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NBA DFS Picks and Pivots – Thursday October 12

By Brian Tulloch

SHENZHEN, CHINA - OCTOBER 05: Jimmy Butler
SHENZHEN, CHINA - OCTOBER 05: Jimmy Butler /
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NBA DFS
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – OCTOBER 05: General view of game ball in a preseason NBA game between the Adelaide 36ers and the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena on October 5, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. 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 Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images) NBA DFS /

Welcome to the Friday edition of NBA DFS 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 NBA DFS Picks and Pivots is to give you a first look at the day’s NBA DFS slate, including our top picks, plays and pivots, using FantasyDraft pricing as a reference to help you build your best line-up and win big.

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.

Thursday’s NBA DFS was our first real Anthony Davis slate. Now if you are new to NBA DFS you may not know the joys of an Anthony Davis slate so let me break it down for you. AD when he is on, he a usage monster, capable of breaking a slate on any given night and we saw that upside last night with a 36 point, 15 rebound, 73 fantasy point night which was by far the best performance on the evening. However the AD experience does not stop there – we got the full AD last night as the tweets rolled out in the first quarter with “Anthony Davis heads to the locker room.” Now in this case it was apparently only a cut/blood issue that was quickly resolved but as we get ready for another NBA season, be prepared for a whole lot of “AD heads to the locker room” tweets this season!

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 help you identify the best slate strategy across your NBA DFS line-ups.

If you are looking to try out a new DFS site, head on over to FantasyDraft and enter my referral code for 10% rake back on your entries.

As always, we will look to update our final lineup thoughts throughout the day 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!

NBA DFS
HOUSTON, TX – SEPTEMBER 24: James Harden #13 of the Houston Rockets poses for a portrait during the Houston Rockets Media Day at The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston on September 24, 2018 in Houston, Texas. 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 Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

NBA DFS – Final Preseason Slate:

Tonight is the final preseason slate of the year before we fire things up for real on Tuesday – and with it being a 10 game slate, watching the news is going to be critical to unlocking some preseason profit. One of our writers at Fantasy CPR put this amazing resource together – a full list of beat reporters for each NBA team – and a highly recommend digging into this to help you track the NBA news for tonight and into the regular season.

If there is one team I feel confident building around in the preseason it is without a doubt the Houston Rockets. Take a stroll through the preseason stat leaders and sort on minutes per game – you will find five Rockets in the top 25 of MPG in the preseason, including James Harden, Chris Paul, PJ Tucker, Gerald Green and Carmelo Anthony.

Looking at the pre-game injury reports, the Rockets will be without Marquesse Chris and Eric Gordon is questionable but it sounds like the regulars will all be on the floor for this dress rehearsal tonight and as Mike Gallagher points out, this is a team not only playing heavy minutes but chucking threes at a league leading pace.

James Harden and Chris Paul are arguably the two best plays on the slate assuming they get their usual run as Harden specifically is getting the court time and usage (32.1% usage in the preseason) to put up monster numbers every single night. The nice thing about the rest of the Rockets like Carmelo Anthony ($11K) and PJ Tucker ($9.9K) is that they are priced low enough to give you significant salary relief and make a full on Rockets stack easy to build around.

With Eric Gordon and Michael Carter Williams both questionable, this could be a really nice spot for Gerald Green ($8.6K) as the primary bench guard for the Rockets tonight. Green is averaging over 27 minutes a game this preseason with over 8 3-point attempts per contest, checking in with similar minutes off the bench as both MCW and Gordon so if we get confirmation that both bench guards are out, it should further solidify Green as a high volume salary saving punt play.

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 01: Mitchell Robinson #26 of the New York Knicks and Kevin Knox #20 of the New York Knicks grab a rebound against the Washington Wizards during the first half of a preseason NBA game at Capital One Arena on October 01, 2018 in Washington, DC. 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 Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 01: Mitchell Robinson #26 of the New York Knicks and Kevin Knox #20 of the New York Knicks grab a rebound against the Washington Wizards during the first half of a preseason NBA game at Capital One Arena on October 01, 2018 in Washington, DC. 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 Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

NBA DFS – Filling out our roster:

As much as I expect the Rockets to use this final preseason game as a dress rehearsal, there are going to be many teams that opt to rest their regulars which will open up a ton of value and give us a route to a Stars and Scrubs NBA DFS roster build.

