesterday so Teague feels underpriced considering his match-up and role!

FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks:

Dion Waiters ($6,000): The Heat see one of the biggest pace increases of any team in action today so having some correlation with Steph Curry at PG makes a ton of sense in tournaments where you want to build around a game environment you are hoping stays close. Waiters is the kind of high volume shooter/scorer that could break a slate, especially in a higher paced game like this and considering he is averaging over 14 FGA and 8 3PA over his last three games shows the kind of upside he has if he gets hot! The game logs on Waiters are relatively underwhelming so I do not anticipate the ownership will be high here and Waiters at this price points could absolutely crush value if his shot is falling.

Andrew Wiggins ($6,700): For every reason I want Jeff Teague, the same logic applies to Andrew Wiggins who has put up at least 14 shot attempts in eight straight games and has played 35+ minutes in every single one of those contests! The Clippers are ranked 27th in DvP versus opposing SF’s on the seasons so this is a match-up we can look to exploit at a reasonable price point. If you want to pivot to Klay Thompson ($7,000) against Miami and stack up the Warriors offense that is a viable strategy in a game stack roster build.

The biggest questions at this position are how do you want to handle James Harden ($12,200) and/or Lou Williams ($8,100). As much as I love The Beard, I think this price point is simply too high considering the risk of blow-out and the increasing role of Chris Paul which is drawing down the usage of Harden as he gets healthier with each game. Low Will has been a fade for me every slate since Blake Griffin went down and it is working out beautifully. Listen, the volume and usage are off the charts with Griffin off the court but this price point is just too high! In the two games that Griffin has been out, Williams has put up 33 and 26 FanDuel points and now will have Jimmy Butler defense – NO THANK YOU!

FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Plays:

Jimmy Butler ($8,700): Rinse and repeat – Butler like his teammates is locked into major minutes and usage/volume and gets matched up with Lou Williams defense? Let’s do it! Butler has put up 40+ FanDuel points in three of his last four games and just continues to be locked into massive minutes for Minnesota each and every night. The Clippers are ranked 29th in DvP and 24th in Def-Eff against the position so this is a match-up Butler can easily exploit and the price point is reasonable enough where I can get 40 point floor with 50 point upside!

Josh Richardson ($5,000) and Justise WInslow ($3,800): Depending on your salary constraints, the Heat SF eligible duo on FanDuel is a great way to save salary while locking in massive minutes in a pace up game environment. Richardson is coming off one of his best games of the year when he scored 27 points and put up 34.9 FD points and continues to play 30 minutes consistently for the Heat. His scoring ability is something Miami will need if they intend on keep it close today with Golden State so locking in him and Waiters at SG is a great way to target players with high volume scoring ability in the hope they can keep this game close and get the correlation with Curry on the other side.

Winslow is the far less sexy pick but this is a player we can count on for minutes, especially considering he will be tasked with chasing around Kevin Durant today. Winslow played well in this match-up earlier this season, racking up 6 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 24 FD points which would exceed 6.3x value at this price point while giving you the salary savings to pay up elsewhere!

FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks:

James Johnson ($5,700): With Hassan Whiteside off the court, Neck Tat is going to be a guy we can look to often in the right game environment and this spot against the Warriors sets up perfectly for this skill-set. The Warriors love to go small and neutralize the opposition’s big man (making Bam a big time fade) which sets up for JJ to log major minutes in the Heat front court. All you have to do is look back at the first meeting between these two where Johnson put up 50 FanDuel points on the back of 21 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals to see the kind of impact he can have in a pace up spot like this – Johnson at under $6k will be in every line-up I make today. If you think this game stays small (like I do) – I think you could also pair JJ with Kelly Olynk ($5,000) and stack both of the Miami PF’s!

Jerami Grant ($3,700): All Grant does is produce and nobody plays this guy! Grant was 1% owned in GPP’s on Friday night and responded with a 23 FanDuel point outing which would give him 6.2x value at this price, marking the second straight game he has hit GPP value! If you want a pivot play at the same price, you can easily move to a guy like Jordan Bell ($3,900) who is coming off a massive 33 FD point outing against Orlando in only 15 minutes on the back of 3 blocked shots and continues to flash GPP winning upside at a punt price!

DeAndre Jordan ($7,500): Jordan dropped a 40 spot yesterday in limited minutes and saw his price go down $200 from yesterday! Normally DJ is not a player I look to roster in DFS because he tends to lack the scoring upside I look for but the match-up today against KAT and Minnesota puts him squarely in play for me. Towns is ranked dead last in DRPM among all Centers and Minnesota is ranked 24th in DvP against the position and DJ crushed this match-up last year as he logged 40, 50 and 56 FD points in three games against Minnesota last season!

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: Stephen Curry ($9,900)

PG: Jeff Teague ($6,600)

SG: Andrew Wiggins ($6,700)

SG: Dion Waiters ($6,000)

SF: Jimmy Butler ($8,700)

SF: Josh Richardson ($5,000)

SF: James Johnson ($5,700)

PF: James Johnson ($5,700)

PF: Jordan Bell ($3,900)

C: DeAndre Jordan ($7,500)

Slate Overview: I have to be honest, this is not a slate I love – I think you are going to be forced to take stands and make fades and hope the games you zero in on do not blow out. It is a tournament only kind of day where I think you make a few line-ups for GPP’s and enjoy the slate while your football Sunday winds down! Good luck all!

Next: FanDuel NFL Picks - Week 13

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