FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Tuesday, Jan 8 – Sabonis Will Dominate

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Tuesday, 1/8

Welcome back to the Tuesday edition of the FanDuel NBA Breakdown! I’m “Thunder Dan” and I love playing and writing about FanDuel NBA DFS.   Breaking down these slates for our FantasyCPR readers is a lot of fun and I hope you like some of the changes I’ve made to the Breakdown.  I’m trying to create an all-inclusive article that gives you a place to start your research for FanDuel NBA cash games and GPPs.

When making my cash and GPP 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 a great GPP or cash target. Tonight we have a solid 8-game main slate on FanDuel with a ton of potential for cash games and GPPs.

"The FanDuel NBA Breakdown is a first look article that is intended to be a starting point for your cash game or GPP research for FanDuel NBA DFS."

If you’ve read this article before you’ll still recognize some of the same sections like my “value plays,“ core plays,” and “Game Stack of the Night.” I also will still include a sample lineup at the end of each article for either cash or GPP depending on what the slate looks like that particular night.

I’m trying to take a big picture look at the slate and give you a place to start your research, whether you’re a cash game player, GPP player or both (like me, I play both just about every night!)

There will be information that comes out during the day that will likely push us onto certain plays or off others.  My best advice is to never settle on a lineup too early in the day, and this particular slate has a lot of questions that need to be answered before we have a really clear picture of who we want to roster.  Let’s take a closer look at what tonight’s NBA slate has to offer!

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: 8-Game Slate

Injury Report

OUT: Derrick Rose, Goran Dragic, Kent Bazemore, Will Barton, Robert Covington, Taurean Prince, Rodney Hood, Markieff Morris, Cody Zeller, Jonas Valanciunas

QUESTIONABLE: Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, Devin Booker, Jeremy Lamb, Iman Shumpert, Myles Turner

The biggest news to watch here is the status of Devin Booker, Myles Turner, and Jeremy Lamb as their impacts on their teams’ rotations are major if they can’t go tonight. Also, note that both Indiana point guards have Q tags so we could even see a guy like Aaron Holiday have some value.

Vegas Data

***Right now the Clippers-Hornets and Warriors-Knicks games both have the highest total on the slate at 230.5.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if Philadephia-Washington or Phoenix-Sacramento came in even higher once we get those totals.

***There’s some serious blowout concern tonight, with the Warriors (-18), Raptors (-14.5), and Pacers (-10) all being double-digit favorites.

***The Heat host the Nuggets in the game that is projected to be the tightest contest on the night, with Miami being 1.5 point favorites at home. The Nuggets lost to the Rockets last night, but are a really good team and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that line move during the day.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Cash Game Core

Welcome to the new cash game core plays section of the Breakdown!  I’ve been giving you core plays now for a few weeks, but I wanted to start giving you a solid trio of players to start building your cash game lineups with. If you’re not playing cash games on a nightly basis to keep your bankroll up, then you run the risk of running out of funds to use for those more exciting GPP contests.

Jeff Teague (7200)

Teague will have one more game with the point guard position to himself as Derrick Rose won’t lace them up tonight. He also won’t have his ex-coach, Tom Thibodeau, on the sidelines so we should watch this T-Wolves rotation with interest to see how interim coach Ryan Saunders rotates his players. Teague has been downright spectacular in his two games since returning from injury, going over 40 FanDuel points in both games despite playing only 28 minutes in each.  He has a solid 27% usage rate with Rose and Covington out and is producing at a 1.46 FPPM rate in that situation.

T.J. Warren (6200)

Warren’s price didn’t budge from Sunday’s slate, despite the fact that he had 44 FanDuel points in 37 minutes. He’s just so underpriced for a guy who scores 20+ real-life points with regularity. If Booker misses tonight’s game then Warren will be asked to put up a lot of shots and has the highest usage rate on the team with Booker off the floor. The Suns are also getting paced up by the Kings tonight and there should be plenty of points in that game.

Domantas Sabonis (7100)

With Myles Turner missing practice and sounding very iffy for tonight’s game, I’m locking my man crush Sabonis into cash lineups. The Pacers are big favorites and there’s no reason for them to rush Turner back tonight. Sabonis is a 1.38 FPPM player with Turner off the floor and he’s should make value easily tonight in 25-30 minutes.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Top GPP Plays

Joel Embiid (11500)

Embiid is my favorite to stud to pay up for tonight. He gets a matchup with a Washington team that has been hammered by centers all year and he’s been rolling lately with 50+ FanDuel points in five straight including a 62 and 77 in that stretch. I feel bad for poor Thomas Bryant who is going to be tasked with trying to guard “The Process.”

Paul George (10000)

I’m becoming a Paul George fanboy lately, as it seems he makes my article nearly every time he plays anymore. I’m not about to stop playing him just because he had one mediocre game and I think he could outscore both Kawhi and KD at the small forward position tonight at lower ownership. I’m going to keep rolling PG13 out there and you should consider doing the same. He’s playing at an all-star level and is primed to bounce back tonight in a big way.

Otto Porter (4900)

Otto is back in a big way! He’s slowly being allowed more minutes, playing 21 and 23 in his last two games so one would think he’d be cleared for 25 minutes tonight. That should be plenty of time for him to do some damage. He’s been incredibly efficient so far, averaging 1.73 FPPM in his last two games.

