FanDuel NBA DFS Breakdown: Tuesday, October 30

FanDuel NBA DFS Breakdown: Tuesday, October 30

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of FanDuel NBA GPP Plays. I’m “Thunder Dan” and I love NBA DFS more than Kanye love Kanye  All kidding aside, my goal every day is to give you my top targets every night for GPP contests on FanDuel.  When making these picks I always take into account salary, ownership, and match-up and I always do my best to give you a clear rationale for why I believe each player makes an elite GPP target.

Punting one or two roster spots has appeared to be a very viable strategy on every slate this year, it simply allows you to roster more 7k+ players with higher floors and ceilings.  My best FanDuel NBA lineups have been made using this strategy and I guarantee if you start looking at winning GPP lineups in the tournaments you’re entering you’ll see others who are doing it, too.

We have an eight-game slate tonight.  With no double-digit spreads, there are plenty of good games to attack and only three games have really big totals of 224 points or more.  There’s definitely one game I really want to stack (more on that later).  We had some success here yesterday with Kyle Lowry (who I was on before he became chalk), DeMar DeRozan, and my man Nemanja Bjelica. Let’s see if we can keep it rolling today.

I mentioned on Twitter the other day that I consider these high totals to be “the new norm” in the NBA and we’re going to continue to see points scored an incredible rate all year.  Even with only 8 spots counting on FD, winning GPP lineups are topping 350 FD points with regularity, which means we’re looking for an average of 40-50 points from those 8 players in our lineups.

"The key to winning a GPP on any given night is finding players who hit their ceilings.  5x or even 6x value is not enough. We want 7x or better from players in order to take down GPP contests."

This is a first look article, so always remember to check Twitter for injury updates, quotes from coaches about playing time, and so on as lock approaches.  If you’re not following some NBA beat writers for the latest news, you should at least be getting push notifications to your phone when players are declared out with injuries. NBA DFS is an information game and having access to all the information you need right up until lineup-lock is crucial to making sure your lineups have a chance at being in contention when the west coast games wrap up in the wee hours of the morning.  Let’s get to the breakdown!

FanDuel NBA DFS: GPP Point Guards

High Priced Option: Kemba Walker (9000)

I’m going to try to keep my analysis short and sweet today (which can be a challenge for me). Kemba’s usage continues to rise and is now up to 36% on the season (higher than Russell Westbrook, people!). I’m not worried about the matchup with Miami, they aren’t the defensive stalwart they were in years past and just gave up 120 points to the Kings last night. I’ll happily make Kemba the centerpiece of my lineups tonight for 3k less than Westy costs and hope he can give me 50+ FD points.

Mid-Tier Option: Trae Young (7100)

Tonight feels like the perfect night to get back on the Trae train. The buzz has died down on him since his 55.9 FD point performance against the Cavs four games ago and his price is back down to where we can really profit.  His usage rate is still a healthy 26% and he’s averaging well over a fantasy point-per-minute. The Cavs-Hawks total is the highest on the slate and the spread is only four points. Both teams are bad defensively and I definitely want a piece of that game in most of my lineups.

Value Options: Shai Gilgeous Alexander (4600), Collin Sexton (4800)

FanDuel NBA DFS: GPP Shooting Guards

High Priced Option: NONE

Mid-Tier Options:  Buddy Hield (6600) and Kent Bazemore (6300)

With Harden out tonight and Bradley Beal being over 8k against Memphis, I’m looking to the mid-tier for my shooting guard spots tonight.

Don’t look now, but Buddy Hield is heating up. He’s scored 22 or more real-life points in three straight games and has an excellent matchup against Orlando tonight in a game that I think we can stack up.  I worry about using jump shooters on back-to-backs, but it’s hard to ignore the upside that Hield has with his ability to score and also rebound (5 or more boards in all but one game). He’s played 35 minutes or more in his last three games and seems to finally have earned his minutes back. This price is just too cheap.

