FanDuel NBA Picks and Pivots – Thursday December 7

Welcome to the Thursday 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!

Wednesday’s winning tournament line-ups eclipsed the 400 FanDuel points mark on the back of two massive DFS performances from the studs of the night as Kevin Durant (66) and DeMarcus Cousins (78) were not only the chalk plays but the necessary cornerstones to being above the cash line. The best secondary play of the night was Zach Randolph who dropped 48 FanDuel points on the back of 18 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals at only $5.9k.

Over the first 49 NBA regular season slates it has taken 381.3 FanDuel points on average to take down a GPP which means on a $60,000 salary cap, we need 6.4x 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:

Russell Westbrook ($11,500): For a four game slate this is a pretty fascinating one from a roster build perspective as we have multiple studs in elite game environments which makes a Stars and Scrubs build my preferred route at first glance. Westbrook and the Thunder take on the Nets which would seem like an absolute lock and load play considering the massive pace/point boost the Thunder get in this spot but there is one interesting caveat.

You may be wondering why a game “At Brooklyn” would be kicking off at 10PM EST – well, this game is actually taking place in Mexico City and there is an intriguing wrinkle to this venue. This game will take place at an extreme altitude, nearly 7,500 feet above sea level which is over 2,000 feet HIGHER than games in Denver.

With the increased altitude there is always worry about how players bodies will react, especially a high energy guy like Westbrook and that concern may be enough to keep people from focusing on this game tonight. The flip side is that point guard is UGLY on this slate so paying up for Westbrook may be a necessary route considering the match-up against a Brooklyn team ranked 25th in DvP and 24th in Def-Eff versus the PG position!

Jerryd Bayless ($3,600): Finding the right Scrub at PG to pair with Westbrook is no easy task as I expect most will flock towards someone like Tyler Ulis ($4,900) if they are going cheap at point guard tonight but I want to go uber Stars/Scrubs and therefore I am scraping the bottom of the barrel!

There is some injury news we need to watch tonight as TJ McConnell and Dario Saric are both questionable to play which would shorten the Sixers rotation and seemingly open up more bench minutes for guys like Bayless. The one thing Bayless has going for him is that he has relatively safe minutes, playing 20+ minutes in seven straight games and putting up 20+ FanDuel points in two of those outings.

This match-up with the Lakers tonight is a juicy one as it has the highest projected point total AND highest projected pace so getting as creative as you can with exposure to this spot may be the way to differentiate yourself from the herd on a four game tournament slate!

FanDuel NBA – Top Shooting Guard Picks:

Bradley Beal ($8,600): Even though James Harden (at Utah) is on this slate, the SG I am going out of my way to roster tonight is Bradley Beal, who is coming off a monster 55.6 FD point performance in his last game and now gets an early Christmas present as he matches up with the Phoenix Suns. The Wizards have the second highest team total and see the largest pace boost of any team on this slate and with Beal set to face off with a Suns team ranked dead last in team DvP and Def-Eff, the ceiling is massive again for him tonight.

Troy Daniels ($3,700): Shooting guard has some interesting punt value plays to target tonight but no team presents more potential value tonight than the Phoenix Suns who will be without Devin Booker for the next 2-3 weeks due to injury! Anytime you lose a guy like Booker who has a 32% usage rate and is putting up 20 shot attempts a night, this open up massive opportunity across the rest of the line-up and I think Daniels is poised to play a big role for Phoenix.

We only have one game to go off this year where Booker sat and in that game, SF Josh Jackson ($4,600) entered the starting line-up but it was Daniels who played 31 minutes off the bench for Phoenix! Daniels seems like the perfect punt option on this slate as he is seemingly locked into 20+ minutes and with the amount of usage/volume off the court for Phoenix with Booker sidelined, I love the GPP upside of a scorer like Daniels!

The one thing I will say at SG is for large field GPP’s James Harden ($11,500) makes for a really interesting play as I suspect he will be the lowest owned of the studs on the slate and will take on a Utah team he destroyed for 77 FanDuel points the last time they met! If we get the feeling that The Beard will be over-looked tonight, it makes a ton of sense to build around him as a tournament pivot!

FanDuel NBA – Top Small Forward Plays:

Small Forward is the one position I do not see a must play stud, although the case can certainly be made for T.J. Warren ($8,100) without Booker on the court against a Washington team he dropped 61.5 FanDuel points against earlier this season!

