FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Friday 1/25 – Running in Memphis

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Friday 1/25

Welcome back to the Friday edition of the FanDuel NBA Breakdown! I’m “Thunder Dan” and I love playing and writing about FanDuel NBA DFS and I enjoy doing these daily breakdowns for our loyal CPR readers. 

If anyone gets the musical reference in the article title today, you’ll earn 5 free FanDuel points that can be used towards any lineup of your choosing tonight. No, that’s not really going to happen…but I wish I had the power to give all of you a few free extra points for your lineups as it feels like you need a lot of them to cash on FanDuel these days.

All kidding aside, my goal when I revamped the Breakdown was 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, Vegas trends, 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 full 10-game slate and some really entertaining games in both real life and for our fantasy basketball purposes.  Friday night slates are usually some of my favorites during the NBA season.

"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."

There will be information that comes out during the day that will likely push us onto certain plays or off others.  Sometimes there are players mentioned in this first look article who get ruled out during the day, or other players emerge as good plays when surprise injury news emerges.

My best advice is to never settle on a lineup too early in the day and be willing to be flexible enough to incorporate the new information that becomes available throughout the day. At the same time, don’t abandon your core plays unless the slate absolutely demands it!

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: 10-Game Friday Night

Injury Report

OUT:  Raul Neto, Dante Exum, Allen Crabbe, Thabo Sefolosha, Kyle Anderson, Clint Capela, Goran Dragic, Danilo Gallinari, Robert Covington, T.J. Warren, Wendell Carter Jr., Markieff Morris, Luke Kornet, Cody Zeller, Jonas Valanciunas,

Doubtful: Ish Smith, Tristan Thompson

Questionable: Chris Paul, Spencer Dinwiddie, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jeff Teague, Tyus Jones, De’Anthony Melton, Iman Shumpert, Larry Nance Jr., Richaun Holmes, DeAndre Ayton, Andre Drummond,

Probable: Garrett Temple

Another night in the NBA and another night with a ton of injuries to monitor. The big news is that Chris Paul is officially questionable but looking to return on Saturday, probably not tonight. Most of the other guys on this list have been hurt for a while or have long-term injuries.

Vegas Info

Due to how many fluid injury situations we have going into tonight’s games we are missing Vegas lines in over half of the games tonight. That sucks because I think using Vegas data is a great way to start your research every morning. Here’s what we do know.

The Bucks, Jazz, and Nets are all double-digit favorites at home.

The Orlando-Washington game has a four-point spread and features two teams that don’t really play much defense.

The Houston-Toronto game is a national TV game that will feature James Harden (aka Superman) against one of the better teams in the East and the return of Kawhi Leonard (aka dude with a creepy laugh who endorses New Balance shoes)

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Cash Game Core

Welcome to the cash game core plays section of the Breakdown!  I’ve been giving you a GPP core in the past, so instead, I wanted to provide you with a solid trio of players to start building your cash game lineups with tonight.

James Harden (14000)

Play James Harden in cash games. He was 91% owned on the last slate and the 9% of people who didn’t play him were 95 FD points behind everyone else. This might be the last “you have to play Harden” slate we have as CP3 is eyeing a return to action tomorrow night.

Tobias Harris (7900)

Tobias was an awesome GPP play the other night for me as he dropped a 48-spot at single digit ownership. Somehow his price went down 100 bucks even though his situation remains the same with Gallinari out and a solid matchup against a weak Bulls team. He’s one of the easiest plays on the slate and somehow I wonder if he’ll even be popular.

Kelly Oubre Jr. (6000)

Oubre might end up chalkier than Harris and for good reason. He went for 48 FD points last night and was easily the best player on the floor for the Suns throughout the game (did you hear that, Devin Booker?) He’s coming off the bench, but playing big minutes for Phoenix and the best part of it is he’s getting all the run in the closing minutes even if they are losing as the Suns seem like they want to develop him as a core piece of their franchise moving forward.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: GPP Plays

When trying to identify my top GPP targets I’m looking for guys who are elite fantasy point producers on a per minute basis. We are targeting ceilings, not floors in tournaments and looking for players who can return 6-7x value on their salary in most cases.