We already have confirmation that the Knicks will sit Enes Kanter tonight which puts impressive rookie Mitchell Robinson ($8.8K) into the starting line-up against the Brooklyn Nets – arguably the best match-up for any opposing center. We saw Kanter drop 20-20 against the Nets in the first preseason match-up between these two teams and with Robinson expected to get extended run to continue his development, this could be one of the best point per dollar plays on the slate.

The Bucks gave all their starters the night off in their last game so it is certainly plausible that tonight they opt for a more traditional regular season run against Minnesota. Giannis Antetokounmpo ($16.3K) is the most expensive play on the slate but with so much salary relief (Rockets fringe guys, Robinson etc), it is incredibly easy to fit in Giannis alongside Harden and CP3 if you chose to do so. In his last preseason game, Giannis went for 21 and 10 in only 27 minutes of court time – making him one of the highest upside plays on the slate if we get any sort of regular run.

The Timberwolves right now are a total disaster as they deal with this Jimmy Butler mess but sometimes, that craziness can bring out the best in players and tonight with the BUtler cloud hanging over them, Minnesota will also be without Andrew Wiggins.

Last season with Butler and Wiggins off the court, it should not shock anyone that Karl-Anthony Towns saw a 4% usage bump while averaging a team-high 1.3 FP/M. Without Wiggins and Butler on the court, the entire offense is going to run through KAT and with so much drama surrounding this team, possibly the best way to show your leadership would be to go out and dominate tonight. Narrative aside, the stats back this up as a great play due to the increased usage but really, we all know I am playing the narrative because that is how Picks and Pivots rolls!

We have news from the Denver Nuggets that Mike Malone is looking to play his starters regular minutes, with expected 30+ minutes and 4th Quarter run which could be gold against a poor defensive, fast-paced team like the Chicago Bulls. The entire starting five here – Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Paul Millsap, Will Barton and Gary Harris are in play here tonight.

We also now have news that the Lakers are going to rest LeBron James, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, Rajon Rondo and KCP meaning we get a starting unit of Lonzo Ball, Lance Stephenson, Kyle Kuzma, Michael Beasley and JaVale McGee and we have seen any time guys like Lance and Beasley get to dominate the usage that they have massive ceilings – they may be two of my favorite punt plays with this news.

NBA DFS
SHENZHEN, CHINA – OCTOBER 05: Jimmy Butler #23 and Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves talk to each other during the game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors as part of 2017 NBA Global Games China at Universidade Center on October 5, 2017 in Shenzhen, China. (Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images) /

NBA DFS – Sample Line-Up and Slate Overview:

Please note: The sample line-up noted here is illustrative ONLY and is not meant to be used as a plug and play line-up – it is simply an example based off the slate strategy outlined in the previous pages of this article. 

More from FanSided

G: James Harden ($15.5K)

G: Chris Paul ($14.2K)

G: Gerald Green ($8.6K)

F/C: Mitchell Robinson ($8.8K)

F/C: P.J. Tucker ($9.9K)

F/C: Carmelo Anthony ($11K)

UTIL: Giannis Antetokounmpo ($16.3K)

UTIL: Karl-Anthony Towns ($15.6K)

Slate Overview: The key tonight is just watching the news to see which teams opt to play a dress rehearsal and which are going to rest their starters. With 10 games on the slate there is going to be a ton of value that opens up so my initial though is that this sets up perfectly for a Stars and Scrubs type build. In the example above – putting in four studs like Harden/CP3/Giannis/KAT and then surrounding them with the value Rockets and Mitchell Robinson in NY gives you an incredibly high upside build with what we have seen is some significant minutes security.

Hopefully this preseason slates have helped you prepare for the start of the regular season which kicks-off Tuesday. With a whole season of NBA DFS ahead of us, Picks and Pivots will take the weekend off before we get ready for the real action on Tuesday – As Bart Scott says – CANT WAIT!

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Best of luck in your NBA DFS contests tonight and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all the latest DFS news and analysis all season long across FantasyDraft, DraftKings and FanDuel.