Kent Bazemore is a DFS enigma and trying to predict when he will go off can be maddening. But I am going to try anyway!  He loves to torture the Cavs (trust me, I’ve watched it over and over again) and he already went for 39 FD points against them in their first meeting. He’s averaged a cool 15-6-5-1-1 against Cleveland in his last five games against them. He’s also averaging a combined 2.5 blocks/steals this season which gives him serious upside for tourneys. Baze-more, not less!

Value Options: Dennis Schroder (5200), J.J. Redick (4900), Jordan Clarkson (4400)

FanDuel NBA DFS: GPP Small Forwards

High Priced Option: Kawhi Leonard (9800)

Hopefully, Kawhi is well rested for tonight because the Raptors will need him to have a big game in a matchup against the Sixers.  The Raps lost last night but should be in a good spot to put up points tonight against a fast-paced Sixers team. Kawhi is a major matchup problem for them and I think he could justify being the highest priced SF with a big performance tonight.

Mid-Tier Options: Nemanja Bjelica (6500), Danilo Gallinari (6300)

I can’t help but mention Bjelica again tonight since his price went up only 200 dollars and he went for 40+ FD points again last night for his third big game in a row. I love the Sacto-Orlando game stack tonight and Bjelica is an affordable piece with major upside in that matchup.

Gallinari feels really underpriced tonight in another game with a high total (224) and close spread (OKC only 2.5 point favorites).  His game log might not look like much lately, but the Clippers have blown out their opponents in the last two games leading to Gallo only playing 21 and 26 minutes. He’s still averaging well over a fantasy point-per-minute and has a healthy 25% usage rate.

Value Options: Evan Turner (4800), Jeff Green (4000)

FanDuel NBA DFS: GPP Power Forwards

High Priced Option: NONE

Mid-Tier Options: Larry Nance Jr. (6600), Montrez Harrell (5700)

With Kevin Love on the shelf, it looks like Larry Nance is in a great position to have another big night for the Cavs. While he’s not starting, he’s still getting 21% usage off the bench and putting up an elite 1.32 fantasy points-per-minute. He’s simply too cheap for his upside if he gets 25-30 minutes against the woeful Hawks interior defense tonight.

Montrez is my dude and like Nance, he’s a usage monster off the bench for the Clippers.  He’s an elite per-minute fantasy player and all he needs is 25 minutes to smash value at this price. He was well on his way to another big outing on Sunday until the game got out of hand and he was limited to 16 minutes. Don’t hesitate to use him again tonight as I think he plays most of the minutes down the stretch for the Clippers in a competitive game.

Value Option:  Pascal Siakam (4400)

FanDuel NBA DFS: GPP Centers

High Priced Option: Nikola Vucevic (8800)

Vuc is in a great spot tonight against Sacramento, a team on a back-to-back that just gave up a 60-burger to Hassan Whiteside last night. His 25% usage and elite 1.54 fantasy points-per-minute are the highest among centers not named Joel Embiid. He’s my favorite spend up at Center tonight and I think he could easily be the highest scorer at the position.

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Mid-Tier Option: Willie Cauley-Stein (7100)

Staying in the same game, we have WCS who is coming off a massive 26-13 game against Miami last night. While Vucevic is a talented offensive player, I love attacking him with opposing centers so if you can’t afford Vuc in your lineup tonight then it makes sense to pivot to WCS.

Value Option: Nerlens Noel (3900) if Adams is out

FanDuel NBA DFS: Sample Lineup and Slate Overview

The priority spends for me are at Point Guard and Center tonight, while I’ll be looking to use some mid-tier options at Shooting Guard and some value options at Small Forward and Power Forward. Remember, any slate can change in a hurry with injury news that comes out during the day (we saw that yesterday) so don’t get locked into a lineup too early in the day. Always make sure you are able to adjust your builds as lock approaches to maximize your lineups’ potential.

PG: Kemba Walker

PG: Trae Young

SG: Buddy Hield

SG: Kent Bazemore

SF: Nemanja Bjelica

SF: Evan Turner

PF: Pascal Siakam

PF: Montrez Harrell

C: Nikola Vucecic

Ok, that’s all I got for you this morning. Make sure you check @FantasyCPR for all of our other FREE NBA DFS content today and good luck in your contests!