Mike Conley (8400)

Mike Conley can be frustrating to roster as he tends to be prone to hot and cold nights and sometimes the Grizzlies rotations get funky. But tonight I’m going to have a lot of Conley in a great pace up spot against the Kings. Conley is fairly priced and coming off two really good games. His game log might look like a rollercoaster, but I think it’s on its way up right now and I want to jump on him tonight along with his teammate…

Marc Gasol (8000)

Centers have had their way with the Kings this season (just ask Jusuf Nurkic) and playing Gasol and Conley in the same lineup is a great way of locking in the majority of fantasy production from Memphis, a team that’s getting a major pace bump and will likely have a pretty solid projected team total once this line comes out. The Conley-Gasol correlation is one of my favorite ones to use as the Memphis offense runs through them pretty much exclusively, especially lately with Kyle Anderson being out of the lineup the last few weeks.

Jonathan Isaac (5300)

Isaac is an emerging young talent who’s finally getting some solid run for the Magic. He’s now played 32+ minutes in four of his last five games and is coming off 32 and 34 FD points in his last two games. He’s not scoring the ball much, but his rebounding and shot blocking from the SF position is elite. He’s a rangy kid who racks up a ton of defensive stats rather easily so he’s able to put a bunch of FD points on the board without being a high usage player. I like him to keep his current upward trend going tonight against the Wizards.

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.

Dragan Bender (4600)

Bender could be in line for another start with Holmes and Ayton questionable again tonight. He’s been pretty solid in his three spot starts scoring 29, 27, and 27 FD points.

Mitchell Robinson (4800)

The Knicks refuse to play Enes Kanter and could be shopping him for a trade. Meanwhile, Robinson has played 15 and 17 minutes in his last two games and racked up 25 FD points in each. He’s got elite shot-blocking potential and has a great matchup against Brooklyn tonight.

Chandler Hutchinson (4200)

Hutch finally got priced above 4k, but it took FanDuel several weeks to finally price him up. He’s been steady but not spectacular lately with 5 of his last 6 games going for 20+ FD points.

Jerryd Bayless (4000)

Bayless has been pressed into duty lately with injuries to Jeff Teague, Tyus Jones, and Derrick Rose. He’s had two nice games in a row, including a solid performance last night against the Lakers. If Rose and Teague were to both miss tonight, then Bayless would be a cash game lock.

Trey Lyles (4300)

Lyles has worked his way back into the Denver rotation, averaging about 20 minutes a night over his last three games and putting up 22, 31, and 21 FD points. He could get some extra minutes tonight if Denver were to blow out the Suns who are on the second half of a back-to-back.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Game Stack of the Night

L.A. Clippers @ Chicago Bulls

This game doesn’t have a total or spread yet, but I’m willing to bet it will end up with a single digit spread and a total over 220, which puts it firmly in consideration for game stacking.

The Bulls are being paced up here by the Clippers and have a few guys I really like in this matchup in Kris Dunn (7400), Zach LaVine (7200), and Bobby Portis (5300).  These three guys are all fairly priced and can be stacked pretty easily together due to their pricing. Portis’s minutes have been annoying lately but he still has such a high usage rate that he’s bound to explode one of these nights.

The Clippers side of things starts with Tobias Harris, who I already wrote up as my top cash game play but obviously, he’s a great GPP play, too. I like targeting the Bulls with guards and the Clippers have some value guys (Avery Bradley – 3900, Patrick Beverley – 4800, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – 4300) who all interest me on some level. Not to mention sixth-man extraordinaire Lou Williams (6500) who always has big game potential.

My favorite part of this game-stack is that I don’t think it will be highly owned AND I love the fact that we can comfortably fit 2-3 players from each team onto our FanDuel rosters without having to punt too many roster spots.

FanDuel NBA Breakdown: Sample Lineup and Slate Overview

I usually 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.

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Tonight is not the night to fade James Harden, but that day could be coming soon. I plan to continue to roll out Harden in my cash games and the majority of my GPP builds. I love the Memphis stars in a pace up spot and I am going to be mixing in as many value plays as I can to fit my top GPP plays with Harden.

Today’s sample lineup is a GPP lineup. It’s not a game-stack, but there is some correlation with the Gasol-Conley and Harden-Gordon tandems as well as some blowout-proof suns in Bender and Oubre.

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 tonight when lineups lock.

PG: Mike Conley (8400)
PG: Jerryd Bayless (4000)
SG: James Harden (14000)
SG: Eric Gordon (5400)
SF: Jonathan Isaac (5300)
SF: Kelly Oubre Jr. (6000)
PF: Dragan Bender (4600)
PF: Trey Lyles (4300)
C: Marc Gasol (8000)

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!