He’s an absolute steal at this price even if he’s not going to play his full allotment of minutes yet. The Wizards desperately need his shooting and playmaking and coming off the bench and having his minutes staggered with Bradley Beal is probably a good thing for his usage.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Value Plays

For our purposes here at the Breakdown, we classify players priced at 5000 or less as “value plays.” Identifying value has been crucial this year on FanDuel as the new “drop score” rule has forced us into playing a lot of “stars and scrubs” rosters in both cash and GPP formats.

Josh Jackson (4100)

Jackson played 32 minutes off the bench in the Suns’ last game after Devin Booker got hurt. He’s crazy cheap today and if Booker is out, I expect to see him become a chalky cash game play. It’s hard to argue against using though, he’s been playing lately after being really consistent for most of the season.

Daniel Hamilton (3700)

Hamilton is a rangy rookie who’s been filling in on the wing for Atlanta since both Bazemore and Prince have been out. He had his best game as a Pro on Sunday, putting up a 9-8-6 line in 23 minutes. He’s grabbing a lot of boards per minute and doesn’t need to do much else besides make a few shots to hit value.

Willy Hernangomez (5100) and Bismack Biyombo (4000)

The Hornets big men have been alternating big games since Cody Zeller went down with an injury. Biyombo has started the last two games, but it was Hernangomez who came off the bench and had a better outing. Both are worth a shot here in a solid matchup with the Clippers in a game that we’re going to want to target.

Jeremy Lin (4600)

Lin has been a stat machine so far this season, averaging over a fantasy point-per-minute. The problem is he doesn’t see more than 16-22 minutes in most games. Even so, he’s still gone over 20 FanDuel points in five of his last six games.

Kevon Looney (4600)

I feel like I write up Looney on nearly every slate, but the guy just cranks out 25 FanDuel points on such a consistent basis. If you’re punting center and don’t want to guess on the wrong Hornets guy then Looney is likely a safer bet.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Game Stack of the Night

Minnesota (+8) @ Oklahoma City (227 total)

Minnesota comes into OKC with something to prove tonight. They’ve got a new coach and are still only two games under .500 despite dealing away one of their best players in Jimmy Butler and dealing with a litany of injuries. They might be eight-point dogs, but I like them to keep this close to the end and maybe even beat the Thunder, who have got the better of them in their first two meetings.

This game is fun to stack because we know exactly where most of the offense on each side is coming from tonight. Russell Westbrook (11800) and Paul George are the two Thunder players that you start your builds with. They both scored about 50 FanDuel points in their last meeting with the Wolves which ended up being only a two-point victory for OKC.

On the Minnesota side, we have three viable targets in Jeff Teague, Andrew Wiggins (6500) and Karl-Anthony Towns (11000).  You’ll be hard-pressed to fit Westy, PG13, and Towns into a build unless we get a lot of value that opens up, but I do think you can fit two of those three pretty comfortably.  And if you just use Westy OR George, you can also squeeze Teague and Wiggins in easily as they are some strong mid-tier plays.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Sample Lineup and Overview

A lot will be riding on the status of Myles Turner and Devin Booker. Obviously, Warren and Sabonis are solid plays even if Turner and Booker play, but if they miss then we are looking at some solid mid-range chalk that we can build around. Jeff Teague is a lock for me and Andrew Wiggins should also probably be one of the first names you click into that cash game lineup.

More from FanSided

• Caesars and PointsBet Promo Codes: $1,750 Bonus For ANY World Cup or MLB Game!
• Thunder projected lineup and rotations heading into 2023-24 season
• NWSL Challenge Cup news: Courage ruthless against Washington, Racing remain perfect
• 2023 Women’s World Cup: Ary Borges and Brazil showed the entire world what they are about
• Trea Turner’s rough season goes from bad to worse

I always like punting one or two spots on FanDuel with this year’s new “drop score” rule. Playing a lineup of all 5-7k players just makes zero sense to me and you’ll find that the guys winning consistently on FanDuel are going “stars and scrubs” pretty frequently.

Today’s sample lineup is a GPP Tournament lineup. You’ll find some of my cash core players in here as well as my GPP plays, too.  I’m going Teague-Wiggins-George correlation today as well as an Embiid-Porter pairing.

Remember, the sample lineup is for illustrative purposes and is not necessarily a “plug-and-play” lineup. There’s still a lot of injury information we need before 7:00 PM tonight when lineups lock.

PG: Jeff Teague (7200)
PG: Jeremy Lin (4600)
SG: Malik Beasley (4000)
SG: Andrew Wiggins (6500)
SF: Paul George (10000)
SF: Otto Porter (4900)
PF: Domantas Sabonis (7100)
PF: Josh Jackson (4100)
C: Joel Embiid (11500)

Ok, that wraps it up! I hope you enjoyed my slate breakdown and I appreciate you taking the time to read my article. Be sure to share it with friends and fellow DFS players, leave comments or hit me with other feedback or questions on Twitter.  And keep coming back to FantasyCPR for the best free content in the industry! Good luck in your contests!