With our salary priorities elsewhere, Small Forward could be an interesting position to double punt as we have some plays at near minimum price who are locked into major minutes which gives us some relative security when looking for Scrubs for our Stars/Scrubs build!

Joe Harris ($3,800): Even with the Nets back at full health now (less DeAngelo Russell of course), we continue to see Harris play massive minutes off the bench for the Nets, logging 26 or more minutes in five straight games even with the return of guys like Booker, RHJ and Crabbe, adding to the Nets depth. Over his last seven games, Harris is averaging over 21 FD points per game (5.5x value) and will step into a high scoring game environment with the Thunder tonight!

P.J. Tucker ($3,700): Tucker is one of those punt plays that you don’t go into a build targeting but he works as a steady last man in kind of play that gives you stability at this bargain price. Tucker has played 20+ minutes in seven straight games and has put up 17 or more FD points in six of those outings and has hit at least 5x value in five of those seven outings.

Josh Jackson ($4,600): If you have the salary, Jackson makes for an elite mid-range play as the likely starter for the Suns who has shown elite upside when give the minutes this season. I do think he will become the popular value option tonight so a potential GPP fade is in play here as Jackson has been volatile this season even in games he got extended run like his previous start against Minnesota when he only put up 15 FD points!

Last but not least – do not chase the Thabo Sefolosha ($4,200) 38.6 FanDuel point game unless you think he is going to get ANOTHER 6 blocks/steals. Stay away Picks and Pivoters!

FanDuel NBA – Top Power Forward and Center Picks:

Joel Embiid ($10,800) and Ben Simmons ($10,500): With a match-up at home against the Lakers, these two may end up being the two highest owned studs on the slate and for VERY good reason. In the last meeting against this Lakers team, Embiid went BONKERS for 93.5 FanDuel points on the back of 46 points, 15 boards, 7 assists and 7 blocked shots. Simmons was no slouch either, racking up 60.8 FanDuel points with 18 points, 9 rebounds, 10 assists and 5 steals and frankly this stack feels like the first move you should make tonight!

The Sixers check every box tonight as they have the highest team total, are playing in the fastest paced game and see a massive pace boost – so this could be a spot like we saw yesterday with KD and Boogie where you simply eat the chalk and let the people who play the “strategic fade” watch as they set the cash line on their own!

If you go into tonight with Embiid/Simmons/Westbrook/Beal as your core four then it leaves you with only $3.7K per player to fill out the rest of your roster which means you need to find players that can get you 19-23 FD points across the rest of your roster. Power Forward actually has some interesting players at this price point which makes this a great spot to mix and match if you are mutli-entering tonight!

Jonas Jerebko ($3,800) continues to play minutes even with Rudy Gobert back and has now played 20+ minutes in five straight games as the lone back-up big for the Jazz behind Gobert/Favors. Jerami Grant ($3,700) is always in play for me as a punt PF as he seemingly never gets ownership (was single digit owned last slate again) and is locked into minutes in a fast paced game environment against Brooklyn where his blocks/steals upside could win you a tournament.

Marqueese Chriss ($3,700), Jared Dudley ($3,700) and Mike Scott ($3,700) are all options to use in a Phoenix/Washington stack as Scott (23.1) and Chriss (35) put up massive numbers in the first meeting between these two teams this season. Roll the dice at PF today as we have a ton of options in this range to fill out your roster with minute security and demonstrated GPP upside!

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: Russell Westbrook ($11,500)

PG: Jerryd Bayless ($3,600)

SG: Bradley Beal ($8,600)

SG: Troy Daniels ($3,700)

SF: Joe Harris ($3,800)

SF: P.J. Tucker ($3,700)

PF: Ben Simmons ($10,500)

PF: Marquesse Chriss ($3,700)

C: Joel Embiid ($10,800)

Slate Overview: Stars and Scrubs is the name of the game for this slate as I think you need to force in 3-4 studs on this slate as the spots are simply too good to pass up. You have guys in Embiid, Simmons, Westbrook and Beal that could put up 50-60 points easily with clear upside for more and there is enough early value centered around guys with 20+ minutes of guaranteed court time which makes them feel like less of a pure GPP dart throw. Keep an eye on the news and remember this slate does not kick off until 8 PM EST so we have some time before lock!

Next: DraftKings NBA Picks

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