Fantasy Basketball Picks – Game by Game NBA DFS Breakdown – November 20

We’re back in action tonight with a smaller four NBA DFS game slate that brings us a lot of directions to go with our Fantasy Basketball Picks!

This is going to be a very fun NBA DFS slate as there is not a player over $10,000 on DraftKings so there are going to be a ton of ways to go with our Fantasy Basketball Picks. We have some injuries that we already know about and some others that we need to pay attention to during the day. It was a solid day yesterday so let’s keep it rolling today!

Fantasy Basketball Picks – Raptors at Magic

Pace Ranks – Raptors at 11th, Magic at 20th

Raptors Breakdown 

I haven’t played Kawhi Leonard all that much this season but the usage and FPPM is certainly there. He’s 14th in the NBA in usage overall and even in a pace down spot is fairly attractive tonight. The Magic don’t have a lot of bodies that could really defend him and Leonard’s rebounding percentage sits at 12.8 percent, easily a career high. That could be a spot that it shines through since the Magic are 24th in rebounding percentage this season.

Orlando is top 12 in points allowed so even though the Raptors are the better team, there are some limited spots to attack. Serge Ibaka has been playing well and will almost certainly see the floor quite a bit since he’ll be needed to deal with Nikola Vucevic on the other side. Ibaka has seen a very nice spike in points per game and rebounds per game thus far. Pascal Siakam has also evolved into a pretty reliable option most nights as well. Some of his minutes increase has been because Kawhi has missed some game but the improvement is hard to deny. It’s not something that we should carve in stone, but the Magic are allowing the fourth fewest assists per game to point guards. If that trend were to continue, it would hit Kyle Lowry‘s league leading assists per game pretty hard.

Personal Plays – Leonard, Ibaka

Players to Consider – Lowry, Siakam, Danny Green

Magic Breakdown 

Nikola Vucevic has been on some kind of tear to start the season and is sitting at 1.44 FPPM so far. Even though the Raptors have been stingy against the center position, I find myself not really sweating that. He’s averaging basically 20 and 11 on a nightly basis in just about 30 minutes per game. He can definitely accomplish that this evening.

That Brings us to Aaron Gordon, who has also been a reliable source of fantasy points with 1.06 FPPM and the Raptors are giving up the ninth most points to power forwards. Gordon is shooting over 72 percent from within five feet of the basket and the Raptors are giving up the tenth most shot attempts from that range. His price is still ver affordable. I generally don’t use many Magic players other than these two when they’re healthy as they are right now. Evan Fournier and Terrance Ross have some solid usage and FPPM but they’re clearly second fiddle. Neither has any matchup that screams you have to use them, but they’re names to know on a four game slate.

Personal Plays – Vucevic, Gordon

Players to Consider – Ross, Fournier

Fantasy Basketball Picks – Clippers at Wizards

Pace Ranks – Clippers at 9th, Wizards at 6th

Clippers Breakdown 

The Clippers are coming into a back to back situation and the biggest situation to monitor is whether Danilo Gallinari will sit again. He missed last night with an illness so it’s up in the air at best. If he does sit, Montrezl Harrell could be front and center once again. Already a wildly efficient player for FPPM with Gallo, he leaps to 1.42 without him in a 217 minute sample(not including last night). For reference, Joel Embiid is at 1.54 and is a $10,500-$11,000 player compared to $6,600 for Harrell tonight. Dwight Howard is questionable and the Wizards are already the worst rebounding team in the league. It’s a pace up spot for Harrell that I love once again. As of this writing, Harrell would be a total lock for me if Gallo is out and I want him regardless. Oh, he’s also coming off a game of almost 50 DK points last night.

Tobias Harris is safe under any circumstances but he’s obviously that much better without Gallo as well. Since the Clippers are on a back to back, nobody has been price differently like they should have if Gallo sits. Lou Williams is definitely still cheap enough to consider but Avery Bradley made his return to the lineup last night. He’s not exactly someone who affects Williams but it’s just another body in the rotation.

Personal Plays – Harrell, Harris

Players to Consider – Williams, Bradley, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Wizards Breakdown

Well, there’s not shortage of storylines for the Wizards coming into this game. For starters, John Wall reportedly got into a verbal sparring exchange with coach Scott Brooks yesterday. The Clippers are one of the juiciest matchups for point guards and Wall will continue to carry the load for the Wizards regardless of how he feels about the coach. His price is very reasonable and he makes for one of the better high-end spends this evening.

I haven’t been doing this article for long, but anytime I write for the Wizards, I always compare Wall and Bradley Beal. The usage is within two percent and the FPPM is within 0.15. Tonight sees Beal check in at a $1,200 cheaper price tag and also draws a very nice matchup. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with paring the both of them in any entry. Even if Dwight Howard sits, there’s no other player that rates higher than a 0.94 FPPM mark and that’s Kelly Obure.

