Fantasy NBA Best Plays to Win – Thursday, Jan 10

Welcome to the Thursday edition of Fantasy NBA best plays to win. Today we have a very exciting,- okay mildly entertaining 4 game slate.

That doesn’t mean the money we win is worth less than any other day, however, so let’s get into how we best can construct our line-up. My thinking on this kind of schedule is to roster the best Fantasy NBA low-cost players and rotate the studs around them.

DraftKings offers only 6 players above 9K so if we can find a good core of sleepers we can easily cover all the possibilities on the higher end, making sure we don’t miss that 1 player who will blow the line-up away.

My strategy is to find those players posting close to 1 DraftKings point per minute and determine if they will get at least 20 minutes court time.

Another thought today would be to lock in the top 2 salary DraftKings players, namely Russell Westbrook and Nikola Jokic.  These 2 are pounding out the points recently and together they can boost your line-up into winning contention.  Let’s take a quick look at these 2 fantasy NBA best plays before going to the sleepers.

Russell Westbrook ($11300), Oklahoma City
Firing on all cylinders scoring anywhere between 53 and 73 DraftKings points per game regardless of the opponent.  I don’t use the term match-up proof often, but he fits the bill here.

Nikola Jokic ($10500), Denver
Tearing it up even better than Russell recently.  Last outing against the Clippers he scored 19 points and collected 6 rebounds in only 20 minutes on the floor.  According to his recent form, he will provide you between 50 and 73 DraftKings points.  It’s difficult to fade either of these top 2 studs as they could both go off for 70 each.

Sleepers to roster for our best Fantasy NBA Plays

Iman Shumpert ($3700) or Justin Jackson ($4100), whoever starts
Shumpert is questionable for today and if he is cleared could really excel at this price.  Four games ago, at a salary of $3400, he exploded for 43 DraftKings points in 37 minutes.  He can pull a dud, but at this price he’s worth trying.
Jackson has produced 20-40 points in the last 3 games when playing at least 27 minutes.

Derrick White ($4900), San Antonio
He only played 16 minutes last time out but normally gets at least 27 minutes of court time, consistently producing at least 25 points.  He comes with a 37 projected ceiling.

Jaylen Brown ($4500), Boston
Streaky player but for tournaments he is a good roster.  Last 4 games coming off the bench he’s averaged 27 minutes per game providing a wide 14-40 output.  He does come with a 43 projected ceiling.

Bam Adebayo ($4600), Miami
Even as a bench player he averages good minutes with solid production.  Three games back he earned 30.75 points in just 18 minutes.  He has a common range of 21-30 points with a 36 projected ceiling.

Mason Plumlee ($4200), Denver
If for some reason he winds up in the starting line-up, he is an absolute must roster.  He produces around 1 DraftKings point per minute and is a good back-up to Jokic.  In the last game against the Clippers, he started at the center position while Jokic was at forward.  Even though he under-performed badly he still easily covered his salary based expectation.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ($4600), LA Clippers
Not much of a threat for a big upside but has a solid floor and has produced around 1 DraftKings point per minute.  Usually receives about 31 minutes of court time.

Terry Rozier ($4000), Boston
Playing about 20 minutes a game off the bench, he will provide about 25 Draftkings points.

Mixing and matching these lower-cost players with any of the top 6 salary studs will give you ample room and ample coverage on this light slate – Good luck to us!