Personal Plays – Beal, Wall

Players to Consider – Obure, Otto Porter, Jeff Green

Fantasy Basketball Picks – Blazers at Knicks 

Pace Ranks – Blazers at 15th, Knicks at 17th

Blazers Breakdown 

It’s hard to talk about the blazers in any game and not start with Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic. I might actually head down low first because I don’t believe that Enes Kanter cannot handle Nurkic in the paint. The Portland big man has taken 126 of 176 shot attempts from within five feet of the hoop and the Knicks are giving up the sixth highest field goal percentage in that range. Kanter has a -9.2 net rating, meaning the metrics agree that he’s a liability defensively. In addition, Portland is third in rebound percentage while the Knicks are 12th. The minutes are a little tough to bank on but when he gets them, he generally crushes his tag.

Lillard is carrying a huge FPPM and usage but is the highest priced player on the slate and the Knicks have been tough on point guards to this point. The place Lillard can make some hay tonight could be three point land. The Knicks allow the fourth highest field goal percentage while Lillard is taking 7.5 three’s a game. He also ranks 11th in the league in drives per game so he can take advantage of the Knicks inside as well. A player like Evan Turner can help fill out the lineup since he’s been running the second unit and getting around 25 minutes a game. He’s running the second unit because C.J. McCollum is mostly off the court with Lillard.

Personal Plays – Nurkic, Turner

Players to Consider – McCollum, Al-Farouq Aminu

Knicks Breakdown

I hope my man Brian Tulloch appreciates this because tonight might be the night that I play Tim Hardaway Jr. for the first time all year. Normally, THJ isn’t one of my favorite players to roster because it can generally be buckets or nothing. The key here is the Blazers are giving up the most actual points to small forwards of any team at 24.4 a game. That’s the kind of matchup you want to target with a player like Hardaway and there’s not a high-priced stud to fit in. Hardaway Jr. would be a nice build for a very balanced lineup. Past Hardaway, it’s little tough to peg a good cash game target. The minutes for the Knicks are all over the board and even Kanter himself is impossible. The last two games encapsulates it perfectly. In one spot, he got 38 minutes and mashed to 50 DK points. The game before that was 15 minutes for 15 DK points. The first game was mostly due to Mitchell Robinson getting into foul trouble so any Knick outside of Hardaway is a GPP play only.

Personal Plays – Hardaway Jr.

Players to Consider – Kanter, Robinson, Kevin Knox, Alonzo Trier

Fantasy Basketball Picks – Nets at Heat

Pace Ranks – Nets at 24th, Heat at 12th

Nets Breakdown 

If I knew that D’Angelo Russell would continue to see consistent minutes, I’d be happy to pay his price. Since I can’t guarantee that he’d see at least 30, Russell falls more into GPP than anything else although he’s shown what he can do with extended minutes these past two games. He’s gone for 38 and 50 Dk points and the Heat have given up the seventh most points to the point guard position. That also puts Spencer Dinwiddie on the radar since he is still getting plenty of minutes and managed to score 25 DK points even though he shot 3-16 from the field. I really don’t mind Jarret Allen in this spot either since he’ll be needed to help contain Hassan Whiteside. He’s seen at least 28 minutes n his past two games and at a 1.21 FPPM mark without Caris LeVert, is priced to cheaply.  The rest of the Nets are getting too few of minutes generally speaking to want to play them, provided everyone suits up for the game.

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Personal Plays – Russell, Dinwiddie, Allen

Players to Consider – Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Joe Harris, Ed Davis

Heat Breakdown

The biggest news for the Heat is that Goran Dragic will be out of this game and likely the couple after it as well. That means we get Josh Richardson taking over more ball handling duties and a nice usage of 27.1 percent. The FPPM isn’t spectacular at 1.02 and I think you can argue that he’s slightly overpriced in this matchup. He’s her to score over 40 DK points to really hit any type of value and I’m not entirely sure that’s a likely outcome. I would be more likely to turn to Tyler Johnson, who is just over $5,000, sees around 30-32 minutes and is at a 0.86 FPPM mark.

One of the other big decisions to make is Hassan Whiteside. Centers have absolutely smashed against the Nets this season and Whiteside is in the best possible spot. My issue with him is A. he just got this matchup and flopped relative to expectations and B. he’s been under 30 minutes the past four games. That would be tough to hit value at $8,000 even if he’s playing well. Even on a short slate, I don’t think Whiteside is 100% a must. James Johnson returned this past game but for now, it just makes an already deep rotation that much deeper.

Personal Plays – Johnson

Players to Consider – Richardson, Whiteside, Justice Winslow, Kelly Olynyk

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